“We got fired at Minnesota, we got fired at Detroit, we got fired at Texas.”
Art Fowler
Earlier this week the baseball lost a character who was in the game for 30 plus years, and unbeknown to most Reds fans he had a link to the Reds.
When Art Fowler finally got into the Reds sights he was 31 years old and had been toiling in their system for a few years. Art was a WW2 vet, so the minors to him were nothing more than a walk in the park. The youngest of ten, his older brother pitched a year for the Cardinals in 1924. Thirty years later Art made his debut for the Reds and his presence on the staff is a constant to this day, the league average right-hander with more grit than stuff.
Art started 87 games for the Reds and vanished to the west coast and later gained
notoriety as Billy Martins drinking buddy and pitching coach.
JESSE FOWLER
BORN: 10/30/1898
MLB DEBUT: 7/29/1924
ART FOWLER
BORN: 7/3/1922
MLB DEBUT: 4/17/1954
Art and his brother Jesse together represent the longest stretch of time siblings have had separating their initial appearances as major league players. Quite the feat to have two brothers make the bigs, even more of feat considering the difference of age as well as how different the game was by the time the brothers took the mound in a big league park.
Art’s real legacy in the game is always going to be his pitching coach experience and his involvement with Billy Martin. Together they must have decided over cocktails one night to see what kind of abuse a pitchers arm could take, and they both followed through with their plan.
Art got it started himself when he coached the 1964 Angels.
AL Innings Pitched 1964
INNINGS PITCHED IP AGE CG 1 Dean Chance 278 23 7 2 Gary Peters 274 27 3 3 Jim Bouton 271 25 3 4 Camilo Pascual 267 30 6 5 Claude Osteen 257 24 5 6 Dave Wickersham 254 28 3 7 Milt Pappas 252 25 5 8 Whitey Ford 245 35 4 9 Al Downing 244 23 3 10 Jim Kaat 243 25 6
Dean Chance was 23 and led the league in Innings Pitched; he later topped that total as a Twin in 67 and 68, but he would never have as good a year as he had in 1964.
Next Art landed in Minnesota as Martins first pitching coach.
1969 IP leaders INNINGS PITCHED IP AGE CG 1 Denny McLain 325 25 13 2 Mel Stottlemyre 303 27 15 3 Mike Cuellar 291 32 9 4 Sam McDowell 285 26 9 5 Mickey Lolich 281 28 7 6 Fritz Peterson 272 27 7 7 Dave McNally 269 26 2 8 Jim Perry 262 33 4 9 Dave Boswell 256 24 1 10 Andy Messersmith 250 23 2
Slotted in 39 is Dave Boswell, most famous for duking it out with Martin, Boswell also was the ace of the division winning Twins. He also never topped the amount of work he logged in 1969, and threw only 69 innings the next year, and never topped that again.
On to Detroit in 1971, an event that I was lucky enough to watch first hand.
True, this was the era that starters threw a deadball amount of innings; Fowler and Martin were in the midst of it and often were the ones that led the way.
1971 INNINGS PITCHED IP AGE CG 1 Mickey Lolich 376 30 16 2 Wilbur Wood 334 29 10 3 Vida Blue 312 21 13 4 Mike Cuellar 292 34 10 T5 Tom Bradley 286 24 -4 T5 Joe Coleman 286 24 5 T7 Pat Dobson 282 29 8 T7 Jim Palmer 282 25 10 9 Bert Blyleven 278.1 20 6 T10 Clyde Wright 277 30 0 T10 Andy Messersmith 277 25 3 1972 INNINGS PITCHED IP AGE CG 1 Wilbur Wood 376 30 7 2 Gaylord Perry 342.2 33 18 3 Mickey Lolich 327 31 12 4 Catfish Hunter 295 26 6 5 Bert Blyleven 287.1 21 1 6 Nolan Ryan 284 25 9 7 Joe Coleman 280 25 -2 8 Jim Palmer 274.1 26 8 9 Pat Dobson 268 30 3 10 Ken Holtzman 265 26 6 1973 INNINGS PITCHED IP AGE CG 1 Wilbur Wood 359 31 6 2 Gaylord Perry 344 34 16 3 Nolan Ryan 326 26 14 4 Bert Blyleven 325 22 12 5 Bill Singer 316 29 6 6 Jim Colborn 314 27 11 7 Mickey Lolich 309 32 4 8 Ken Holtzman 297 27 3 9 Jim Palmer 296.1 27 7 10 Joe Coleman 288 26 0
Three straight 300-inning seasons for Lolich and three straight 280 seasons for Coleman, just to keep the things straight they did it again after Art left, likely because old habits are hard to avoid, by 1975 both starters were on the fast track to retirement, Lolich 34 and Coleman only 28.
After the Tigers tired of Martin’s act he and Fowler moved on to Texas
The 328 innings pitched by Jenkins in 1974 was a career high, also logging a career high for the Texas club that season was Jim Bibby, who logged 260 plus innings and didn’t top 200 again until 1980.
INNINGS PITCHED IP AGE CG 1 Nolan Ryan 332.2 27 12 2 Ferguson Jenkins 328.1 30 15 3 Gaylord Perry 322.1 35 16 4 Wilbur Wood 320 32 8 5 Catfish Hunter 318 28 9 6 Luis Tiant 311.1 33 12 7 Mickey Lolich 308 33 13 8 Ross Grimsley 295.2 24 4 9 Steve Busby 292.1 24 7 10 Joe Coleman 286 27 -3 1975 INNINGS PITCHED IP AGE CG 1 Catfish Hunter 328 29 17 2 Jim Palmer 323 29 13 3 Gaylord Perry 305.2 36 13 4 Jim Kaat 303.2 36 -1 5 Wilbur Wood 291 33 0 6 Vida Blue 278 25 1 7 Bert Blyleven 275.2 24 9 8 Doc Medich 272.1 26 3 9 Mike Torrez 270.2 28 4 10 Ferguson Jenkins 270 31 10
After the Rangers tired of Martin, they both headed to New York. There they had less of an impact in pushing their starters to the top of the innings pitched list, except in 1979 when they gave the ball to Tommy John for 276 innings… the same Tommy John whose arm had been reattached just a few seasons earlier.
All in all the Yankees in that span had three starters who achieved their lifetime high in innings pitched, Ed Figueroa, Tommy John and Ron Guidry.
After that the duo was on to Oakland, where they would break arms as well as records.
Oakland Athletics from 1980 to 1982
INNINGS PITCHED IP AGE CG 1 Rick Langford 290 28 20 2 Mike Norris 284.1 25 16 3 Larry Gura 283.1 32 7 4 Dennis Leonard 280.1 29 0 5 Tommy John 265.1 37 7 6 Moose Haas 252.1 24 6 7 Scott McGregor 252 26 3 8 Mike Flanagan 251.1 28 3 T9 Steve Stone 250.2 32 0 T9 Jim Clancy 250.2 24 7 INNINGS PITCHED IP AGE CG 1 Dennis Leonard 201.2 30 3 2 Jack Morris 198 26 9 3 Rick Langford 195.1 29 13 4 Steve McCatty 185.2 27 11 5 Dave Stieb 183.2 23 5 6 Dennis Martinez 179 26 4 7 Mike Norris 172.2 26 7 8 Larry Gura 172.1 33 7 9 Milt Wilcox 166.1 31 3 10 Geoff Zahn 161.1 35 3 INNINGS PITCHED IP AGE CG 1 Dave Stieb 288.1 24 12 2 Jim Clancy 266.2 26 3 3 Jack Morris 266.1 27 10 4 Mike Caldwell 258 33 5 5 Dennis Martinez 252 27 2 6 Luis Leal 249.2 25 3 7 Larry Gura 248 34 1 8 Floyd Bannister 247 27 -2 9 Dan Petry 246 23 1 10 Len Barker 244.2 26 4
36 complete games by the 1980 innings leaders and all in all 5 Oakland starters with over 210 innings pitched. Also of note NINTY FOUR complete games by A’s pitchers in 1980, that’s good for first place since World War Two. The five starters (Brian Kingman, Mike Norris, Rick Langford, Matt Keough and Steve McCatty) never exceeded their performance innings wise again, and all five were out of the game by the late 80’s.
Once those arms were used up it was back to New York for two brief appearances in 1983 and 1988.
Again a Yankee shows up in the top ten
INNINGS PITCHED IP AGE CG 1 Jack Morris 293.2 28 12 2 Dave Stieb 278 25 7 3 Dan Petry 266.1 24 1 4 LaMarr Hoyt 260.2 28 4 5 Scott McGregor 260 29 5 6 Charlie Hough 252 35 4 7 Ron Guidry 250.1 32 15 8 Rick Sutcliffe 243.1 27 3 9 John Tudor 242 29 0 10 Rich Dotson 240 24 1
Plus Shane Rawley hit his career high in innings pitched, this feat helped keep Fowlers and Martin’s record intact.
Back again in 1988 Fowler coached a staff that for he first time in his career had not one starter with at least 200 innings pitched (Rick Rhoden led the team with 197)
After that season Fowler went the way that Martin went and moved away from the diamond. Behind him he left a legacy as a crafty hurler who loved to chase down a cold drink with guys like Joe Nuxhall and Billy Martin, he also left a wide path of success as well as destruction that has helped the folks in the game learn more about the hopes and the limitations of the pitchers arm.