Saturday, July 25, 2009

Meghan comes through in the clutch!

My friend, Meghan, who is a reader of the blog and all-around nice person, recently surprised me with an autograph I needed. One Mr. Chuck McElroy, who, as the person who sponsors his Baseball Reference page so eloquently puts it, "sure knew how to wear a pair of glasses."

Chuck McElroy 2000-01

Chuck pitched in 654 Major League games over 13 seasons, but only started 7. That means that he was the starter in just over 1% of his apprearances. Why am I focusing on this stat? Because Chuck started those 7 games for the Orioles during the 2000-01 seasons. Here is a guy that had pitched in over 550 games in 11 seasons before he came to the Birds and he gets there and someone in the brain trust of the front office was like "this career reliever should start for us." Now I understand that it was likely slim pickins on those dismal early 00's teams but c'mon now. But hey, it wasn't all bad, he did go 3-1 in those starts.

Chuck came to O's from the Mets in the '99 offseason for Jesse Orosco. He is currently volunteering his time for Cal Ripken baseball camps.

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