1964 TOPPS BASEBALL CARD

Member of the Cleveland Indians Hall of Fame

6 Time American League All Star

Led the American League in Strike Outs 5 times

Named 1970 American League Pitcher of the Year by The Sporting News

(1942-) He played in Major League Baseball as a starting pitcher from 1961 to 1975, most notably for the Cleveland Indians. He also had short stints late in his career with the San Francisco Giants, New York Yankees, and Pittsburgh Pirates. A six-time All-Star, McDowell led the American League in strikeouts five times, and struck out over 300 batters in two seasons of his career. Standing 6 feet, 5 inches tall, well built, and powerful, his left-handed fastball was delivered with an unusually calm pitching motion, and then he would regularly unleash his pitches at over 100 m.p.h., not that common in the 1960's, (his fastest pitch was timed at 105 m.p.h.) which led to his memorable nickname, "Sudden Sam" McDowell.
The batters would be lulled into a false sense of calmness at the plate with his casual and deliberate motion, but then all hell broke loose when he unleashed his pitches which were on top of the batters in a flash, and with such velocity that they had very little time to react.

Thus once again Sam gained the very appropriate sobriquet as "Sudden Sam McDowell," who was feared by American League hitters during his entire career. His muscular 6 foot, 5 inch frame, put even more fear in the guys who had the pleasure of facing him. That big stride of his almost put him in the batters box after he released his next pitch.

He finished with 2,453 career strikeouts which was an average of 8.86 strikeouts per nine innings. At the time of his retirement, his strikeout rate was bested by only two pitchers; Nolan Ryan and Sandy Koufax. He ranks eighth all time on the list of career ten or more strikeout games with 74, tied with Bob Gibson. His 2,159 strikeouts as an Indian place him second all time on the team's career list, behind Bob Feller. In four MLB All-Star appearances, McDowell struck out twelve National League All-Stars in eight innings of work.

Statistics of Sam McDowell in 1965 and 1970:

In 1965, Sam McDowell led the American League in the following key pitching categories:

E.R.A.: 2.18
Strike Outs: 325
Average Strike Outs per 9 Innings: 10.7
Average Hits Given up per 9 Innings: 5.9
Average Home Runs Given up per 9 Innings: 0.3

These amazing stats are comparable to the best pitchers in MLB history during any generation!

In 1970, McDowell put together some extremely impressive pitching totals as well. He won 20 games, led the American League in innings pitched with 305, and also had over 300 strikeouts (304) for the second time in his MLB career.

He threw a career-high 19 complete games, second in the American League that year to Mike Cuellar of the Baltimore Orioles, the 1970 American League, and World Series Champions.

All this was combined with a stellar 2.92 ERA, and these stats led to Sam McDowell being named the "1970 American League Pitcher of the Year" by The Sporting News.

McDowell ended up with a career total of 141 wins, a 3.17 E.R.A., and 2,453 strike outs, these mainly coming during his 11 years spent with the Cleveland Indians, a perennial last place, or bottom of the league standings ball club. We can only imagine what kind of record McDowell could have compiled if he played for a winning ball club? In my opinion he would be in the MLB Hall of Fame.

The character of Sam Malone, the alcoholic ex-Boston Red Sox pitcher portrayed by Emmy Award winning actor Ted Danson, in the hit television comedy "Cheers," was based on the baseball life of Sam McDowell.

Sam McDowell Trivia: Although Sam did pretty well in his head to head engagements against this particular Hall of Fame player, Sam personally told me that "Mickey Mantle, of the New York Yankees," was the toughest hitter he ever faced in his Major League Baseball career.

This is an authentic original 1964 Topps baseball card No. 391, that has been autographed on the front "Sam McDowell" in a bold blue sharpie pen. Acquired directly from Sam McDowell who is a good neighbor friend of mine here in Florida. Excellent condition. Very desirable.

I can sit and listen to Sam tell baseball stories all day long. He has a quite a few.

Trivia: When I played in the 1971 American Legion World Series that was played at High Corbett Field, in Tucson, Arizona, this was the spring training home of the Cleveland Indians back in those days. So I got to pitch on the same mound and field that Sam did as well as so many other famous pitchers of that era who pitched in what was called the Cactus League back then which Sam and I got to reminisce about.

Another piece of trivia for you is that the baseball movie comedy Major League I starring Tom Berenger, Charlie Sheen and Corbin Bernsen, filmed their spring training scenes at this same High Corbett Field in Tucson. I got to talk to the guys about the fun of filming there. For those of you who don't know this Charlie Sheen was a very good baseball player and pitcher. Anybody who has played the game at a high level can easily see that his form and speed were at a very high level. I wanted to challenge him to a pitching duel when they filmed Major League II in Baltimore a few years later. This was when I lived in Gettysburg so it would have been an easy one hour drive to get down to Orioles Park at Camden Yards where they filmed a good part of the movie, but it never worked out because of insurance issues and the screen actors guild rules.

Tom Berenger Trivia: Tom's entire catching ensemble including everything you can think of that was used in the film and was once part of the "Jake Taylor collection," and was used in the film "Major League" which even included his director's chair was once a proud part of the Len Rosa personal collection. I got every single item directly from my friend Tom Berenger with no middle person in between us. It was really very cool because Tom autographed every single individual piece on the item itself for me, and even was kind enough to write individual letters of authenticity for every single individual item. The collection was once featured in a major sports magazine several years ago.