Mike Cuellar
Miguel Ángel Cuellar Santana was a Cuban professional baseball player. He played for 15 seasons in Major League Baseball as a left-handed pitcher in 1959 and from 1964 through 1977, most prominently as a member of the Baltimore Orioles who won the American League pennant in each of Cuellar's first three seasons with the team. During that time, Cuellar and the Orioles won the 1970 World Series. Cuellar also played for the Cincinnati Reds, St. Louis Cardinals, Houston Astros and California Angels.
Cuellar and Denny McLain each won the AL Cy Young Award in 1969, due to a tie in the voting. For the Orioles, Cuellar won 20-or-more games in a season four times from 1969 through 1974. Along with Jim Palmer, Dave McNally, and Pat Dobson, he was one of four Oriole starters to win at least 20 games in 1971. Cuellar, nicknamed "Crazy Horse" because of his superstitious nature, ranks among Baltimore's top five career leaders in wins, strikeouts, shutouts and innings pitched. In 1982, Cuellar was inducted into the Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame.
Life and career
Early life and first stints in the majors
Miguel Angel Cuellar Santana was born in Santa Clara, Cuba, on May 8, 1937. One of four brothers, Cuellar's family made their living working in Cuban sugar mills. Not interested in pursuing that as a career, Cuellar joined the Cuban Army, which allowed him to play baseball on weekends. He threw a no-hitter for an army team in 1955, drawing attention from scouts. Following his army service, he pitched for Cinco Estrellas in the Nicaraguan league in 1956, then joined Almendares of the Cuban Winter League over the offseason.In the 1950s, the Cincinnati Reds executed a working agreement with the Havana Sugar Kings of the Triple-A International League, helping them acquire many Cuban players, including Cuellar. Cuellar struck out seven Montreal Royals in just over two innings of work in his first game with Havana in 1957. Used as a starting pitcher and as a relief pitcher, he posted an 8–7 record and led the IL in earned run average with a 2.44 mark. The next season, he had a 2.77 ERA and a 13–12 record, pitching 220 innings.
Entering the 1959 season, Cuellar was featured on a baseball card in a Topps set for the very first time, though the company misspelled his name as "Cueller." Part of Cincinnati's roster to begin the season, Cuellar made his major league debut with Cincinnati against the Philadelphia Phillies at Crosley Field on April 18, 1959. He entered the contest in relief of Don Newcombe in the second inning with the Reds losing 4–2. In his two innings of work, Cuellar surrendered a grand slam to Gene Freese in the third and a two-run double to Al Schroll in the fourth. The Reds went on to lose 14–9. His only other appearance with the Reds came three days later against the Milwaukee Braves. Again he pitched two innings in relief, giving up two runs as the Reds lost 7–4. After that, he was returned to Havana; it would be several years before he pitched in the major leagues again.
For the rest of 1959, Cuellar had a 10–11 record and 111 strikeouts. Though his 11 losses were tied with four others for eighth in the league, he ranked eighth with a 2.80 ERA and fifth with 220 innings pitched. Havana won the IL championship and defeated the Minneapolis Millers in the Junior World Series.
The Sugar Kings moved to Jersey City, New Jersey, in the middle of the 1960 season in response to Fidel Castro's nationalization of American businesses in Cuba. In 33 games for the franchise, Cuellar had a 6–9 record, a 3.53 ERA, and 74 strikeouts in 148 innings pitched. He split the 1961 season between three Triple-A teams: Jersey City of the IL and the Indianapolis Indians of the American Association and the Syracuse Chiefs of the IL. Exact statistics for this year are unknown.
Cuellar spent the 1962 season with the Sultanes de Monterrey of the Triple-A Mexican League, appearing in 37 games. He split the 1963 minor league season between affiliates of the Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians. For the Knoxville Smokies of the Double-A South Atlantic League, he had a 1–1 record, a 2.54 ERA, and 39 strikeouts. With the IL's Jacksonville Suns, he had a 6–7 record, a 3.79 ERA, and 85 strikeouts in 24 games.
After being stuck in the minors for five years, Cuellar experienced improvement in 1964. During the offseason, while he had been playing winter ball, teammate Ruben Gomez had suggested he start throwing a screwball. Signed by the St. Louis Cardinals in 1964, Cuellar used the pitch about 30 percent of the time while pitching for Jacksonville, now an affiliate of the Cardinals. He made 10 starts for Jacksonville, posting a 1.78 ERA while winning six of seven decisions. Seeing his success, the Cardinals decided to promote him in mid-June.
Cuellar was used primarily as a relief pitcher for the rest of the year, though he also made seven starts. One of these came in the second game of a doubleheader against the Pittsburgh Pirates; Cuellar allowed five runs in innings but earned the win in a 12–5 Cardinal victory. Cuellar also beat the Pirates on August 26, this time allowing just two runs in a complete game, 4–2 victory. Freese, who had hit a grand slam off of Cuellar five years earlier, made the last out. The hitter said that "he's a lot faster and has come with quite a scroogie". In 32 games, Cuellar had a 5–5 record, a 4.50 ERA, 56 strikeouts, 33 walks, and 80 hits allowed in 72 innings pitched. The Cardinals made a late-season surge as the Phillies collapsed in September. This took the Cardinals and Cuellar to the 1964 World Series. Though Cuellar did not pitch in any of the games, he became a World Series champion for the first time as the Cardinals defeated the New York Yankees in seven games.
In 1965, Cuellar failed to make the Cardinals roster and was assigned to Jacksonville to begin the year. With the Suns, he posted a 2.51 ERA and a 9–1 record. At the June 15 trade deadline, Cuellar and Ron Taylor were traded to the Houston Astros for Hal Woodeshick and Chuck Taylor.
Houston Astros (1965–68)
Cuellar spent the rest of 1965 in the major leagues with the Astros, mainly as a relief pitcher, though he also made four starts. He posted a 5.81 ERA in his first 15 games, then posted an 0.72 ERA in his last 10. Twice in September, he had relief outings in which he pitched more than five scoreless innings. His record for the season was 1–4, and he struck out 46 batters in 56 innings, posting a 3.54 ERA.After beginning the 1966 season as a relief pitcher, Cuellar was added to the starting rotation on April 25. Facing the Reds, Cuellar held his old team to five hits and one unearned run in a 2–1 victory. After Cuellar posted a 1.29 ERA in his first four starts, manager Grady Hatton said: "I've created a monster". Hatton explained: "For a while, all Cuellar wanted to do was throw screwballs. But this year, he's mixing 'em up with fast balls and curves, and making the batters hit the ball. He's got good control and a good fast ball, and he's finally making use of them." Cuellar had learned the curveball from Astro pitching coach Gordon Jones, and he was also throwing his screwball on 50-60 percent of his pitches. He strained a muscle in his side and had to leave a game on May 21 but was back to action by June 2. Cuellar ultimately won his first six decisions, the last a 3–2 complete game over the Cardinals at the Astrodome on June 25, in which he recorded a career-high 15 strikeouts. He suffered two close losses during the campaign. On August 12, he held the San Francisco Giants to four hits and one run in eight innings, but Gaylord Perry of the Giants threw a 92-pitch shutout. On September 10, he and Don Drysdale of the Dodgers held each other's teams scoreless through nine innings; Cuellar took the loss when he gave up a run in the 10th. Cuellar threw his first major league shutout on August 29, defeating the Pirates by a score of 2–0. In Cuellar's final start of the campaign, a 4–3 road win over Cincinnati in the second match of a September 28 twi-night doubleheader, he hit his first major-league home run, off Sammy Ellis, to lead off the top of the fifth. Cuellar finished with a 12–10 record, 175 strikeouts, and a 2.22 ERA,.
Following a loss on May 17, 1967, Cuellar won six straight games, posting a 1.18 ERA over the span. The first of these was a 2–0 shutout of the Giants on May 21. He made the first of four All-Star Game appearances at Anaheim Stadium on July 11. He came into the contest in relief of Chris Short in the 11th. Of the seven batters he faced, the only baserunner he allowed in the two shutout innings he pitched was Carl Yastrzemski, who recorded a 12th-inning single. The NL eventually won 2–1 in 15 innings. On July 24, Cuellar had held the Phillies to one hit and no runs through eight innings, as Houston led 1–0. During the ninth, Philadelphia manager Gene Mauch called him a name from the dugout, hoping to start a fight and get both players ejected. Eddie Mathews of Houston acted as a peacemaker, but Cuellar would allow an unearned run in the inning. However, he finished the game, allowing only two hits total as Houston prevailed 2–1 in 11 innings. He threw back-to-back shutouts on September 22 and 27 against the New York Mets and Philadelphia; the latter of these was an 11-inning game in which he struck out 12. Five times Cuellar struck out 10 or more batters in a game in 1967, the most coming on June 6, when he struck out 13 in a 3–2 win over the Cardinals. Cuellar improved his record to 16–11 in 1967, with a 3.03 ERA. He tied with four other pitchers for fifth in the NL in wins and ranked fifth in strikeouts.
After the major league seasons, Cuellar had typically played winter baseball in Latin America over the offseasons. However, the Astros asked him not to do so in the 1967-68 offseason because they thought he was pitching too much. When he returned to the team in 1968, he complained of arm soreness. He pitched only once in April and did not make a start until May 19. Cuellar won his first three starts. On May 30, he threw a seven-hit shutout against the Braves in an 11–0 victory. He struck out a season-high 12 on June 21 and held the Phillies to one unearned run in a complete game, 2–1 victory. With a four-hit shutout of the Dodgers on July 29, Cuellar's record improved to 6–5. However, he lost five straight decisions, not winning again until September 17. In 28 games, he had an 8–11 record, though his ERA was 2.74. He struck out 133 batters in innings. On December 4, the Astros traded Cuellar, Enzo Hernández, and Tom Johnson to the Baltimore Orioles for Curt Blefary and John Mason.