#615 Steve Hargan

The slightly dazed and confused picture belies an awful season of 1971…a career of large scale ups and downs…ended 1970 as one of the top pitchers in the AL …. in retrospect it was an island of success in seven years of futility….let’s start at the beginning….signed by Cleveland before the amateur draft….worked way up system….August call up 1965…held his own…in next two full seasons was able to achieve a total of 27 wins and maintaining 2.50 ERA….Arm troubles plagued the next two seasons and he lost 29 games and ERA was up by 2 runs a game…..then 1970 (see above)….The 1-13 record of 1971 was attributed to lame ankle robbing him of velocity….Worst outing was getting one out while bleeding 6 runs to the Orioles….Spent most of  1972 and all of 1973 in AAA  and did not wow anybody…Somehow, someway AAA manager Frank Lucchesi recommended him to then Texas manager, Billy Martin…became a reclamation project, similar to teammate Jim Merritt…responded with a 12-9 record for the resurgent 1974 Rangers….next two seasons were at .500 but ERA lowered each year… Bottom dropped out next year starting by being a surprise (to Steve anyway) Toronto Blue Jay expansion draft pick…drifted with three clubs finishing in Atlanta….Tried a 1978 comeback with the Twins organization who were looking for almost anybody to forget about free agent losses….Did not get past AAA Toledo.