Today on the blog we spotlight my 1970 "In-Game Action" card for former New York Yankees ace Mel Stottlemyre, from my Series 2 edition released a few months back:
Stottlemyre was coming off his third and final 20-win season in 1969, finishing
up with a record of 20-14 with a 2.82 ERA over 39 appearances, all
starts, throwing a league-leading 24 complete games.
With a half-season in 1964 (his first year), and 1974 (his last),
he put up nine full seasons in between, and all but one (1966) rock
solid for some poor Yankee teams.
In nine full years on the mound, he posted three 20-win seasons
(all while pitching during the Bronx "lean years"), five sub-3.00 ERA
years, seven 15+ win seasons, nine 250+ innings seasons, and six years
of four or more shutouts, topping out with seven
in both 1971 and 1972.
How solid is THAT!?
A five-time all-star, I can't even imagine what his win totals
could have been had he stayed healthy and pitched into the
late-1970's/early-80's, or even if he wasn't starring for those bad
Yankee teams post-dynasty between 1965-on.
Consider his numbers in the small amount of time he was a Major
League pitcher: a 164-139 record, with a nice 2.97 ERA, 40 shutouts and
1257 K's in only 356 starts!
Those are really some seriously great numbers.
Sadly because of a rotator-cuff injury in 1974, he had to retire at the young age of only 32, leaving us to wonder
"what could have been".
Of course we know that he later went on to become one of the most
respected pitching coaches in the Majors from the 1980-s with the Mets
on through to the "new" Yankee dynasty in the late-90's/early-00's,
before retiring for good after the 2008 season.
