One of the Leftys That Got Away.
This is not a great week in Houston to be commemorating players that got away from our Houston Astros via trade, free agency, or insult, but it’s almost impossible for some of us to write anything else about certain guys without being reminded of the fact that their losses for our local effort have not made life better for baseball in the Bayou City. For further reference, think of Andy Pettitte, Nolan Ryan, Joe Morgan, or Rusty Staub and you’ll ring the same bell.
Let’s just get the Cuellar loss to Houston business out of the way so we can march straight to the matter of his magical cap – and how that played out in Baltimore. The Astros acquired pitchers Mike Cuellar and Ron Taylor from the St. Louis Cardinals on June 15, 1965 in exchange for pitchers Hal Woodeschick and Chuck Taylor. Cuellar proceeded to win only 37 and lose 36 in this four years as an Astro (1965-68), but he was still highly regarded by fans and fellow teammates as one of the building blocks in the starting rotation for a better team future. That hope ended on December 4, 1968 when Astros GM Spec Richardson traded Cuellar and a couple of lesser lights to Baltimore in exchange for first baseman Curt Blefary and an unknown minor leaguer.
The result of this trade showed up early. Blefary hit .253 for Houston in 1969 and was then gone. Cuellar helped pitch the ’69 Orioles to the world Series with a 23-11 mark and he won their only Series game against the champion NY Mets. Cuellar followed his debut season at Baltimore with two more 20 plus win seasons in 70-71, back-to-back 18-win seasons in 72-73, a 22-win year in 1974 and 14-win total in 1975, Oh yeah, his 24 wins in 1970 led the American League for an Orioles club that went back to the World Series and beat the Cincinnati Reds in five game for the big prize. One of the wins there belonged to Senor Miguel too.
Enough said. History speaks loud enough on the value of the Cuellar trade and the judgment and Bad “luck” of the man in Houston who pulled the strings.
Mike Cuellar also had some fairly involved superstitions that governed his pre-game behavior during the glory years at Baltimore. From 1969 through 1974, he felt compelled to wear all blue clothing items to the ballpark on the days he was set to pitch, From his shoes, sox, pants, shirt, belt, coat, whatever he wore on the outside, it had to be blue.
"Without my cap, I refuse to pitch!"
From 1974 to 1976, Mike Cuellar also had one specific cap that he wore in every game he pitched. He refused to start, if the cap could not be located and made available to him. One time, on the first day of a road trip through Cleveland, Cuellar was due to start the opener, but he suddenly realized that he had left his lucky Orioles cap at home. Cuellar refused to pitch without it so the Orioles sent a plane to Baltimore to retrieve it. It arrived back in Cleveland just in time for Mike to put it on as he took the mound and proceeded to shut out the Indians.
Another time in Milwaukee, Mike and the Orioles weren’t so lucky. The club again had to send a plane to recover Cuellar’s special cap. When they brought it back to the park in Milwaukee, however, Miguel was enraged. “They sent the wrong cap,” Cuellar fumed. “This isn’t my game cap. This is my practice cap.”
When the Brewers then proceeded to blast Cuellar early, he stormed off the mound and stomped the impostor practice cap that had failed him so badly.
Wow! All of that time, money, energy, and peace of mind expended on an ongoing basis – and just to appease the beliefs of a twenty-game winner. Was it worth it? – I guess the answer to that rests in how far you are willing to go as an owner to pursue a championship? – If you take the training wheels off the sanity truck along the way, however, you’re on your own.
Thanks for the good memories, anyway, Mike Cuellar. You were one of the great ones, with or without your blue clothes – and with or without your magical cap.
The Pecan Park Eagle 
January 3, 2010 at 1:16 am |
Good post. I remember another of his superstitions was he always had to have Elrod Hendricks catch him warming up, and there had to be a batter next to where he was throwing.