My First Cards

In my never ending quest to figure out when the pictures on these cards were taken, I’ve determined this one must’ve been taken on either Saturday May 16 or Sunday May 17, 1981.

Why? Because this photo is definitely in Yankee Stadium, and the Mariners made only 1 trip to New York that season. I wish I could know exactly which day it was, because Larry Andersen pitched 2 scoreless innings to finish the May 16th game. That would be pretty cool.

1981 was a good year for Larry. He’d played bits of 3 seasons in Cleveland during the late 1970′s, but finally became a major league regular in 1981 with Seattle. He posted a 2.66 ERA and a 1.108 WHIP out of the Mariners bullpen, so 1982 looked pretty promising.

His first 3 appearances in 1982 were very good; he didn’t allow a single run. Then he hit a real bad stretch from April 17 – May 19, where he earned a 7.62 ERA and allowed baserunners a .398 OBP and a 1.006 OPS. Then he returned to what you’d expect from him for about a month, earning a slim 1.80 ERA and allowing a .243 OBP. The rest of the season he was inconsistent and mostly bad. From June 26 – September 23, 1982, he posted a 6.81 ERA and allowed 1 HR per 3.8 IP over 19 appearances. His season as a whole, was the 19th worst ERA of the 1980′s for anyone tossing 75+ IP, at 5.99.

The Kingdome killed him that year, where he pitched to the tune of an 8.06 ERA there. On the road, he was pretty normal with a 3.34 ERA. It was like this in 1981 too, but not nearly as extreme… 3.86 in the Kingdome but 1.69 away from Seattle.

The ’82 season proved to be the worst of his career. The next season his ERA was down to just 2.39, and he pitched for the Phillies in the World Series! How ’bout that for a turn around? He did well too, earning a 2.25 ERA against the Orioles in that series. A few years later, pitching for Houston, he pitched well in the 1986 playoffs against another eventual World Champion, the Mets. He didn’t let the Mets score on him in that National League Championship Series.

And you’ve probably heard all about that Jeff Bagwell trade before. If I ever meet Larry Andersen, I’d ask him “how does it feel to be traded straight up for a Hall of Famer?”.

Somehow, Andersen eventually found his way back to the Phillies in time to make it to the World Series with them again in 1993. Even though his ERA for that season was 2.90, his stuff just wasn’t quite good enough in the playoffs. What can you expect from a 40 year old pitcher though? Not too many still have playoff calibre stuff at age 40.

Overall in his career, he was far better when he pitched in the NL than when he was an AL pitcher. In the senior circuit, he was 2 games over .500 and had a 2.85 ERA, good for a 129 ERA+. His days in the AL left him as a 3-4, 4.28 ERA pitcher. Yeah, there’s some ballpark factors in the differences between those numbers, but I like that it does show he had his moment in the sun, even if it was on astroturf.

A few interesting Larry Andersen career stats—

• 6.36 ERA in the Kingdome, worst of any place where he threw more than 2 innings.
• 2.09 ERA in the Astrodome, over 228 1/3 innings.
• Faced 506 batters when Craig Biggio was his catcher, only allowing hitters to slug .265
• 120 ERA+
• vs Expos, 6-1, 1.36 ERA
• vs Dodgers, 6-3, 1.87 ERA
• Only started 1 game in the majors (note: May 19, 1982 in Boston).
• 2.90 ERA in September/October.