Dictionary- Rotation
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Welcome to the Baseball History Podcast: Featuring This Week in Baseball History, baseball dictionary and a tour of baseball cities. I’m your game announcer Bob Wright.
This is game 50 of the 2008 baseball season
In the first inning let’s take a look at This Week in Baseball History for the 1 week of December.
December 6
1973 The Dodgers trade pitcher Claude Osteen and Dave Culpepper to the Astros for outfielder Jim Wynn.
Claude Wilson Osteen was born August 9, 1939 in Caney Springs, Tennessee. Sometimes referred to as “Gomer” because of his resemblance to TV’s Gomer Pyle but known locally as “Mudcat” due to his penchant for playing in mudholes, Osteen was a pitcher on baseball teams throughout his school years.
He attended Forrest School, Chapel Hill, Tennessee, from grades one through nine, and during the mid-1950s played on a county team, the Woodmen Choppers. He moved to Cincinnati when he was in the tenth grade and was star pitcher on a high school baseball team there.
He began his baseball career in 1957 in Nashville with the Southern League and went to the Cincinnati Redlegs as an amateur free agent the same year. Still a teenager, Osteen started in the major leagues on July 7, 1957. Subsequently, he pitched for Wenatchee of the Northwest League and Seattle of the Pacific Coast League in 1958, returning to Cincinnati for the 1959 through 1961 seasons.
He went to the Washington Senators in 1961, remaining until he was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The most significant portion of his career, both in terms of tenure and significance, was with the Dodgers. After 6 years in the majors, he was obtained in a seven-player deal for Frank Howard in December of 1964 after winning 15 for the ninth-place Senators. He became the Dodgers’ third starter behind Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale.
Osteen would go on to win in double figures each year from 1964 through 1973.
After two years with an earned run average under 3.00, Osteen was considered a top starter and a workhorse.
In those two years, Osteen and the Dodgers had reached two straight World Series, the last two Osteen would reach in his career.
In the 1965 World Series, the Dodgers would beat the Minnesota Twins in 7 games, and Osteen pitched brilliantly. He had a 0.64 Earned Run Average in the Series with a 1-1 record including a shutout, which came after teammates Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax lost their respective games, the first two games of the Series.
Don Sutton’s arrival in 1966 gave the Dodgers one of the most dominant rotations ever, with four pitchers who each threw at least 40 lifetime shutouts. Typical of Osteen’s hard luck, his 40 shutouts were topped by the 47 thrown against him.
In the 1966 World Series, the Dodgers would lose to the Baltimore Orioles in 4 games. Osteen gave up only three hits in seven innings in Game Three, only to lose 1-0, his efforts outdone by Wally Bunker’s six-hit pitching; a home run by Paul Blair accounted for the game’s only run.
In 1967, he reached his first All-Star game, going 17-17 with a 3.22 Earned Run Average. He also picked up 14 complete games on the year, with 5 shutouts.
After losing a league-high 18 games in 1968, the deliberate worker went 20-15 in 1969, despite allowing the most hits in the National League. That season he set career highs in wins, innings pitched, strikeouts, shutouts, complete games, and starts.
Moving towards the 1970s, Osteen was still pitching an amazing average of 260 innings a year, which made people often consider him a link to old-time baseball.
In 1970, Osteen pitched three shutout innings in the all-star game and got the win, a game remembered most by Pete Rose’s barreling into Ray Fosse to score the winning run in the 12th inning.
In 1972, Osteen had an incredibly strong year finishing with 7 complete game victories in his last 9 starts. That year, he was 20-11 with a 2.64 Earned Run Average.
He made his 3rd and final All-Star team in 1973, in his last real quality season, and his last season with the Dodgers. That year, he went 16-11 and had a 3.31 Earned Run Average.with a 2nd-place Dodger team. In his 33 starts on the season, he had 12 complete games and 3 shutouts.
Osteen played his final game on September 27, 1975 with the White Sox. He was released by them on April 5 of the next year.
He later became a pitching coach for the St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies, Texas Rangers and the Dodgers.
In this inning we’ll open up the Baseball Dictionary
Under the letter: R
Rotation
1. The regular order in which a manager will field his starting pitchers. A modern manager wants to leave spring training with his rotation set for, at least, the early weeks of the season. An aspiring starter will try to work his way into the rotation. Commonly, a team has five starters in its rotation.
2. The spin on a pitched ball.
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Well, that’s it for today’s game of Baseball History Podcast. I’ll see you later at the ballpark.
