Pinstripe Alley's Top 100 Yankees

Full Name: Gilbert James “Gil” McDougald
Position: Second baseman, third baseman, shortstop
Born: May 19, 1928 (San Francisco, CA)
Died: November 28, 2010 (Wall Township, NJ)
Yankee Years: 1951-60
Primary number: 12
Yankee statistics: 1,336 games, 5,395 PA, .276/.356/.410, 112 HR, 697 R, 576 RBI, 114 wRC+, 40.7 rWAR, 39.7 fWAR

Biography

At a time when players were generally locked into a defensive position through high school, college, the minor leagues, and into the primes of their MLB careers, Gil McDougald broke the mold. Sixty years before the Ben Zobrists and DJ LeMahieus of the current era, McDougald served as the prototype for the modern-day utility player. He fielded shortstop, second base, and third base with aplomb, becoming one of the steadiest middle infielders of his time.

Though he never received the same recognition of teammates Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, or Whitey Ford, it was McDougald’s defensive versatility that allowed him to be the glue that held those ‘50s dynasty teams together. He provided a bridge from Phil Rizzuto to Tony Kubek all while providing steady production with the glove and in the middle of the Yankees lineup. What’s more, his consistent contributions in the postseason played a huge role in the dynasty years extending into the ‘50s and beyond.

Growing up in San Francisco

Gilbert James McDougald was the second of two sons born to Ella McGuire and William McDougald, a cigar store owner and later laundry company salesman. He grew up in San Francisco and had aspirations of a pro career in basketball, being named to the All-City team while playing for Commerce High School. It wasn’t until his senior year that he made the varsity baseball team, and even then injuries limited him to just five games.

Gil’s baseball abilities first attracted attention while attending City College of San Francisco and the University of San Francisco, during which time he played semipro ball for the Bayside Braves, a local feeder team for the Boston Braves. Most scouts were put off by his unorthodox batting stance, as in order to better hit the curveball, McDougald stood with a wide, open stance with the bat held at waist level and cocked toward the catcher.

Undeterred, Yankees West Coast scout Joe Devine was impressed by the young infielder’s makeup, leading the Yankees to sign the 19-year-old to a $200-per-month contract with a $1,000 bonus in 1948.

“You knew you were looking at a great one the moment you saw him. He has great instincts, he learns fast and he’s a spirited player.”

Playing mostly second base, McDougald soared quickly through the minor league system. He earned an All-Star nod at second batting .340 in the Class C Pioneer league in 1948 and backed it up with a second All-Star selection batting .344 in the Class B Western International League the following year. This earned him a call-up to Double-A, where he joined the Beaumont Roughnecks of the Texas League under manager and Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby. Typically a curmudgeonly character, Hornsby took an immediate liking to McDougald, becoming the young second baseman’s mentor.

It paid off, with McDougald earning a third-straight All-Star appearance by batting .336 with a league-leading 187 hits, en route to being named the league MVP. Despite these performances, it appeared McDougald was blocked at the major league level with the Yankees returning much of roster that was coming off back-to-back World Series titles. However, with the outbreak of the Korean War, infielders Jerry Coleman, Bobby Brown, and Billy Martin became eligible to serve, so the Yankees called up McDougald to reinforce the infield. Hornsby provided his mentee with one final piece of encouragement:

“Fight hard. You are ready. You are going to get the break of your life. Make the most of it.”

Breaking in to the Yankees’ first-team

With his performances during that season’s spring training, McDougald also won over the normally stone-hearted manager Casey Stengel, who was particularly enamored with the prospect’s ability to play third base. When the team broke camp, McDougald headed to New York with the team rather than depart for the Triple-A team in Kansas City as was expected two months prior.

McDougald’s major league career got off to a slow start, not debuting until April 20, 1951 as a late-inning defensive replacement, and he mostly sat on the bench with Coleman, Brown, Martin, and Billy Johnson having returned to the roster. However, Stengel was determined to get his rookie into the mix, McDougald collecting his first big-league hit on a single off Boston’s Mel Parnell on April 27th. He maintained his spot in the starting lineup at third and cemented himself as a regular, tying a then-AL record by driving in six runs in a single inning — a two-run triple and a grand slam against St. Louis on May 3rd — a record that lasted 58 years before being broken by Alex Rodriguez on October 4, 2009.

McDougald continued to earn regular playing time, platooning with the lefty-hitting Brown and third and Coleman — who struggled mightily against righties — at second. In 131 games, McDougald led the team with a .306 average, walked more than he struck out, and turned in a career-best 142 wRC+ while also placing among the top-ten in the AL in OPS (.886). The Yankees won their third consecutive AL pennant, earning the right to face the New York Giants in the World Series after Bobby Thomson’s “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” captured the NL pennant over the Dodgers.

In a Game 1 loss, McDougald scored the Yankees’ only run, doubling in the second before coming around on a Coleman single. He drove in the first run of the Yankees’ Game 2 victory, the third of three consecutive singles in the first (bringing fellow rookie Mantle across home plate). He added a pair of hits and a pair of walks in a Game 3 loss and singled Gene Woodling home in a Game 4 victory that leveled the series at two games apiece. But his crowning moment came in Game 5, when he responded to the challenge of an intentional walk in front of him by becoming the first rookie to hit a grand slam in World Series play.

The 23-year-old standout would finish the Fall Classic with the most RBI (7) as the Yankees captured their third championship in a row.

The final ribbon on McDougald’s 1951 campaign saw him pip Minnie Miñoso to AL Rookie of the Year by just two votes. He also earned a significant raise, nearly doubling his salary to $12,000, and just in time with the family welcoming the birth of their fourth child and relocating permanently to New Jersey.

The glue that held together infield of ‘50s dynasty

1952 saw McDougald fall back to Earth some at the dish, his average dropping to .263 and wRC+ to 101 across 152 games. However, the Yankees secured their fourth-straight pennant over Cleveland and barely edged the Dodgers in seven games to a fourth consecutive title, McDougald swatting a game-tying home run in a Game 1 loss and scoring the go-ahead run in a Game 2 victory. He rebounded at the dish in 1953, his average returning to .285 and wRC+ to 116 along with a career-high 83 RBI in 141 games as the Yankees waltzed to a fifth consecutive pennant. He would again come up huge in the Fall Classic.

In a rematch of the previous season, the Yankees jumped out to a quick two-game lead over the Dodgers. McDougald opened the scoring of Game 3 with an RBI single, but the Dodgers would come back and win the game on an eighth-inning go-ahead homer by Roy Campanella. McDougald again came through in another losing effort the following day, his two-run homer in the fifth cutting the Dodgers’ lead in half but to no avail. He’d add a solo shot in the ninth inning of a Game 5 victory before Martin won the series with a walk-off single in Game 6 to give the Yankees five World Series victories in a row, and three for McDougald in his first three big league seasons.

McDougald returned to second base for the 1954 season, though the team missed out on a shot at six straight titles by losing the pennant to Cleveland. During the season, McDougald founded the Yankees Building Maintenance Company, which provided janitorial services to northern New Jersey and adding a little extra change to his pocket.

1955 saw McDougald lead all second baseman with 5.1 fWAR as he batted .285 with a 113 wRC+ in 141 games. They would meet the Dodgers in October yet again, this time losing in seven games with McDougald getting tagged out on a fateful double play started by Sandy Amorós in the sixth inning of Game 7.

During that offseason, the Yankees went on an exhibition tour of Japan, during which the Yankees asked McDougald to tryout for shortstop with incumbent Rizzuto entering the twilight of his career and top prospect Kubek not yet ready for the majors. Thus the modern day utility player was truly born.

“I’m not exactly in love with shortstop. But I will play anywhere as long as I get to play. Personally, I’d prefer to play second base. That’s where I really feel at home. But I think that I can get to like playing shortstop, if I play there long enough.”

As if rejuvenated by the position change, McDougald turned in a career-high .311 average, earning his second All-Star appearance. The Yankees got revenge on the Dodgers, avenging their World Series loss in a tightly-fought seven game thriller. McDougald made a sparkling defensive play on a grounder deflected by Andy Carey to preserve Don Larsen’s Game 5 perfect game, while Mantle and Berra would club three home runs each to steal back the crown from Brooklyn.

1957 represented McDougald’s most productive season in the bigs, his career-high 6.2 fWAR leading all major league shortstops while also batting .289 with a 125 wRC+ and a career-high 87 runs scored.

New York might have fallen to the Milwaukee Braves in that year’s World Series with McDougald held to a .571 OPS, but he rebounded in the 1958 rematch despite a decline in regular-season play. New York fell behind Milwaukee 2-0 and found themselves down 3-1 heading into Game 5. McDougald opened the scoring of that game with a solo shot in the third and would drive in two more with a double in the sixth. Then in Game 6 with the score tied heading to extras, McDougald led off the 10th with a solo shot off Hall of Famer Warren Spahn.

The blast was followed by an RBI single by Moose Skowron to send the series to Game 7, where some more Moose heroics helped the team capture their fifth ring of the decade.

A pair of freak accidents two years apart

McDougald’s life was changed by a pair of freak on-field incidents in 1955 and 1957. In spring training 1955, McDougald was standing behind the screen at second during batting practice when he was hit in the head by a Bob Cerv line drive.

“I saw a ball lying on the ground nearby and reached to pick it up, my head going just beyond the screen. Just then Bob Cerv hit a ball that hit me in the ear. I collapsed and everyone came running over. They carried me off the field and I was out of action for a few games. The doctors told me I’d be all right. Well, I wasn’t. The blow had broken a hearing tube. At first it just affected one ear, my left. One time I’m getting needled by some fan at third base and I turned to Rizzuto at short and said, ‘Too bad I didn’t get hit in the right ear, then I wouldn’t have to hear this guy.’”

Diagnosed with a mild concussion at first, it turned out that the impact had resulted in a skull fracture which caused damage to Gil’s left inner-ear, leading to deafness first in that ear and then in both ears.

Two years later, facing promising Cleveland starter Herb Score, McDougald hit a line drive that hit Score square in the right eye.

“I heard the thud of the ball hitting his head and then saw him drop and lie there, bleeding, and I froze. Someone hollered for me to run to first. When Score was taken off the field on a stretcher, I was sick to my stomach. I didn’t want to play any more. [Stengel] said, ‘You’re getting paid to play.’ And while that seems harsh, it was right. It’s like getting right back on a horse after you’ve been thrown. But I said that if Herb loses his eye, I’m quitting baseball.”

Score had established himself as one of the dominant young lefties in the league, capturing the 1955 AL Rookie of the Year, winning 20 games in 1956, and leading MLB in strikeouts both seasons. He already looked to be on a Hall of Fame trajectory, but the freak injury resulted in facial fractures and, while he narrowly avoided losing sight in his right eye, Score missed the rest of 1957 and most of 1958 and was never the same pitcher.

Despite numerous occasions where Score forgave or reassured McDougald, the latter was disconsolate for years after the event.

“I guess I didn’t pray hard enough. I feel that I jeopardized a good living for him. He had a lot of years ahead of him, good years. If there was anything I could do, I’d do it. But there’s nothing. All I can do is pray... He pitched again after I hit him but he was never the same again. I could see him recoiling after he threw, rather than following through as he had before. But he’s done very well, as an announcer for the Indians, and I’m glad to see it.”

Hearing loss and retirement

Perhaps affected by the gradual hearing loss and the guilt over what happened to Score, McDougald’s career went into decline starting in 1958. His batting average would hover around .250 while he lost playing time to Kubek and Bobby Richardson up the middle and Clete Boyer at third. McDougald would announce his retirement following the 1960 season, citing the wear of travel and desire to spend more time with his family.

McDougald’s final appearance came in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, entering as a pinch-runner in the top of the ninth to score on a Berra grounder to tie the score at 9-9, only for Bill Mazeroski’s famous walk-off home run in the bottom-half to win the series for Pittsburgh. There was speculation that he retired when general manager Roy Hamey placed him on the list of eligible players for the 1960 Expansion Draft, however McDougald had privately notified the team of his intention to retire before that list was created.

McDougald became more and more of a recluse as his hearing loss became more profound. He was forced to sell his shares as owner of the maintenance company he founded as he could no longer conduct calls over the telephone and gradually stopped attending social events, including Old-Timers’ Day, eventually losing all hearing by the late ‘80s.

A new lease on life

Upon learning of McDougald’s withdrawal from society, Ira Berkow of the New York Times penned a profile of the former Yankee, which captured the attention of doctors who identified him as a candidate for hearing impairment surgery. He was put in touch with Dr. Noel Cohen, chief of otolaryngology at New York University Medical Center, who recommended the installation of a cochlear implant in late 1994. Six weeks after the surgery, McDougald visited an audiologist with his family, where he finally regained the ability to hear for the first time in almost a decade.

“It’s really a surprise. I mean, I really didn’t expect. . . They’ve turned the music on.”

McDougald became an ardent supporter of charities for the hearing impaired after the successful operation, striving to spread awareness about cochlear implants, especially for children.

“When I quit baseball, I didn’t think I’d ever have to do another interview. But name association is so important. I have a role to play, which is to make people aware of the benefits of this technology. When you meet little children with implants, it’s amazing what they can do. Look at them and you can feel the joy it gives them to be able to communicate. There’s a real need to build awareness of the technology, particularly as you get farther out from the big cities. When you’re fortunate and something good happens, even though you weren’t expecting anything, that’s when the payback comes. When you see the progress, particularly with little children, it’s so satisfying. It’s like hitting a home run with the bases loaded.”

McDougald passed away from prostate cancer in his home on November 28, 2010 at the age of 82. Over the course of his 10-year Yankees career, McDougald was a member of five World Series winning squads (1951-53, 1956, 1958) and earned six All-Star nods (1952, 1956-59). He still sits among the top-25 Yankees all-time in WAR, placing 22nd in fWAR (39.7) and 23rd in rWAR (40.7).

Although McDougald’s name might not be the first associated with that era in the Bronx, the work he did on and off the field make his legacy immortal. The Yankees of that era were a special group, and McDougald was truly among the best.
Toronto Blue Jays v New York Yankees
Jerry Coleman and McDougald at Old-Timers’ Day Photo by M. Davild Leeds/Getty Images

Staff rank: 35
Community rank: 39
Stats rank: 29
2013 rank: 30

Full Name: Michael Cole Mussina
Position: Starting Pitcher
Born: December 8, 1968 (Montoursville, PA)
Yankee Years: 2001-08
Primary number: 35
Yankee statistics: 123-72, 3.88 ERA, 87 ERA-, 3.50 FIP, 248 GS, 1553 IP, 12 CG, 1278 K, 35.1 rWAR, 34.6 fWAR

Biography

In many ways, the story of Mike Mussina is one of “almost,” and “so close.” Over the course of his Hall of Fame career, which began in Baltimore as a 22-year-old and ended in New York 17 years later, “Moose” just missed out on numerous milestones and achievements, both personal and team.

While in Baltimore, he finished in the top-six of American League Cy Young Award voting seven times. Then, he came to New York and in his first season, despite leading the American League in rWAR, finished fifth. That campaign also saw him come within one out of throwing what would have been the fourth perfect game in Yankee history.

Worst of all, his first season in the Bronx culminated in a crushing seven-game loss to Arizona in the World Series, the closest Mussina would get to a ring in his career. In his final season, after winning 20 games for the first time, he finished sixth in Cy voting. And the year after he retired, the Yankees won a World Series.

Ultimately, he pitched in the Bronx for eight seasons and in so doing, became the first American League hurler to win at least 10 games in 17 consecutive seasons. He won seven Gold Gloves, three of them with New York, and got down-ballot votes for AL MVP in his final season. He retired just prior to his 40th birthday with 270 victories, leaving a tantalizing question of if, had he wanted to pitch at least a couple more seasons, he could have made it to the immortal 300-win milestone.

Early Life

Michael Cole Mussina, born in small-town Montoursville, Pennsylvania, was the first-born child of parents Malcom and Eleanor. Four years after Mike’s birth, his brother Mark joined the family. As of 2016, the entire family remains in Montoursville, as Mike returned there after his retirement from the Yankees.

It feels like I write something akin the following about every entry on this list, but it was apparent from a young age that the child who would go on to a Hall of Fame career was an innate athlete. By the age of three, Mussina was able to throw a perfect spiral, with his father noting that no one taught young Mike how.

At the age of eight, Mussina got his first taste of organized baseball when he began playing Little League. That’s also when, due to the similarity in pronunciation with his last name, that Mike was first dubbed “Moose,” a moniker that stuck with him for the remainder of his career.

By high school, Mussina was a prodigy on the mound. His senior year, he led the Montoursville High School Warriors to a state championship, winning 24 games with a 0.87 ERA. Twice during his time at Montoursville High he was named the Pennsylvania State Player of the Year, while also playing football and basketball and finishing with the fourth-highest GPA in his graduating class.

Interestingly, rumors persisted for years that Mussina intentionally finished outside of the top three, all of whom had to speak at graduation. That at least seems on brand for Mussina, who was a pretty noted introvert as a pro ballplayer who would rather do crosswords than make headlines off the field.

Path to the Pros


Several MLB teams, including the Orioles, had their eyes on Mussina coming out of high school. But it was a poorly-kept secret that Moose was headed to college. Nonetheless, Baltimore selected him in the 11th round of the 1987 MLB Draft. But after Mussina communicated how disinterested he was in signing, the O’s never even bothered to make him an offer.

So Moose was off across the country on a partial scholarship to Stanford University. Years later he recounted that his decision was due to two factors. One, there was a familial expectation that he’d head to college. Moreover, he had considered his quality of life. “Did I want to spend three or four years riding buses around in the minor leagues, staying in little towns in lousy hotels, or did I want to have the chance to experience college while playing baseball at the same time? To me, it was a no-brainer.”

For Baltimore, Mussina was a case of ‘if at first you don’t succeed…” After an All-American junior season, he was once again draft-eligible and in the 1990 Amateur Draft the Orioles called his name again. This time, it was with the 20th pick of the first round. A reported $225,000 signing bonus later and Mussina found himself headed straight to Double-A as Baltimore aggressively pushed their young right-hander.

By the end of 1990, Mussina was already at Triple-A and finished his first taste of professional ball with a combined 1.46 ERA at two levels over 55.2 innings. He began the 1991 campaign back at Triple-A but he would not be there long. Almost four years younger than the average International League player, Moose racked up 10 wins with a 2.87 ERA before Baltimore called him up.

A Moose Among Birds

Moose made his debut on July 31, 1991, against the Chicago White Sox and quickly put the American League on notice that it had a new ace to contend with. The lone hit he surrendered over 7.2 frames happened to be a dinger to fellow future Hall of Famer Frank Thomas, and Mussina took the hard luck loss. That was a theme for the rest of 1991, as Mussina finished 4-5 with a 2.87 ERA, identical to his mark at Triple-A.

Mussina started 1992 with his hair on fire, beginning the campaign 5-0 and making his first All-Star appearance. Foreshadowing one of his greatest yet most heartbreaking Yankee moments nearly a decade later, he just missed a no-hitter. In what would become a habit of near misses in Mussina’s career, he fired a one-hitter on July 17th against the Texas Rangers. When the dust settled on his first full season, he had down-ballot MVP votes and finished fourth in Cy Young voting.

The 1994 through 1996 campaigns were more instances of Mussina getting tantalizingly close to a milestone that seemed destined to elude him. In ’94, when the players’ strike shut the game down, Moose had 16 wins in 24 starts. At that pace, 20 wins would have been a likely reward for a full season. When the sport returned in an abbreviated ’95 season, he won 19.

And in ’96, he had 19 wins with four starts left. In his final outing, he left after eight frames of one-run ball against Toronto, nursing a 2-1 lead and on the verge of 20 wins. Unfortunately for him, closer Armando Benitez gave up a game-tying single, leaving Moose stuck at 19 — it would be 12 years before he again had a chance to win his 20th game in a single season. Baltimore made the playoffs that year for the first time in Mussina’s career but fell to the Yankees, who were on their way to the first World Series of their late 90’s dynasty.

Mussina entered the 1997 campaign with free agency looming. On multiple occasions, he showcased exactly what a club could expect if it signed him. First, on May 30th, he took a perfect game into the ninth inning before a one-out Sandy Alomar Jr. single ruined another shot at baseball immortality. Then, in that year’s playoffs, he authored an eight-inning, one-run, 15-K masterpiece against Cleveland in Game 3 of the ALCS. It was one of Mussina’s greatest performances.

Moose never did make it to free agency on that occasion. In May ‘97, he instead signed a three-year, $21 million extension that kept him in Baltimore through the 2000 season. Moose was worth every penny. In his final three seasons as an Oriole, he eclipsed 200 innings each time (leading the Junior Circuit in 2000) amid a nine-season streak. ’99 saw him come closest to an ever-elusive Cy Young, finishing as the runner-up to a guy named Pedro Martinez.

But after a 74-88 Orioles season in 2000, Moose was a free agent. No extension this time. And despite his skepticism about his ability to handle a major media market, Mussina wasn’t ruling anything out.

“The Yankees Draw Their Fourth Ace”

New York put the full court press on Mussina from the start. Skipper Joe Torre stunned Mussina by calling the pitcher at his house in Montoursville in early November. Torre’s aims were two-fold. First, he wanted to show Mussina how much the Yankees wanted him. Second, Torre looked to reassure Mussina he would be a fit in the Big Apple.

That was just the beginning. Torre called again, and Derek Jeter, Paul O’Neill, Andy Pettitte, owner George Steinbrenner and General Manager Brian Cashman all helped recruit Moose. Days before he made his final decision, Mussina went for dinner with Torre and Cashman.

In the end, the Yankees got their man. Some late haggling over the structure of the deal made things a little hairy, but Mussina ultimately signed on the dotted line for $88.5 million over six years, as the Yanks beat out Boston, the Mets, and Orioles for the coveted right-hander.

The Last Year of the Yankee Dynasty

Moose gave the Yankees their money’s worth in the first year of his deal. His first start came in the Yanks’ third game of the season against Kansas City. O’Neill gave him all the offense he’d need with a solo shot and Moose took a shutout into the eighth before turning the game over to the bullpen. 1-0 Yankees and the early return on investment couldn’t have been better.

Mussina was only warming up, however. His 2001 hit its pinnacle on September 2, 2001 against the Red Sox. That night, Moose took a perfect game into the ninth inning. Hell, he took it to two strikes with two out in the ninth before a Red Sox who shall not be named here broke the hearts of Mussina and the entire Yankee universe.

His first regular season in New York ended with a 17-11 record and a 3.15 ERA over 228.2 innings (the third-highest total of his entire career), with a 2.92 FIP that led the American League. And when the ALDS rolled around, he continued to deliver. Everyone old enough remembers “The Flip Game” against Oakland in Game 3 of the DS, with the Yankees facing a potential sweep. Mussina hurled seven innings of shutout ball to outduel ascendant lefty Barry Zito, 1-0, with Jeter’s iconic toss to Posada (who had homered) nabbing the 21st and final out of Moose’s night. Mo took over for the final two innings and New York escaped Game 3 and eventually the ALDS.

For Mussina, that was the first of numerous stellar playoff performances as a Yankee. During his time in pinstripes, he tossed 97 innings of playoff ball, to the tune of a 3.25 ERA. In that year’s infamous World Series, Arizona roughed Mussina up in the first game, but with the Yankees’ backs against the wall in Game 5, he responded with eight innings of 10-strikeout, two-run ball, putting the club in position for a thrilling comeback that sent the series back to Arizona with the Yankees up 3-2.

That Fall Classic was the closest Mussina ever came to a championship. So close. For the Yankees. For Mussina.

Moose is the Cavalry

Mussina continued to give the Yankees everything they could have hoped for when they signed him the next two seasons. He totaled 67 starts, 35 wins, and 444.1 innings combined in ’02 and ’03. The latter season saw Mussina again come tantalizingly close to the World Series ring that eluded him. Between the 2003 ALDS and the first six games of the ALCS against Boston, Moose had taken three losses. But in Game 7 against Boston, with Roger Clemens scuffling, Joe Torre turned to Mussina in relief. Moose had made 400 appearances in the majors since his debut, including the playoffs. None of them had ever been in relief.

All he did was throw three innings of shutout baseball. New York still trailed when he departed the contest, but his performance set the stage for one of the most iconic Yankee comebacks in playoff history.

In the World Series, he did everything he could. Mussina hurled seven innings of shutout ball, whiffing nine Marlins in a Game 3 victory that put the Yanks up 2 games to 1. Alas, New York fell short again. It was Mussina’s last World Series appearance.
The Final Years

The next few seasons continued to put Mussina in position to compete for a championship. 2004 and 2005 were up and down campaigns for him, however. He did win his 200th game in ‘04, in the process becoming the ninth man in MLB history to win 100 games for two different teams.

But he also spent time battling ailments. He was removed from a start in June with tightness in his groin. And then in July, he found himself on the IL with elbow stiffness. It was his first stint since ’98, and he missed 36 games. Accordingly, he failed to throw 200 innings for the first time since the strike wiped out the end of the ’94 campaign.

2005 was more of the same. For the second straight season, his ERA was below league average, though to be fair it’s not like his performance cratered. A 98 and 96 ERA+ are by no means horrific, they just seem really bad when your career mark is 123.

Mussina was resurgent in 2006, however. In 32 starts that season, he went 15-7, and pitched to a 3.51 ERA (129 ERA+). Now 37 years old, Mussina also threw the 57th and final complete game of his career against the Detroit Tigers. Up 6-1 with two out in the ninth, Mussina saw movement from skipper Joe Torre in the Yankee dugout. “NO! Stay there!” Mussina barked at the Hall of Fame manager, who quickly acquiesced to his hurler’s, uh … suggestion.

Moments later, Mussina floated a full-count knuckle curve past the final hitter of the game, sealing the win and the complete game.

Mussina’s six-year deal expired after the ’06 season and, by any objective look, he was a bargain. Over those six campaigns, he went 92-53 in 187 starts, tossing 1200.2 regular season innings and compiling 29 rWAR.

His time as a Yankee was not finished. That offseason he and the club agreed on a two-year, $23 million deal, one that ultimately saw him through the end of his playing days. This time, it looked from the outset like New York would rue the deal. Moose struggled out of the gate in ’07 and had the worst season of his career, even ending up demoted to the bullpen briefly that fall.

However, to paraphrase Mark Twain, “reports of his demise were greatly exaggerated.” In 2008, the coda of his magnificent career, Mussina put his full brilliance on display one last time. He eclipsed 200 innings for the first time since 2003, led the American League in games started (at age 39!), and finally managed to accomplish one of the milestones that had escaped him.

In his final start, of the season and of his career, Mussina sat at 19 wins. Facing the Red Sox, the antagonist that cost him his perfect game, he responded with six shutout innings. His 20th victory was the 270th of his storied career and, with the Yankees failing to reach the postseason, was the final time he donned Yankee colors.

Post-Playing Career

There was never any real doubt in Mussina’s mind that he was done, despite sitting merely 30 wins from 300. Though no one knew it at the time, he had made his choice and was at peace with it.

Moose retired to Montoursville where he has remained active in the community. The Orioles elected him to their Hall of Fame in 2012, he entered the Little League Hall of Excellence in 2014, and received the NCAA Silver Anniversary Award in 2015.

In 2019, in his sixth year on the ballot, Mike Mussina’s career was finally elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame (the same cycle as his longtime closer, Mariano Rivera). As Andrew has noted in the past, it was well-earned and he had numbers better than over half of the pitchers already enshrined.
National Baseball Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony
Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images

I argued at the beginning of this piece that the story of Mike Mussina is one of “almost” and “so close.” Inarguably, he just missed on so many personal and team milestones. His 8.2 perfect frames against Boston remains one of the greatest pitching performances in Yankee history. He joined the team the year after it won a World Series, and retired the season before the Yankees won its most recent title.

But at the end of the day, Moose is a Hall of Famer who spent half his career in the Bronx. He sits 10th all-time among Yankee hurlers in rWAR, ahead of Herb Pennock, Jack Chesbro, and CC Sabathia, and just behind Waite Hoyt.

Staff rank: 30
Community rank: 43
Stats rank: 34
2013 rank: 29