It was not meant as a contest at all, just a note from one baseball fan to another. I do remember him as a player. Winning a Cy Young award tends to have that effect on fans. He was one arm among many on a great Orioles staff. In the late 70s and early 80s they had one of the best starting rotations in baseball history. The present day Phillies and Giants are up there with them other than won-lost, which is not controllable by the pitcher.
Justin Verlander won his 20th today despite a less than stellar outing. He won't match Denny McLain's 31 wins in 1968, also there in the Motor City. That is something I suspect won't be matched soon, if ever, with the shift to five man rotations and closers and setup men and setup man setup men. These days a so-called "quality start" is pitching 6 innings or more and giving up 3 runs or fewer. 250 innings is now a lot of innings to pitch. In the old days (the days when we were kids) you were one of the four guys and you pitched until your arm fell off or they scored 10 runs off you.
Back to Verlander, catch him if you can. He has been really good for a while now, just sort of a secret. This is his year. That game I listened to on Sirius/XM a few Sundays ago on the way to St. Louis remains memorable. It was Verlander vs. Jered Weaver of the Angels, another guy who is having a really good year. Verlander prevailed and was still hitting 99, 100 mph in the late innings.
>Oh, yes. I remember him. Whether I remember him as well as you do, well... to be honest, I don't know. I guess that would take some kind of a contest of memories, and since I already have luggage (as I imagine you do), it's probably not worth the effort.
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>The weird thing about this is the fact that he was just about to start a new job as a colour commentator. Supposedly he was looking forward to it. I guess you just never know.
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>>Alan, this sucks, doesn't it? I'm sure you remember Flanagan as a pitcher as well as I do.
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http://news.bostonherald.com/sports/columnists/view/20110827mike_flanagan_remembered_on_difficult_night_for_orioles_players_and_fans/srvc=home&position=recent>>
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http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/baseball/mlb/08/25/flanagan.suicide.ap/>>
>>The best one --
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http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/6894031/mlb-cy-young-winner-mike-flanagan-1951-2011
