Mike Cuellar, one of the best latino pitchers ever, dead at 72....

salsadancer7

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Jun 1, 2004
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I saw him pitch when I was 10 in Puerto Rico during the Caribbean World Series....even at his "older" age....he was mesmerizing. LOVED the high leg kick, which was VERY intimidating.

R.I.P. viejo!

ESPN.com news services

Mike Cuellar, a crafty left-hander from Cuba whose darting screwball made him a World Series champion and Cy Young Award winner with the Baltimore Orioles, died Friday. He was 72.

The Orioles confirmed Cuellar's death, but did not release other details. According to The Baltimore Sun, Cuellar died of stomach cancer at Orlando Regional Medical Center in Florida.

Cuellar made his major league debut in 1959 and bounced around Cincinnati, St. Louis and Houston for almost a decade before a trade sent him to Baltimore. Wearing the black-and-orange bird logo, he blossomed as part of one of the most imposing pitching staffs in baseball history -- in 1971, he was among the Orioles' four 20-game winners.

A four-time All-Star, Cuellar was 185-130 overall with a 3.14 ERA. He was voted into the Orioles' Hall of Fame.

"He sure was an ace," Hall of Fame teammate Brooks Robinson told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Friday night. "He had a way of making good hitters look bad, making them take funny swings."

Cuellar joined the Orioles in 1969, and that year became the first Baltimore pitcher to win the AL Cy Young Award, sharing the honor with Detroit's Denny McLain.

Cuellar went 23-11 with five shutouts that season, including a game in which he held Minnesota hitless until Cesar Tovar's soft, leadoff single in the ninth inning.

Cuellar helped pitch Baltimore to three straight World Series appearances from 1969 to 1971. He finished off that run by teaming with Jim Palmer, Dave McNally and Pat Dobson to become the only staff other than the 1920 Chicago White Sox with a quartet of 20-game winners.

[ame="http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=5051729"]Former Baltimore Orioles ace Mike Cuellar dead at age 72 - ESPN[/ame]
 
I saw this yesterday. He was one of those 4 20-game winners from 1971.
 
I saw this yesterday. He was one of those 4 20-game winners from 1971.

The guy AVERAGED 12 complete games a season and had 3 seasons with atleast 20 complete games....8 seasons with ATLEAST 17 complete seasons. In a 3 season stretch, he won 67 games...from '69 to '71.
 
I remember hearing about when he hit a grand slam in the 1970 playoffs.

Not old enough to see him, but I've heard about him- damn good pitcher from what I saw.
 
The guy AVERAGED 12 complete games a season and had 3 seasons with atleast 20 complete games....8 seasons with ATLEAST 17 complete seasons. In a 3 season stretch, he won 67 games...from '69 to '71.

I saw him pitch on TV many times. He had an intriquiging delivery and a real creative assortment of "junk". I remember as a front line starter for half a decade or more, but it is important to view his number of wins and complete games from the perspectve of that era, when teams had four man rotations, meaning each starter started half a dozen more games than they do today, and a reliever could lead the league with a couple dozen saves. Similarly, if you look at some stats from the 1870s, when teams played every other day, there were pitchers who started and completed all but one or two of their team's games each season.
 
Yep, I saw him and that outstanding Orioles starting rotation pitch many times at Tiger stadum during the late-60s to mid-70s. He used to make my favorite Tigers look silly at the plate.

RIP.

Even though I wasn't alive back then, since baseball is my favorite sport, I have watched a lot of baseball videos and past games which had him in a few from the World Series games he pitched in.
 
Part of the best starting rotation I remember in baseball. Along with McNally, Palmer, Dobson. Didn't they have 4 twenty game winners in one season, back around '69 -'71 area?
 
Part of the best starting rotation I remember in baseball. Along with McNally, Palmer, Dobson. Didn't they have 4 twenty game winners in one season, back around '69 -'71 area?

Yes, it was 1971. Look at my first post in this thread. ;)
 
I have always hear his name pronounced like Qwayar or something like that.
 
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