Fun card to add to the WTHBALLS stable today, a "not so missing" 1980 card for Dave Righetti, a New York Yankee mainstay through the 1980s, but someone who actually made his Big League debut in 1979:
Righetti
appeared in three games, all starts, for the Yankees, tossing 17.1
innings and going 0-1 with a 3.63 ERA at the age of 20.
He'd be back with a bang the next season, as he 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 cog of the Yankees through the 1980's as a starter and reliever, 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.
