Thursday, October 8, 2020

Back with #140 Pat Dobson

A prospect raised of the pitching rich 60's, beneficiary of expansion in the 70's...not immediate success but in the same vain as peers Mike Marshall and Dick Drago, …Never seemed to get a lot of love for his efforts....began by toiling in the Detroit farm systems circa 1960....roughed up at first...started to make in roads around 1965 making forward progress to higher tiers....Was able to crack the Tiger staff in a mixed reliever/starter role in 1067...pitched in 3 1968 World Series all in losing efforts; but the Tigers prevailed with the championship....Spends one more year in Tiger town but is shipped to the Padres for the 1970....Becomes the pitching leader for the sophomore team taking 14 victories in win starved team and broke free of his swing man label....Despite this effort, dealt to Orioles in six player deal....With the trade, joins a top flight offense, pitching, and defense... As a result he joins incumbents Mike Cuellar, Jim Palmer, and Dave McNally in a 20 win club...a feat that most likely will not be repeated again....Since the Orange Birds were reigning World Champs as case of the rich got richer and poor get unfulfilling prospects....Despite his 20 wins, gets little love in his time with the O's....sits out ALCS and has only one World Series start in 1971....1972 improves his effectiveness with personal bests in ERA and WHIPs....a team offensive slowdown resulted in a 16 wins and 18 losses....recognized by the league with a spot on the all star team, his only time named....Nevertheless Baltimore sends Pat to Atlanta....A direct flop with the 1973 Braves....Traded back to the AL East mid season...this time latching on to the Yankees and Dobson rebounds.....gets 9 wins in the second half of 1973 and racks up 19 victories in 1974....sticks around until 1976 when he was traded to his fourth AL East team, the Cleveland Indians....once again he put together another 16 win campaign....Comeback is short lived however for 1977 performance falls off dramatically....end result 3-12 record....released in April 1978...moved on to coaching at the minor and major league level....Passed from leukemia in 2006....known to be very funny to his contemporaries despite appearing often serious and humorless in early pictures....could have been an excellent broadcaster. 




3 comments:

  1. Very nice post--lots of stuff I didn't know about Mr. Dobson. fwiw, 1972T is my favorite set (slightly less than 100 cards to obtain before my set is complete). Welcome back!

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  2. Douglas welcome back! I had hoped you would return.

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  3. Thanks for welcoming me back. I will try to get back to swing of things, maybe shoot for a weekly entry as opposed to 2X a week before. It's 20 months to the day of my last entry. A lot has changed for me and the world in general. I'm still healthy so far. Retired from the state of Wisconsin as of December last year, although I've worked at small golf course for a little extra cash and free golf. That's winding down now, no big plans for anything else until the virus thing has passed by. Thanks again.

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