My representative picture (avatar) for this blog site has a
connection to this lanky righthander…the ballpark is Bosse Field in Evansville
Indiana…the photo was taken in Spring of 1983…The local AAA American
Association Triplets vs Indianapolis Indians …The starting pitcher was Steve
Luebber…Steve was still holding on as a starter in the Detroit
organization…Good minor league pitcher with a career 145-116 win/loss…playing
for 7 different organizations…Best and prolific stretch in his career was from
1970 to midseason 1971 when went 33-17 in class A, Winter league, and AA
levels….Came up to bigs most to start, replacing Tom Hall who was pressed into
relief to turn around the imploding bullpen…Steve was of limited
effectiveness…returned to minors for next four years shifting between AA and
AAA…next full shot with the Twins took place in 1976…Was marginally improved
from his debut going 4-6, 4.00 ERA…released by Twins in 1978...Became a fixture
in the AAA circuit playing for White Sox, Toronto, Baltimore, Detroit, and
Padres organizations…Very brief call up with Orioles and Blue Jays...Went into coaching after he retired from active play...worked
for several of the organizations he played for in the minors.
Pretty nice minor league career
ReplyDeleteHe was especially good in lower minors. The extended career in AAA inflates his ERA a bit. I went to about 8-9 games in the last 2 years of AAA Evansville. Very informal at the time, you could walk right in w/o a ticket. Met a lot of people who would go on the MLB careers as players, coaches, or managers. I don't believe I met Steve however..
ReplyDeleteLuebber is/was the pitching coach for the Wilmington Blue Rocks (the Royals' class-A team in Delaware) - at least in 2015.
ReplyDelete