Sam McDowell
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Sam McDowell
Samuel Edward Thomas McDowell (born September 21, 1942), is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a starting pitcher from 1961 to 1975, most notably for the Cleveland Indians. A six-time All-Star, McDowell led the American League in strikeouts five times. Tall (6 feet, 5 inches) and powerful, his left-handed fastball was delivered with an unusually calm pitching motion which led to his memorable nickname, Sudden Sam. With the Indians 1960–61: Major league debut During the 1960 season, as a high school graduate, McDowell signed with the Indians for a $75,000 bonus. McDowell made the signing announcement at the conclusion of his appearance in the third segment of To Tell the Truth aired on June 16, 1960. After spending 1960 with the Class-D Lakeland Indians, he was promoted to the Triple-A Salt Lake City Bees of the Pacific Coast League. He finished the year there with a record of 13-10 and a 4.42 earned run average. ...
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Pitcher
In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw a walk. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the pitcher is assigned the number 1. The pitcher is often considered the most important player on the defensive side of the game, and as such is situated at the right end of the defensive spectrum. There are many different types of pitchers, such as the starting pitcher, relief pitcher, middle reliever, lefty specialist, setup man, and the closer. Traditionally, the pitcher also bats. Starting in 1973 with the American League(and later the National League) and spreading to further leagues throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the hitting duties of the pitcher have generally been given over to the position of designated hitter, a cause of some controversy. The Japanese Ce ...
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Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding team, called the pitcher, throws a ball that a player on the batting team, called the batter, tries to hit with a bat. The objective of the offensive team (batting team) is to hit the ball into the field of play, away from the other team's players, allowing its players to run the bases, having them advance counter-clockwise around four bases to score what are called " runs". The objective of the defensive team (referred to as the fielding team) is to prevent batters from becoming runners, and to prevent runners' advance around the bases. A run is scored when a runner legally advances around the bases in order and touches home plate (the place where the player started as a batter). The principal objective of the batting team is to hav ...
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Frank Funk (baseball)
Franklin Ray Funk (born August 30, 1935) is an American former Major League Baseball pitcher. He played from 1960–63 for the Cleveland Indians and Milwaukee Braves. During a 4-year baseball career, he compiled 20 wins, 150 strikeouts, and a 3.01 ERA. Born in Washington, D.C., he was signed by the New York Giants as an amateur free agent in 1954. Funk was acquired by Cleveland's AAA International League Toronto Maple Leafs team prior to the 1959 season. He made the most of his debut after a late season call-up from the Maple Leafs in September 1960, finishing with a 4–2 record, a 1.99 earned run average, and 1 save in just nine games for Cleveland. His best season was 1961, when he posted a won-loss record of 11–11 and led Cleveland with 11 saves and an ERA of 3.31, appearing in 56 games. Two of his victories, both recorded in May, involved pitching over seven innings per game in relief during 15-inning games against the Baltimore Orioles and Minnesota Twins. Aft ...
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Minnesota Twins
The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The team is named after the Twin Cities area which includes the two adjoining cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. The franchise was founded in Washington, D.C., in 1901 as the Washington Senators. The team moved to Minnesota and was renamed the Minnesota Twins for the start of the 1961 season. The Twins played in Metropolitan Stadium from 1961 to 1981 and in the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome from 1982 to 2009. The team played its inaugural game at Target Field on April 12, 2010. The franchise won the World Series in 1924 as the Senators, and in 1987 and 1991 as the Twins. From 1901 to 2021, the Senators/Twins franchise's overall regular-season win–loss–tie record is 9,012–9,716–109 (); as the Twins (through 2021), it is 4,789–4,852–8 (). Team history Washington Na ...
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Earned Run Average
In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number of innings pitched and multiplying by nine. Thus, a lower ERA is better. Runs resulting from passed balls or defensive errors (including pitchers' defensive errors) are recorded as unearned runs and omitted from ERA calculations. Origins Henry Chadwick is credited with devising the statistic, which caught on as a measure of pitching effectiveness after relief pitching came into vogue in the 1900s. Prior to 1900—and, in fact, for many years afterward—pitchers were routinely expected to pitch a complete game, and their win–loss record was considered sufficient in determining their effectiveness. After pitchers like James Otis Crandall and Charley Hall made names for themselves as relief specialists, gauging a pitcher's ...
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Pacific Coast League
The Pacific Coast League (PCL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Western United States. Along with the International League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A level, which is one grade below Major League Baseball (MLB). The PCL was one of the premier regional baseball leagues in the first half of the 20th century. Although it was never recognized as a true major league, to which it aspired, its quality of play was considered very high. A number of top stars of the era, including Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams, were products of the league. In 1958, with the arrival of major league teams on the west coast and the availability of televised major league games, the PCL's modern era began with each team signing Player Development Contracts to become farm teams of major league clubs. Following MLB's reorganization of the minor leagues in 2021, it operated as the Triple-A West for one season before switching back to its previous moniker in 2022. A ...
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Salt Lake City Bees
The Salt Lake City Bees was a primary moniker of the minor league baseball teams, based in Salt Lake City, Utah between 1911 and 1970 under various names. After minor league baseball first began in Salt Lake City in 1900, the Bees were long-time members of both the Pacific Coast League and Pioneer League. The Salt Lake Bees played their home games at Derks Field. History Salt Lake hosted two teams in the 1900 Independent Utah-Idaho Intermountain League, the Rio Grande Rios and Short Line Shorts. They were followed by the Salt Lake City White Wings in the 1901 Class D Inter-Mountain League, a team in the 1902 Utah State League and the Salt Lake City Elders (1903-1904)/Salt Lake Fruit Pickers (1905) of the Pacific National League. The 1909 Salt Lake City Mormons played in the Inter-Mountain League and the 1909 Salt Lake City Cubs played in the Montana State League The direct predecessor to the Bees were the Salt Lake City Skyscrapers that played in the class-D Union Associatio ...
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Triple-A (baseball)
Triple-A (officially Class AAA) has been the highest level of play in Minor League Baseball in the United States since 1946. Currently, two leagues operate at the Triple-A level, the International League (IL) and the Pacific Coast League (PCL). There are 30 teams, one per each Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise, with 20 in the IL and 10 in the PCL. Triple-A teams are generally located in smaller cities as well as larger metropolitan areas without MLB teams, such as Austin, Jacksonville, Columbus, and Indianapolis. Four Triple-A teams play in the same metro areas as their parent clubs, those being the Gwinnett Stripers, St. Paul Saints, Sugar Land Space Cowboys and Tacoma Rainiers. All current Triple-A teams are located in the United States; before 2008, some Triple-A leagues also fielded teams in Canada, and from 1967 to 2020 the Mexican League was classified as Triple-A. Other than the current two Triple-A leagues, only three other leagues have ever held the classif ...
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Lakeland Indians
Lakeland is primarily a toponym. It may refer to: Places Australia *Lakeland, Queensland Canada *Lakeland (electoral district), a federal electoral district in Alberta *Lakeland County, a former municipal district in Alberta * District of Lakeland No. 521, Saskatchewan, a rural municipality *Lakeland Provincial Park and Recreation Area, Canada Finland *Finnish Lakeland, a landscape region Turkey *Turkish Lakeland, an area of south west Anatolia United Kingdom *English Lakeland, an alternative name for the Lake District, a mountainous area in north west England * South Lakeland, a local government district * Lakeland Wildlife Oasis, a small zoological collection near the town of Milnthorpe, Cumbria, England United States * Lakeland, Baltimore *Lakeland, Florida ** Lakeland Civic Center *Lakeland, Georgia *Lakeland, Indiana * Lakeland, Kentucky *Lakeland, Louisiana * Lakeland, Michigan * Lakeland, Minnesota * Lakeland, Missouri * Lakeland, New Jersey *Lakeland, New Y ...
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Fastball
The fastball is the most common type of pitch thrown by pitchers in baseball and softball. " Power pitchers," such as former American major leaguers Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens, rely on speed to prevent the ball from being hit, and have thrown fastballs at speeds of (officially) and up to (unofficially). Pitchers who throw more slowly can put movement on the ball, or throw it on the outside of home plate where batters can't easily reach it. Fastballs are usually thrown with backspin, so that the Magnus effect creates an upward force on the ball. This causes it to fall less rapidly than expected, and sometimes causes an optical illusion often called a rising fastball. Although it is impossible for a human to throw a baseball fast enough and with enough backspin for the ball to actually rise, to the batter the pitch seems to rise due to the unexpected lack of natural drop on the pitch. A straight pitch is achieved by gripping the ball with the fingers across the wide par ...
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Strikeout
In baseball or softball, a strikeout (or strike-out) occurs when a batter accumulates three strikes during a time at bat. It usually means that the batter is out. A strikeout is a statistic recorded for both pitchers and batters, and is denoted by K in scorekeeping and statistics. A "strikeout looking" — in which the batter does not swing and the third strike is called by the umpire — is usually denoted by a ꓘ. Although a strikeout suggests that the pitcher dominated the batter, the free-swinging style that generates home runs also leaves batters susceptible to striking out. Some of the greatest home run hitters of all time—such as Alex Rodriguez, Reggie Jackson, and Jim Thome—were notorious for striking out. Rules and jargon A pitched ball is ruled a ''ball'' by the umpire if the batter did not swing at it and, in that umpire's judgement, it does not pass through the strike zone. Any pitch at which the batter swings unsuccessfully or, that in that umpire's j ...
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