Haven't added a player to my 1975 "In-Action" set in a long while, so today we go and add Baltimore Orioles ace Mike Cuellar:
By 1975 Cuellar was coming close to closing out a nice 15-year career that saw him
win 185 games, post four 20+ win seasons, win a Cy Young Award (shared
with Tigers pitcher Denny McLain in 1969) and post four sub-3.00 E.R.A.
Seasons.
His 1974 season saw him post his last 20-win season,
going 22-10 for the Orioles with a 3.11 ERA over 38 starts, with five
shutouts and 20 complete games, ending up sixth in the Cy Young race at
season's end.
I never realized that even though he came up in 1959 with the
Cincinnati Reds, appearing in two games as a 22-year old, he didn't make
it back to the Major's until 1964 at the age of 27, now as a member of
the St. Louis Cardinals.
Considering his lifetime win total mentioned above, he could have
possibly approached 250 wins had he not missed those four-plus years in
the early-1960's.
In 1977 Cuellar found himself with the California Angels, appearing
in only two games, which would be the last two games of his career.
His lifetime numbers were impressive: the 185 wins mentioned above,
a 3.14 lifetime E.R.A., 36 shutouts and 1632 strikeouts over 453 games,
379 of which were starts.
