BY TROY KIRK
Mickey Lolich belongs in the Hall of Fame.
Lolich belongs in the Hall because he was a star in his time, a consistent winner who won a high of 25 games in 1971 when he also became one of the few pitchers in baseball history to strike out 300 batters in a season, getting 308. His 207 Tiger wins are only 16 shy of the all-time Tiger record of 223 set by George “Hooks” Dauss. Lolich won more games with the Tigers than other stars like Hal Newhauser, Dizzy Trout, and Denny McLain.
Other notable achievements by Lolich include leaving the game in 1979 as the all-time lefthanded strikeout leader, with 2,832. While this has since been surpassed, he had more strikeouts than any other lefty up until 1979. That’s a lot of southpaws.
Lolich was durable and dependable, rarely missing a start and always among the league leaders in innings pitched. His lifetime ERA of 3.44 is pretty good when you consider he pitched most of his career in Tiger Stadium, a notable hitter’s ballpark.
What puts Lolich over the top and into the Hall of Fame is the determination he had to do well, and his ability to rise to the occasion. Though he is a natural righthander, he learned to pitch lefthanded after injuring himself as a child. He won three games in the 1968 World Series (almost single-handedly making the Tigers World Champs) outdueling Bob Gibson in the deciding seventh game – even though Gibson had won his previous seven straight World Series games. He even hit a home run in the World Series, the only one of his career.
The single incident that stands out most in my mind about Lolich occurred in 1975 in his last year with the Tigers. Lolich was pitching in a fairly close game against Oakland in the late innings when the A’s erupted for a lot of runs to take a big lead. Since the Tiger pitching was in a shambles at the time, manager Ralph Houk left Lolich in the game. I’ll never forget how impressed the A’s radio announcers were with Lolich for continuing to make every pitch as if the game were still on the line. Even though he was pitching in a hopeless ballgame, he still was giving a total effort, and the usually extremely pro-A’s announcers had to tip their hats to him. This is what Hall-of-Famers are made of.
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• Originally Published in Jan. 1986 “Twin Times” •
THIS ARTICLE FROM THE “TWIN TIMES” NEWSLETTER – OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE TWIN CITIES SPORTS COLLECTORS CLUB – IS REPRINTED WITH THE PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR. IT HAS BEEN RETYPED, BUT NO CONTENT HAS BEEN CHANGED (EXCEPT FOR VERY MINOR ADJUSTMENTS, CORRECTIONS TO ANY TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS AND THE ADDITION OF GRAPHICS). COMMENTS OR INFORMATION IN THE ARTICLE MAY BE OUT-OF-DATE.
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