RIP Mike McCormick

The RIP's for players who I used to day dream about when I was listening to Giants games on the radio on summer afternoons in Northern California seem to be coming faster and faster.  Today it was Mike McCormick, a Giants lefthanded pitcher who had one of the more remarkable seasons I can remember in 1967.  McCormick died at the age of 81 of complications of Parkinson's Disease. 

Mike McCormick was a high school phenom from Pasadena, CA who signed with the New York Giants after graduation in 1956 for $50,000, a very large sum of money for the time.  MLB required that "bonus babies" had to remain on the MLB roster for 2 seasons after signing and as was the case with most of them, McCormick struggled.  After the move to San Francisco in 1958, he became a solid starting pitcher, though not exactly an ace.  His best season in that stretch was 1960 with a 2.70 ERA but with just a 15-12 record as he suffered from a lack of run support. 

A sore shoulder caused his performance to drop off in 1962.  Manager Alvin Dark thought he was malingering and he was traded in the offseason to the Orioles who then traded him on to the Washington Senators after one season.  He never regained his fastball and never pitched pain-free again, but learned how to rely on offspeed pitches, particularly a very good screwball, to get batters out. 

McCormick was traded back to the Giants before the 1967 season.  The Giants rotation featured the incomparable Juan Marichal, Gaylord Perry who was coming off a breakout season in 1966 and Ray Sadecki who had come over in the Orlando Cepeda trade.  The Giants were hoping McCormick would extend the rotation just enough to get them out of their second place rut, an outcome that seemed more likely with the sudden retirement of Sandy Koufax from the Dodgers who had beaten the Giants out the previous two seasons.  McCormick did a whole lot more than anyone expected winning 22 games and the NL Cy Young award.  So, the Giants won the NL pennant going away, right?  Not so fast there, pardner!

Two things happened that season I have resented ever since.  You talk about a chip on your shoulder!  Man, that season gave me one that did not get even slightly smaller until the Giants finally won it all in 2010.  1.  1967 was inexplicably the only season in a fabulous run from 1963-1969 that Juan Marichal failed to win more than 20 games as he went just 14-10.  2.  Orlando Cepeda had a Hall of Fame season for the Cardinals to lead them to a wire-to-wire run to the 1967 NL Pennant by a easy margin. They went on the win the World Series against Carl Yastrzemski and the Boston Red Sox in 7 games.

Of course, Marichal bounced back in 1968 to have perhaps his greatest season but McCormick would never come close to his 1967 performance again.  He pitched decently for a couple more seasons before his stuff completely abandoned him.  He tried to mount comebacks via AAA for several more seasons but never made it back and finally retired in 1973 at the age of 34.

McCormick spent his post-baseball life selling business products in the Bay Area and doing promotional work for the Giants.

RIP Mike McCormick, a Forever Giant in my book!