Motor City Mickey
September 21, 2013 by Matt Nadel · Leave a Comment
A little over a week ago, someone who is very important to baseball history celebrated his 73rd birthday. He is not in the Hall of Fame currently, but was a key contributor to his teams. If you didn’t guess who I’m talking about, let me just tell you: Mickey Lolich !
Lolich pitched for the Tigers, Mets, and Padres from 1963-1979. He was a very good pitcher back in the day, which would make sense because he won 217 games during his career and had an ERA of 3.44. That career ERA was better than Dennis Eckersley ‘s! The three-time All Star won a career high 25 games in 1971, but came in second for the AL Cy Young Award because of Vida Blue . Nonetheless, he had a great season. Lolich’s most impressive stretch of starts though came during the 1968 World Series. In that Fall Classic against the defending champion Cardinals, Mickey pitched three complete games and only gave up five earned runs! This amazing performance earned him the World Series MVP Award, the first ever Tiger to win the award. That regular season, Lolich had a pretty good year, 17-9 with an ERA of 3.14, but was overshadowed by 31-game winner, Cy Young winner, and teammate, Denny McLain . That’s why Mickey’s World Series performance was so not expected of him and yet he did not disappoint.
Although it doesn’t seem that Lolich will get into the Hall of Fame, Tigers fans will remember his 1968 WS performance forever. Anyway, thanks for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it and check back in a few days for more of “all the buzz on what wuzz.”
