I told you guys about the research I did on Mike Mussina. Well, I sent it along to Buster Olney who is one of the best ESPN baseball analysts and also writes a blog on ESPN. And he used pretty much all my stuff in his latest blog. My name is there too!
Yeah for Katie!
• Mike Borzello, who used to catch in the Yankees' bullpen and throw batting practice, dubbed Mike Mussina as the Almost Man. Well, Mussina racked up win No. 20 for the first time Sunday, in what might have been his last game. Katie Sharp of ESPN Research put together these notes on the Almost Man:
• Ironically, Sept. 28 also marks the 12-year anniversary of Mussina's last attempt at reaching 20 wins, when as an Oriole he faced the Blue Jays in the penultimate game of the 1996 season. Mussina certainly pitched well enough to earn the win that day, allowing just one earned run in eight innings and leaving the game with a 2-1 lead. However, Armando Benitez blew the save in the top of the ninth inning, allowing a solo home run to Ed Sprague. The Orioles did go on to win the game in the bottom of the 10th, but Mussina was left with a no-decision and 19 wins.
This is not the only time in Mussina's career that he has come this close to the 20-win milestone. Here are some more heartbreaking moments in his quest for a 20-win season:
• Mussina won 19 games in 1995, and would have likely had the opportunity to get to the magical number of 20, if the season had not been shortened to 144 games because of the strike in 1994.
• He had 16 wins in 24 starts in 1994 when the season ended Aug. 11. Mussina had won 66 percent of his starts, and assuming he would have made nine more starts (his career average was 33 per full season), there is a good chance he could have reached 20 wins if a full season had been played.
• Mussina reached the 18-win mark three times. Most notably, in 1999, he missed four starts in August and September after he was hit in the shoulder by a line drive on Aug. 22. He also had losses in three of his four complete games that year.
Mussina also has just missed out on several career-defining accomplishments, including a Cy Young Award, a World Series title, a no-hitter and a perfect game:
• Mussina finished second in the American League Cy Young Award race in 1999. Pedro Martinez won the award that year, a brilliant season in which he led the league in ERA, wins and strikeouts.
• Mussina has pitched four complete-game one-hitters (2001, 2000, 1997 and 1992). Three of the four near-no-hitters were broken up in the seventh inning or later, including two in the ninth. Of those two last-inning breakups, one was with two outs (Sept. 2, 2001 vs. the Red Sox).
• Both of the no-hitters that were broken up in the ninth inning were actually perfect games at that point (May 30, 1997 vs. the Indians and Sept. 2, 2001 vs. the Red Sox).
• Mussina joined the Yankees in 2001, one year after the team's run of three straight championships and four World Series titles in five years. Of course, the Yankees haven't won a title since. However, they were just three outs away in 2001 vs. Arizona, until Mariano Rivera blew the game in the bottom of the ninth, allowing two runs (one earned) in the inning as the Diamondbacks came back to win 3-2 and earn their first World Series title.
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