1969 AMERICAN LEAGUE ALL-STAR
"By becoming a 20-game winner for the second time in his career last season, Mel Stottlemyre inadvertently made life in the Yankee front office a little more difficult. Now he will be in even greater demand by other clubs trying to deal with the Yanks, for his name is inevitably brought up during trade talks.
Mel had a superb year in 1968. He had an ERA of 2.45 to go with his 21-12 mark, hurled 19 complete games in 36 starts, and collected six shutouts. A product of the Yankee farm system, Mel had been troubled a year earlier with a pinched nerve in his foot, which affected his concentration and stamina and, consequently, his performance. He was 15-15. But during the off-season he underwent corrective surgery.
Now in his sixth big league year, Mel, who once lost 20 games for the Yankees, had even greater control of his sinker in '68, and his fastball seemed to have added zip."
-Jack Zanger, Major League Baseball 1969
"The ace of the Yankee pitching staff was a 21-game winner last year, posting the most victories by a Yankee since White Ford's 24 in 1963 and Jim Bouton's 21 in the same year. This was Mel's second 20-game year since he moved to the majors in 1964. While winning his 21st victory, Mel pitched his 19th complete game, a feat no Yankee pitcher had performed since 1958 when Bob Turley did it. He has led the club in wins and innings pitched for the past four years.
In addition to his six shutouts - a single-season high for him - Mel had two other games in which the only run scored was unearned. In his 21 wins he gave up more than two runs only once. And he needed help only twice to achieve his victories. Mel was named to the All-Star team last year for the third time.
'There is no question that Mel rates with the top five pitchers in baseball,' says Ralph Houk. 'In baseball, not just the American League. I don't know of any department in which he falls short of being a really outstanding pitcher. He is always ready to pitch and practically guarantees you a strong game. He completes what he starts.'
Stott is rated as one of the toughest pitchers in the league by opposing managers. When Whitey Ford retired in 1967, he became the No. 1 man on the mound. Mel brought to the job the pride and class that is a Yankee tradition and lived up to it when the club slumped in '65 and '66.
'I never want another season like '66,' he says. 'I almost hated to go out on the mound.'
Realizing the hitters were getting to know him, Mel taught his fast sinker new tricks and had a 15-15 year in '67.
'But .500 pitchers aren't very important to a club. I knew I had to get better.' Mel felt better when he won his 15th last year with almost two months left to go.
Stott helps himself on the field and at bat. Last year he led a list of 43 perfect-fielding American League pitchers, fielding 1.000 in 36 games. In '64 he had five hits in five times at bat against Washington. Last year he had three hits, one of them providing the tying run that led to a 2-1 win over the Senators."
-The New York Yankees Official 1969 Yearbook
"Mel's 1968 season convinced baseball people that he is one of the top-notch pitchers in the game today. Although not overpowering-fast, he is cool and poised with an assortment of pitches he knows how to use and can control. His sinker is probably his best pitch.
Mel began the season by hurling a shutout, the second straight year he hurled the season opener for the Yankees and threw blanks. For the fourth straight year he led the Yanks in wins and innings pitched and posted personal highs for himself in the following categories: wins (21), complete games (19), ERA (2.45) and shutouts (6). In addition, he led American League pitchers in fielding with a 1.000 mark, handling 74 chances flawlessly; he goes into the 1969 season without committing an error in his last 37 games and in his last 78 chances. Mel has a total of 77 wins in only four and a half years of major league pitching.
With all the pitching feats he has realized, he lists his outstanding baseball experience as his five hits in five at-bats in Washington on September 26, 1964. Another hitting feat of Mel's was his inside-the-park grand slam home run against Boston on July 20, 1965.
An all-around athlete, Mel lettered in baseball, basketball and football in high school. He spends the winter fishing and hunting."
-1969 New York Yankees Press-TV-Radio Guide
NO NONSENSE YANK
"There is a belief, not without foundation, that athletes in any sports who perform in New York get the best of it in personal publicity. Put Mickey Mantle in Kansas City and bring, say, Henry Aaron to the Yankees or Mets and Aaron would be the national idol. Willie Mays made his name before the Giants moved to the West Coast. Stan Musial became a legend because he always played so well against New York's two National League teams.
It's not that New York sportswriters are provincial. Visiting players receive a better press in New York than any other city and Yankees and Mets often complain that they don't get the breaks from their official scorers on hits and errors that their rivals receive at home.
It's just that New York is the headquarters of all the national media- wire services, radio, television, advertising, magazines. Why go to Houston, for example, to do a story on a player, when someone of equal ability is only a cab ride away?
This theory doesn't always work, however, because even a New York player must have some color to sell, too. And Mel Stottlemyre, the Yankees' fine right-handed pitcher, may go down in history as the most unsung Yankee star since Wally Pipp.
The reasons, of course, are that Stottlemyre doesn't play the organ, doesn't shoot off his mouth, doesn't use any trick pitches with fancy names and, when the season is over, instead of working the banquet circuit for extra cash, he goes back home to Grandview, Washington with his wife and two young sons. All he does in New York is his job, which is starting and winning ball games. With the Yankees of the last several seasons, that hasn't been easy.
Ralph Houk, the manager of the 27-year-old right-hander, doesn't let Stottlemyre's value go unappreciated, however.
'Mel,' he said one morning as smoke from his ever-present cigar curled to the ceiling, 'has to rank with the three, four or five best pitchers in baseball.'
And when he made that appraisal, Houk knew he was including the Gibsons, McLains, Marichals and Drysdales.
'The thing about Stottlemyre is his consistency,' Houk explained. 'You get a lot of pitchers who will throw a shutout one day and get bombed in the first inning the next. But, Mel, game in and game out will give you that same steady performance. It's a great help to your pitching rotation and to your bullpen to know that even if he doesn't go all the way, Mel will take you into the late innings without giving up many runs.'
Stottlemyre last year had one of his typical seasons. His record with a fifth-place team was 21-12, the second time he has won 20 in his four full big league seasons, and he pitched 279 innings, the fourth straight time he has gone over 250. He started 36 games and completed 19.
Mel, in the majors only four and one-half years, could win his 100th game late this season or early in the next. He's only 23 short. The quiet, highly religious westerner is often asked if he has any extra problems pitching for the Yankees now that they're not the world beaters of old.
'Actually, I've never had much experience with a 'winning' team,' he reveals. 'The Yankee clubs I played with in the minors were all bad teams. The only winner I played with was in 1964 when I was called up in the middle of the season and we won the pennant.'
Mel helped win that pennant with a 9-3 record down the stretch and the next season, as the Yankees dropped down to sixth, he was 20-9. Then came two finishes of tenth and ninth when the entire team struggled, although in both seasons Mel managed to win in double figures.
With his easy motion and strong arm, Stottlemyre's future appears bright. He has only one worry. The last time he won 20, he came right back and lost a like number. That was in 1966 when he was 12-20 for the last place Yanks. He didn't take much solace from Roger Craig, who used to point out when he was losing consistently for the Mets that 'You've got to be pitching pretty well to lose 20 because if you're bombed, they stop using you.' "
-Larry Fox, Baseball 1969 Yearbook
"Mel Stottlemyre was born 10 years too late. If he'd been the No. 1 pitcher for the New York Yankees a decade earlier, he'd have been the starting pitcher every year in the first game of the World Series, and one of the most celebrated players in the game.
But Stottlemyre is pitching for the Yankees of today and he has to be content with such accomplishments as leading the team into the first division. It used to be that the heavy-hitting Bombers would carry pitchers like Red Ruffing into the Hall of Fame. Now Stottlemyre has to win despite feeble support.
Manager Ralph Houk can't say enough about the ace of his staff. 'It's comforting to have a pitcher like Mel. He is always ready to pitch and practically never has a bad game,' Houk claims. 'He helps himself with his bat and he is getting better every year. There's no doubt that he's one of the top pitchers in the league.'
Describing his hurling, Stottlemyre says, 'I'm not a one-pitch pitcher. I can get them out more than one way, so I don't think the hitters will catch up to me. Sure they know me better, but don't forget that I also know them better.'
Mel used to be hampered by a pinched nerve in his right foot but last year he had surgery to remove the problem. 'It's a big difference, pitching without pain. One of the big problems with the foot was that it'd tire me out as the game went along. I tried to find ways to ease the pain, but nothing did any good until I had it operated on at the end of the season,' he says.
Stottlemyre came up to the Yankees in the middle of 1964 and posted a 9-3 record to help the club to its last pennant. He made three starts in the World Series against St. Louis' Bob Gibson and wound up splitting two decisions with him, beating Gibson in the second game but losing the seventh. The fifth game went extra innings and Pete Mikkelsen lost it in relief.
The Yankees haven't won a pennant since, but it hasn't been Mel's fault. He's had two 20-game seasons in the last four years."
-Vito Stellino, Sports All-Stars 1969 Baseball
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