"Ed Figueroa fulfilled a lifelong dream in 1978, but it wasn't easy. When Figgy beat the Indians at the Stadium on September 30, he became the first Puerto Rican-born pitcher to win 20 games in a season, and fittingly it came in his final regular-season start.
It was a long, uphill eight and half years before Ed finally reached the major leagues, but once he got there he served notice he'd be around for a while. Figueroa came to the Yankees with Mickey Rivers during the winter of 1975, and it looked like he'd reach his elusive goal that first year in Yankee pinstripes. Unfortunately, he fell one win short.
It looked like he'd fall short again in 1978, but Eddie proved tough down the stretch and won his last eight, and 13 of his last 15 to reach the 20-win mark. But Ed's been winning like that since he reached the majors, and over the last four years only two A.L. pitchers have more wins than Ed's 71: Jim Palmer (86) and Dennis Leonard (73). In his three seasons in New York, he has posted 55 wins and a .647 winning percentage.
It doesn't seem as though Ed Figueroa has any more worlds to conquer, but he is a competitor and you just know he'd like to become the first hurler from his homeland to win 20 twice in a row."
-The New York Yankees Official 1979 Yearbook
"Figueroa became the first Puerto Rican-born pitcher to win 20 games when he beat the Indians in his last regular-season appearance last year, 7-0 with a 5-hitter. He led the Yanks with 35 starts, 11th in the league, and his 20 wins tied him for fifth.
Figgy was the Yankees' hottest pitcher down the stretch, finishing the season with eight straight wins. He won 13 of his last 15 decisions (over 18 starts, with three no-decisions). Ed's only two losses in his last 18 starts were a 6-3 loss to the Angels and a rain-shortened 3-0 defeat to the Orioles when the Yanks had five runs wiped out due to the rain. He was the American League's Player of the Week for the final week of the season, picking up wins over the Blue Jays and Indians, giving up just one run on 10 hits in 18 innings. In his last 18 regular season starts, Ed had two individual shutouts and one combined shutout, seven complete games and five games where he allowed just one earned run.
Ed was a hard-luck pitcher for the Yankees last year, as his teammates failed to score more than three runs in 15 of his 35 starts. His low-hit game of 1978 was a 3-hitter over the Rangers in his first start of the year. With an excellent pickoff move, Ed picked six runners off base last year.
Over the last four years, only two pitchers in the American League have won more games than Figueroa: Jim Palmer has 86 and Dennis Leonard has 73. Figgy has won 71 in that period. He has now started 30, and won at least 16 games in each of the last four seasons.
Ed won 19 games his first year as a Yankee in 1976, after coming from the Angels. That led the team in victories and tied him for fourth in the league. He had a hot streak that year, winning 12 of 15 at one point, as the Yanks pulled away in the Eastern Division.
A Giants fan as a youngster, Figueroa played baseball and basketball in high school in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. As a member of Puerto Rico's amateur champs in the early 60's, Figgy and his teammates won a trip to New York to see a game at Yankee Stadium. He was originally signed by the Mets in 1966 but was soon released and signed by the Giants. Ed served in Vietnam with the Marines in 1969. The Angels obtained him in 1973.
Figgy lost his major league debut 1-0 to the White Sox. He started the 1975 season in the minors but was brought back, and proved to be the Angels' stopper that year; 15 of his 16 wins followed Angel defeats.
Ed lists George Brett as his toughest opponent."
-New York Yankees 1979 Media Guide
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