1970 AMERICAN LEAGUE ALL-STAR
"One of the last links to the Yankee glory years, Mel Stottlemyre is doing his bit to restore the team to a championship level. Throughout 1969 the Yankees were dangled such morsels as Richie Allen, Joe Torre and Frank Robinson, but they were turned down because it would have meant giving up their ace.
The quiet man from the state of Washington turned in his second straight 20-game season while setting a personal high of pitching 303 innings. He posted a 20-14 mark with an ERA of 2.82 and completed 24 of his 39 starts.
Stott relies on an assortment of sinkers and his pinpoint control. He's won 97 games in five and a half years with the Yanks."
-Jack Zanger, Major League Baseball 1970
"Mel was 22 when he came to the Yankees from Richmond in the summer of 1964. With only a half season in the majors behind him, the young rookie started three games in the first World Series he had ever seen. Today the ace of the Yankee pitching staff is one of two players on the roster left from the championship era. (The other is Steve Hamilton.) And Stott is going to be the star who bridges both the previous and the future championship days.
When Whitey Ford retired in 1967, Stottlemyre became the dean of the Yankee pitching staff. When Mickey Mantle retired, it remained for Mel to exemplify to young Yankees a heritage of pride and class. Never has Stottlemyre's cool, quiet confidence been more evident than last season.
For the third time in five years, Mel was a 20-game winner. Although he has been in the majors only slightly more than five years, he is 12th among the 20 all-time Yankee leaders with 97 wins. He is 11th in strikeouts with 754; 8th in shutouts with 22; 7th in ERA (over 800 innings pitched) with 2.85. Last year he set a personal high of 303 innings pitched. He led the American League last year with 24 complete games, and for the fourth year he was named to the All-Star team.
Among Stottlemyre's high spots are: pitching in the seventh game of the 1964 World Series; defeating Denny McLain in September, 1968, 2-1, the night after a 19-inning tie; getting five hits in five at-bats in Washington, September 26, 1964; hitting an inside-the-park grand slam home run against Boston on July 20, 1965; and - last year - hurling a one-hitter in his second start on April 12 at Detroit.
The man with the great sinker ball, a quiet, cool but determined competitor, has made his mark among Yankee pitching greats, ranking with Whitey Ford as the highest paid pitcher in Yankee history
An outdoorsman from Grandview, Washington, Mel spends his off-seasons hunting and fishing and enjoying the company of his wife and three sons."
-The New York Yankees Official 1970 Yearbook
"Mel is gaining recognition as one of the all-time great Yankee pitchers. Going into the 1970 season he is 12th among the Yankee leaders in wins with 97, 13th in innings pitched with 1,475 (the 10th spot is held by Vic Raschi with 1,538, which Mel will probably surpass this year), 11th in strikeouts with 754, eighth in shutouts with 22, 17th in complete games with 85 and seventh in ERA (over 800 innings pitched) with 2.85. He has been with the Yankees for five complete seasons and each year has led the club in wins and innings pitched. Last year he set personal highs for himself in innings pitched with 303 and complete games with 24, which was also high in the American League.
An all-around athlete, he lettered in baseball, basketball and football in high school. Mel spends the off-seasons fishing and hunting.
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. Mel hurled a 1-hitter in his second start last year on April 12 at Detroit, the low-hit game of his career.
Signed for no bonus by Pacific Northwest scout Eddie Taylor, Mel has become one of the highest paid Yankee pitchers in history."
-1970 New York Yankees Press-TV-Radio Guide
HITTING HIS STRIDE
"Mel Stottlemyre, dean of the Yanks' starting corps, was off to a slow start, then came on with a rush. Mel missed weeks of work during spring training, nursing an arm injury. But when he was right, he was the same cool, efficient right-hander who has been a 20-game winner in three of his five full Yankee seasons."
-1970 New York Yankees Scorecard and Official Program
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