Happy Birthday to Hall of Fame Pitcher Dennis Eckersley. In a twenty-four-year career in the Majors, Eckersley saw success as a Starter and Reliever. Most notably, Eckersley played for the Boston Red Sox and Oakland Athletics, the Cleveland Indians, Chicago Cubs, and the St. Louis Cardinals. 

Career Statistics/Accolades (1975-1998):

197-171 W-L 3.50 ERA 3,285.2 IP 2,401 SO 1.161 WHIP 390 SV

  • 6x All-Star
  • 2x AL Rolaids Relief Man Award (1988 & 1992)
  • AL Cy Young Award/MVP (1992)
  • 1989 World Series Champion

Early Sucess as a Starter:

Eckersley had an unusual delivery, utilizing a high leg kick and a long, sidearm-throwing motion. Eckersley was always aggressive and animated on the mound and always showed an intimidating stare and pumped his fist after a strikeout. When he was a starter in the first half of his career with Cleveland and Boston, he had some success, finishing top-10 in the Cy Young voting twice. However, as time passed, he lost a lot of velocity on his fastball, leading to struggles.

Return to Dominance:

After some rough years on and off the field with the Cubs, he was traded to the Oakland Athletics. When he arrived, Tony La Russa made a role for him as a long reliever, but an injury to the team closer led him to become the team’s Closer. The Closer role seemed natural to Eckersley; despite entering his mid-30s, he returned to dominance. From 1988-92, Eckersley had a year-dominant run like no other reliever had before. 

1988: 4-2 W-L 2.35 ERA 45 SV 72.2 IP 70 K 0.867 WHIP (60 Appearances)

1989: 4-0 W-L 1.56 ERA 33 SV 57.2 IP 55 K 0.607 WHIP (51 Appearances)

1990: 4-2 W-L 0.61 ERA 48 SV 73.1 IP 73 K 0.614 WHIP (63 Appearances)

1991:  5-4 W-L 2.96 ERA 43 SV 76.0 IP 87 K 0.908 WHIP (67 Appearances)

1992: 7-1 W-L 1.91 ERA 51 SV 80.0 IP 93 K 0.913 WHIP (69 Appearances)

In 1988, he was runner-up in the Cy Young voting for the AL. Then, in 1992, he took home the 1992 Cy Young award and the league MVP award, making him one of three relievers to win the MVP award. In 1988, he was ALCS MVP and recorded the Save in all four games, allowing no runs in six innings pitched against the Boston. In his career in the postseason as a relief pitcher, in 28 IP, he had an ERA of 2.25 and a WHIP of 1.036, along with 15 Saves. A great relief pitcher is someone who pitches well in the big game, like Dennis Eckersley. 

Dennis Eckersley was the first pitcher to Win 20 games as a starter and earned 50 Saves as a reliever. Along with early success as a starter and later success as a reliever, Eckersley became a first-ballot Hall of Famer in 2004. At the time of his retirement, Eckersley appeared in 1,071 games, more than any other pitcher in major league history. As well as being inducted into the Hall of Fame, he cracked The Sporting News list of 100 Greatest Ballplayers in 1999, ranked #98.

References:

  1. Dennis Eckersley via Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Eckersley#
  2. Dennis Eckersley Career Statistics via Baseball-Reference: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/e/eckerde01.shtml