#28 John Urrea
John Urrea reminds me of a calm western gunslinger here, that’s about to enlighten you with some old cowboy wisdom he’s picked up over time. Makes me very curious as to what he’s thinking.
That picture fits this card so well, because he’s become one of the most curious and mysterious players I’ve come across. He had a short major league career spanning 1977-1981, with the Cardinals and Padres. Then never pitched again, as far as I can find. After being released by the Padres on March 26, 1982, there’s no record of him appearing in any major league or minor league games.
I mean, who posts a 2.39 ERA from the bullpen for a sub-.500 team and then just vanishes? That was good for a 137 ERA+, which you’d think would give him a chance the following season to prove he can’t repeat it before dropping him. It was definitely his best season. In 18 2/3 combined innings against the Phillies, Expos, Astros, and Giants, he didn’t allow a single run to score. The Mets, Cardinals, and Braves, only managed to score 1 run a piece on him in 16 more innings. He was also pretty nasty in home games, posting a 1.73 ERA. The Padre Encyclopedia says he even “established a Padre mark for right-handers by hurling 20 consecutive scoreless innings”. Entering September 1981, his ERA was 0.95 in 38 IP. That’s a stopper. So why did he suddenly disappear?
I almost thought I found a clue that he might’ve suffered a career ending arm injury late in the ’81 season. His ERA in Sepember & October that year, was over 7. Yet, looking closer, I see his last 5 appearances he didn’t allow a single run. So that kinda blew my theory out of the water. In fact, he simply had a stretch of 4 bad appearances, which is a slump any pitcher could have.
John Urrea, if you happen to stumble on this after Googling yourself, let me know whatever became of you….I’m really curious why your career suddenly just, stopped.
This is the truth- I was serving time in Chino State Prison Jan- Mar 2010 where I met and became friends with John Urrea ! I dont know about his personal life or his struggles, I just know hes a great guy and I am proud to consider him my friend.
that’s my dad. he sustained an injury, played on it, made it worse, then turned into a depressed raging drug addict/alcoholic.
Is any of this really true? If so, it makes me very sad because I am his cousin. My mother Angelina was his mother’s sister.
I just met John the other night at a local store. He has befriended a friend of mine I’ve known for over a year now and introduced me to him. John is a very nice guy and while he did spend some time in prison, he has turned his life around and appears to be doing ok. I talked with him for about 30 minutes and he asked that I look up his baseball card to show to our mutual friend. If you would like any further information, Liz, reply to this and I can try to get you two in touch with each other!
Is he still in prison?
No, he is not. I met him a few nights ago. He is a very nice man.
[...] Los Angeles born pitcher John Urrea was no longer in the Major Leagues when his 1982 baseball card came out. John Goody Urrea was a first round draft pick of the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1974 amateur draft. In 1977, he moved up from Double-A to the Cardinals as a reliever — and won his first five games as a starter. It was a promising debut, but in a five-year career with St. Louis and San Diego, that promise was not kept. Urrea pitched well for St. Louis in ’77, recording a 7-6 record with 4 saves and a 3.16 ERA, but he found himself back in the minors the next year. He fared better in the Cardinals bullpen in 1980, going 4-1 with 3 saves and 3.48 ERA – but St. Louis sent him and Terry Kennedy to San Diego in a 1981 trade for Rollie Fingers, Gene Tenace and some others. Despite the fact that Urrea posted a stellar 2.39 ERA in 38 relief appearances for manager Frank Howard’s Padres, his career was over after that season at the age of 26. I wondered how a guy with a lifetime ERA of 3.74 could have such a brief and spotty career – but I couldn’t find much info about Urrea. However, one of the few things I did find was very intriguing. It’s an interesting blog article with a provocative series of comments. Check it out at: http://cards.devonyoung.com/padres/john-urrea/ [...]
John Urrea is my friend. We played ball together in 1969. John was the second best pitcher on our team. John and my brother Darrol pitched the all star team of Santa Fe Springs to the state finals in 1970. John was/is a good hearted affable guy and I enjoyed my time with him. I believe Steve Garvey may have ended Johns career as John had pitched inside to Garvey and Garvey took exception accusing John of trying to injure him. It just so happened they both ended up in San Diego together and we didn’t hear much about John again. Garvey is a narcissistic idiot. I know Johns dad owned a liquor store in Santa Fe Springs. John was a great teammate, a good ballplayer and a better friend. I think I recall my brother Darrol telling me he had seen John sometime in 2010 in Los Nietos.