By special request for my cousin, today on the blog I post up what
should have been a 1981 "Update/Traded" card for the eventual 1981
American Rookie of the Year Dave Righetti of the New York Yankees:
It
is strange that Righetti didn't get a card in the very first
update/traded set later that year considering he was helping the New
York Yankees march towards a World Series berth as did his Los Angeles
Dodger contemporary Fernado Valenzuela.
And like the phenom
Fernando, Righetti took home the Freshman hardware by the time Awards
season came along at the end of the year.
Righetti posted a
record of 8-4 over 15 starts, just missing the ERA crown by falling
short of innings required by 1.2 innings! Yep, someone on the Yankees
dropped the ball on this and didn't get Righetti some mop-up role at the
end of the year to bring home the ERA crown, as his 2.05 mark was far
better than the guy who did win the ERA title, Oakland A's pitcher Steve
McCatty, who finished with a 2.33 ERA over 185.2 innings.
Nevertheless,
Righetti became a mainstay of the Yankees through the 1980's, posting a
few solid seasons as a starter between 1981 and 1983 including the
classic July 4th no-hitter against the Boston Red Sox in '83, before
converting to a relief role the rest of his very nice 16 year career,
including his 1986 campaign that saw him establish the (then) MLB record
46 saves, earning him a fourth-place finish in the Cy Young race.
By
the time he retired after the 1995 season, he finished with a record of
82-79 over 718 games, with a 3.46 ERA in 1403 innings, with 252 saves.
