"A motorcycle and tennis enthusiast, Mike Kekich finally looked like a pitcher for a good part of last season. After a poor start, the left-hander caught fire and in a stretch of 36 1/3 innings, he yielded only six earned runs. In one game against the White Sox he faced only 31 men with the lone hit being a home run. A one-time Dodger prospect, Kekich stayed hot until he ran into some problems in the final weeks of the season. However, his 10-9 record, a duplication of his 1970 record, has Houk thinking of him as a regular starter in the future.
He was originally signed by the Dodgers in 1964 and the 27-year-old fastball pitcher stayed in their organization until 1968 when he was traded to the Yanks in exchange for Andy Kosco.
A 2-10 year with Los Angeles paved the way for his exit."
-Brenda Zanger, Major League Baseball 1972
"Mike Kekich is a man of many interests - some solemn, some off-beat, most of them distinctive among his baseball fraternity. But as he takes his place in the regular starting rotation of the New York Yankees, his principal interest - pitching the Yankees to a pennant - is closer to realization.
In a five-man starting rotation, Mike didn't always get enough work to keep himself sharp, but he showed enough pitching maturity by last season to permit the Yankees to part with Stan Bahnsen and move Mike into a four-man rotation. When Mike's been right - as he was when he threw a one-hitter last year - he can be as good as anyone, and he'll have more opportunities to be right in '72 than ever before.
Mike Kekich is a most interesting young man, and Yankee fans will be seeing more of his delightful personality on post-game television interviews. That's because the interviews are saved for heroes, and it's a role Mike is ready to assume."
-The New York Yankees Official 1972 Yearbook
"Mike showed further improvement in 1971 towards his goal of becoming a winning regular Yankee starter. He reached career highs in wins (10), games (37), starts (24), complete games (3), innings pitched (170) and strikeouts (93). Mike's single biggest feat of the 1971 season, however, and perhaps of his career, is the classic 1-hitter he hurled on July 18 against the White Sox in the second game of a doubleheader at Yankee Stadium. This was the second 1-hitter of Mike's career, having hurled one with the Dodgers in 1968, shutting out the Mets 2-0 and striking out 11.
He has always had a live arm with a hopping fastball and a baffling change of pace. He has twice gone into the seventh inning without allowing a hit ... both times in 1968 while with the Dodgers, against the Mets and the Phillies, and once struck out 11 consecutive batters while with St. Petersburg in 1964. Mike has always stated he'd be a much better pitcher if he could start every fourth day. He has an excellent chance of proving this point this year with the departure of Stan Bahnsen to the White Sox. Mike is now a member of the Yankees' 'Big Four.'
A very relaxed type off the field, the left-hander has many and varied interests, among them motorcycle riding, skiing, astrology, general reading, philosophy and photography."
-1972 New York Yankees Press/TV/Radio Guide
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