Today’s post is brought you by the number 35 and the letter M.
A lot of men wore #35 for the Yankees. Ralph Houk is the man with the most years as #35. He wore it from 1958-1965 and then from 1966-1973. Guys like John Wetteland, Lee Guetterman and Phil Niekro all wore it and Yogi Berra even wore #35 in 1947.
For this post, I chose to focus on my favorite #35, Mike Mussina.
Mike Mussina came over to the Yankees from the Baltimore Orioles after signing a contract in November 2000.
His career in Pinstripes was interesting. In his first year, he was an out away from a perfect game and an out away from a World Series ring. Both were broken up in heartbreaking fashion.
In September 2001, Moose was on the verge of pitching a perfect game in Fenway Park when pinch hitter Carl Everett hit a bloop single to left to break it up. Moose retired the next batter and finished with a one-hitter.
In November 2001, we all know what happened against the Diamondbacks.
Mussina finished his first year with the Yankees with a 17-11 record and a 3.15 ERA. He nearly matched his career high in strikeouts with 214. He had 218 in 1997 with the Orioles. The following year he went 18-10 with a 4.05 ERA and the Yankees were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs for the first time since 1997.
Not that it was Mussina’s fault. That particular early exit was a total pitching staff failure. Though as the years went on, certain Yankee fans would come to blame Moose for the Yankees’ shortcomings in the playoffs.
2003 saw the Yankees win the AL East once again and they were matched up against their rivals, the Boston Red Sox, in the American League Championship.
Mussina’s two starts were disasters. But then he was called upon to make his first-ever relief appearance in Game 7 when Roger Clemens faltered. And what did he do? He pitched an inning and two-thirds of scoreless/hitless ball and kept the Yankees in the game.
In 2004, Mussina finished the year with 164.2 innings. It was the first time since his 1994 campaign that he finished with less than 200 innings. He suffered a groin injury in June of that year and ended up with a 12-9 record and a 4.59 ERA.
From 2005-2007 Mussina didn’t pitch more than 197 innings. He really began to struggle with injuries and yet, still managed to win over 10 games in each of those seasons. In fact, Moose never won fewer than 10 games in any given season his entire pro career – once he became a full-time player.
To that end, Mussina could never reach the illusive 20 win mark until 2008 which ironically was the first year the New York Yankees missed the playoffs since 1995.
Moose’s 2008 campaign was stellar. At age 39 he finished with a 20-9 record, a 3.37 ERA, he ended up with 200.1 innings pitched, he racked up 150 strikeouts, gave up 214 hits and walked 31 batters.
We all knew that Moose was going to retire after 2008 and the fact that he finally got over the “20-win season” hump, made his decision a lot easier.
In subsequent years, Moose has made appearances at the Stadium. He pitched in the Old Timers’ game and he threw out the ceremonial first pitch on Opening Day 2011. He was also voted into the Orioles Hall of Fame in 2012.
Aside from his pitching, I really miss Moose’s dry sense of humor and sarcastic replies during postgame interviews. They were legendary. One time, Suzyn Waldman asked Mussina how he injured himself and he answered, “Pitching.”
Classic.
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7 Responses to Countdown to Spring Training: 35
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TIQ IQ
One of my all time favorites. I’d seriously consider going to his Hall of Fame induction, which will hopefully be very soon.
I would love to see Mussina get into the Hall of Fame. Unfortunately, given the backlog of deserving players and given Mussina’s lack of 300 wins, lack of a Cy Young, I don’t see him getting in — at least not in the next few years. I hope I’m wrong.
Mike Mussina was robbed of the 2001 AL Cy Young Award by doofus voters who gave it to Clemens on Clemens’ friggin’ 20-3 record.
2001 Mussina: 3.15 ERA (Clemens 3.51), 1.067 ERA (Clemens 1.257), 214 SO (one more than Clemens), 34 starts (one more than Clemens), 228 2/3 IP (8 1/3 more IP than Clemens), 42 BB (30 less than Clemens in 8 1/3 MORE IP), 4 complete games and 3 shutouts to Clemens’ ZERO complete games and ZERO shutouts, 6 wild pitches to Clemens’ 14. And Moose won a Gold Glove to boot. I could be wrong but I believe he even had more quality starts and/or less run support than Clemens.
Mussina finished with the lowest WHIP and second-lowest ERA among the top six ALCYA candidates (only Freddy Garcia had a lower ERA at 3.05 – only 0.1 points lower than Moose, but he posted that making literally half his starts – 17 out of 34 – at pitcher-friendly Safeco Field, so I consider Moose the true ERA king among the top six ALCYA candidates.)
Yet Clemens won on 20-3. What a joke, but nowhere as stupid as the voters robbing Clemens of the 1990 ALCYA because Bob Welch won 27 games (only 6 more wins than Clemens) with an ERA 1.02 HIGHER than Clemens (2.95 to Clemens’ 1.93), 82 less SO in only 9 2/3 more IP than Clemens (127 SO and 74 BB to Clemens’ 209 SO and 54 BB), and Clemens had 3.5X the complete games and double the complete games Welch had (7 CG and 2 SO to Welch’s 4 CG and 2 SO.) I didn’t mention WHIP Clemens’ had lower than Welch (1.082 to 1.223) cuz that stat didn’t exist then although it should have.
BTW everyone who wrote about Matsui’s retirement should’ve said he was robbed of the 2003 AL Rookie Of The Year Award.
I wished Moose had stuck around one more year. He’d have FINALLY got a World Series ring and I think he could’ve won 300 games had he pitched for three or definitely four more seasons as he needed to average only ten wins a season 2009-11 to collect an even 300 wins.
Agree. Moose was robbed of the Cy Young in 2001.
Nice article. Mussina was my favorite ballplayer, I followed him his entire career. (Of note, Mussina was not only an out away from a perfect game in 2001, he was one strike away).
I’ve always felt Moose is one of, if not the most underrated player(s) to ever play in the big show. He pitched his entire career in the AL East at the height of the steroid era (and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that he had such a stellar year at age 39 in 2008 when batters began to stop juicing…just look at all the no-hitters and perfect games since Moose retired).
Mussina won at least 11 games in 17 consecutive seasons, an AL record. Not to take anything away from Tom Glavine or Greg Maddux, but I believe if Mussina had been pitching in the NL on those Braves teams in the 1990s, he would have easily gathered over 300 wins – and his numbers would probably be similar to Maddux’s, if not better. It can’t be overlooked that Mussina received some of the most awful run support in Baltimore in the prime of his career, and had to pitch against teams in the best division in baseball, against players who were juiced to the gills.
Mussina is first-time ballot Hall of Famer in my book. I know he may not get in the first time, but he deserves to be.
Love Moose. So much.
There’s no one like Moose–he deserves the Hall of Fame and he deserves it this year!