Drew Smyly
Bob Strampe was a member of the 1972 AL East Champion
Detroit Tigers. He had been signed by
the Tigers as a high school graduate in 1969.
But he had attended Arizona State University. His dad had also played ball in the Cleveland
Indians farm system. In 1969 he was a
New York-Penn League All-Star and led that minor league in K’s and tied for
wins. He worked his way up the Tiger
farm system having a successful 1970 season in AA Montgomery as a starter at AA
Montgomery going only 9-12 in 25 starts but with a 3.27 ERA. In 1971 he was hindered most of the season
with a sore arm and got in only 2 games at Montgomery going 1-1 before his
season was over. He was still a spring
training invitee and performed well enough in 1972 that he got a call up in May
and on May 10 he was called in to make his major league debut in a game the
Tiges trailed 3-0 to the Chicago White Sox in Chicago. He started the 7th and did not
have a great debut. He gave up a leadoff
single, the runner then stole second. He
gave up another single followed by a ground out and a walk before giving up 2
more singles before he was pulled. He
had faced 6 batters and had given up 4 runs on 4 hits and a walk and allowed a
stolen base in 1/3 of an inning pitched.
He was back down in Toledo for most of the rest of the season going 5-11
most of the rest of the season as a starter with a 3.42 ERA. He was called back up at the end of the
season and got in 6 more games as a reliever and pitched a total of 4.2 innings
for the season. His last game was
against the Cleveland Indians. He
pitched the last 1.2 innings and gave up only 1 hit and 1 walk. He did not record a decision and posted an
11.57 ERA. He would never pitch in the
majors again. The last batter he faced
in that Cleveland game he K’d. It was
Mike Kilkenny who had been a Tiger at the beginning of the season and ended the
season as a San Diego Padre. Bob was
traded to the San Diego Padres with Ed Brinkman and Dick Sharon for Nate
Colbert in 1974. He was done with
professional baseball after 1976 at the age of 26.
Gene Desuatels
Marty Kavanagh
No comments:
Post a Comment