Short Time Member of the 1988 NL Eastern Champion Mets: Bob McClure (1988)

-
Robert Craig McClure was born April 29th 1952 at Oakland, California. The five foot eleven left handed pitcher, attended the College of San Mateo, getting drafted in the third round of the 1973 amateur draft.

McClure moved up quickly, finding himself in the majors by late August 1975. He debuted finishing out a 3-0 loss in Baltimore to the Orioles. On August 16th, he earned career save #1, coming against the AL New York team. In his last outing of the year he earned his first career win as well.

He spent most of 1976 in the minors & in March of 1977 was sent to the Milwaukee Brewers as a player to be named later in a deal that also sent Jamie Quirk & Jim Wohlford to the Brewers. Kansas City received Darrell Porter & Jim Colborn.

McClure would spend ten years in Milwaukee making the post season twice (1981 & 1982). He spent his first five years with the Brewers as a reliever leading the team in saves in 1978 with nine & again in 1980 with ten.

After battling arm issues most of the strike shortened 1981 season, he was ready for the playoffs, as the Brewers made their first post season appearance. He would pitch in three games of the ALDS earning a hold in Game #4.

In 1982 he was converted to a starter & found himself on one of baseballs best teams. McClure went 12-7, third on the staff of Pete Vuckovich (18-6) & Mike Cauldwell (17-13) for Harvey Kuenn's A.L. Champion "Brew Crew", also known as "Harvey's Wall Bangers".

Post Season: In the post season, he was used once again as a reliever, mostly in the closing role as future Hall of Famer; Rollie Fingers was injured. McClure would be very effective, first  

In the ALCS against the California Angels, he was the Game #1 winning pitcher. He pitched 1.2 scoreless innings, as the Brwers won the game on a Cecil Cooper RBI single.

In the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals he appeared in five games, going 0-2 while earning saves in Games Four & Five.

In Game #7 it was McClure that allowed a 6th inning bases loaded single to Keith Hernandez, tying up the game. He then gave up what would be the game winning run to George Hendrick, as he took the loss. Overall in nine post season career games he is 1-2 with two saves, a hold & a 1.93 ERA.

The journeyman pitcher would go to the Montreal Expos (1986-1987) & back to Montreal in 1988. He was released & signed by the New York Mets in mid June.

McClure debuted with the Mets, on July 14th, in Atlanta getting credit for a hold in a 7-2 Mets win. On August 6th, he earned his only Mets win, pitching a scoreless 7th inning against the Pirates in Pittsburgh. On October 1st, he earned a save against the St. Louis Cardinals. He did not pitch in the Mets post season. 

In his brief Mets career lasting just 2 1/2 months, he was 1-0 with a save & a 4.09 ERA in 14 appearances.

He would go to the California Angels (1989-1991) St. Louis Cardinals (1991-1992) & finish his playing career with the expansion Florida Marlins in 1993.

In a 19 year career, he was 68-57 with 52 saves. He struck out 701 batters walked 497 in 1158 innings over  698 games.

Retirement: After his pitching days he began a long career of coaching. He coached with the Colorado Rockies organization (1999-2005). He then went to the Kansas City Royals from 2006-2011.

In 2012 he was Bobby Valentines pitching coach with the Boston Red Sox, but as the team struggled he was let go in late August. He was replaced by Randy Niemann. In 2014 he was named pitching coach for the Philadelphia Phillies.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The 1970's Oakland A's Ball Girls- (MLB's First)

-
Image
In the days of the early seventies the Oakland A's won three straight Championships & changed the face of baseball forever.  The team's controversial owner was known to be cheap in paying his star players & known to meddle in the teams on field affairs. He drove managers crazy & even had Dick Williams resign after winning his second straight World Series. But Finley also revolutionized baseball in many other ways. He was instrumental in getting the designated hitter in the American League & have the World Series played at night, so fans could attend after work. He gave his players fancy names like Catfish, Blue Moon & True Blue.  When his star Reggie Jackson refused to shave his beard, he encouraged the whole team to grow facial hair by paying them $200 each.  The A's team even grew their hair long, a sign of the times. But before that baseball players had not had facial or long hair since the 1800's.  He introduced bright colored yello
Read more

Remembering Vixen Founder / Guitarist; Jan Kuehnemund (1961-2013)

-
Image
centerfieldmaz was shocked to learn of the sudden passing of Jan Kuehnemund, the founding member of the all female metal band Vixen. Jan was a fantastic guitarist, song writer & women pioneer in Heavy Metal. I am a huge fan of hard rock all girl bands & Vixen were one my long time favorites. Janice Lynn Kuehnemund was born November 18th, 1961 in St. Paul Minnesota. The female guitarist formed one of the first all female Metal bands in Minnesota with singer Janet Gardner while in high school in 1980. By 1985 they moved the band to Los Angles California, to be part of the Heavy Metal scene. In 1987 the classic Vixen line up of Jan Kuehnemund (lead guitar) Janet Gardner (vocals/ guitar) Share Pederson (bass) & Roxy Petrucci (drums) formed & released their debut album the following year. Vixen 1988 In a world of all male Heavy Metal bands during its heyday, Vixen were groundbreaking in being an all female metal band. The Runaways, with Joan Jett & Lita Ford
Read more

Remembering Bobby Ojeda's Tragic Boating Accident (1993)

-
Image
Steve Olin, Tim Crews & Bob Ojeda March 22 nd 1993: was an off day from Spring Training, for three Cleveland Indians pitchers; Former Mets 1986 World Champion pitcher; Bobby Ojeda, Tim Crews & Steve Olin. The three friends, took out an 18-foot open-air bass boat & went out fishing & gator hunting in the darkness of the evening on Lake Nellie in Clermont, Florida. Tragedy struck, when the boat rammed into a private dock that jutted out some 250 feet into the still waters. Two other Cleveland Indians personnel had arrived to meet the fishing party just as the horror took place. They heard Bob Ojeda saying they needed help. The two men jumped into the water and called out for someone to call 911. 27 year old pitcher; Steve Olin was killed instantly. 31 year old pitcher; Tim Crews was alive but was struggling to breathe suffering from massive head wounds. Bobby Ojeda was in & out of shock, he was suffering from head lacerations but was coherent. The
Read more

The Story of the New York Mets Logo

-
Image
On November 16, 1961 cartoonist Ray Gotto (1916-2003) unveiled the circular New York Mets logo, a symbol which has virtually gone unchanged since its birth 55 years ago. Gatto was the illustrator of the "Ozark Ike" & "Cotton Woods" comic strips as well as having drawn many classic sports cartoons for the Sporting News. He won a contest that the club sponsored in order to start up a fan base beating out over 500 other entries for his design. The prize was not only to have his logo used but also $1000.  Artist Ray Gotto The original New York Mets team colors are blue and orange, the colors represent the two former National League teams who left New York for the West Coast. The orange represents the former New York Giants & the blue represents the Brooklyn Dodgers. Blue & orange are also the official colors of New York State. T he logo design is a round baseball with orange stitching and the Mets orange script lettering outlined in white ac
Read more

Steve Dillon: Former Bronx Native Who Pitched in The First Night Game at Shea Stadium Then 58 Years Later at Old Timers Day at Citi Field (1963-1964)

-
Image
Stephen Edward Dillon was born on May 20th, 1943, in Yonkers, New York. He was raised in the Bronx & attended Cardinal Hayes High School.  T he five-foot ten left-handed pitcher was originally signed by the A.L. New York club in 1962. That year he was 14-7 in the Florida State League at Fort Lauderdale. In November of 1962 he was drafted away by the new National League team, the New York Mets in the first-year draft.  He pitched at AAA Buffalo going 4-6 with a 4.94 ERA in 31 games, making 22 starts.  Mets Debut: He got a September call up making his MLB debut on September 5th, 1963, in St. Louis. Dillon came in relief of Roger Craig the 6th inning with two men on & one out. He got Dick Groat & Bill White to both ground out.  In the 7th, he gave up three hits including a two-run triple to Tim McCarver, in the Mets 9-0 loss to the Cardinals. In 1964 he found himself on the Mets staff at the start of the year. He pitched one inning of relief at Pittsburgh on April 24th,
Read more