March 17, 2005
Monster No More
Dick Radatz passed away yesterday after an accidental fall.
Radatz regularly pitched multiple innings of relief, long before pitchers evolved into one-inning specialists.
"He was a setup man, closer, finisher all in one," said Bill Lee, a former Red Sox pitcher and good friend of Radatz. "He was the best reliever of all time, for a short period of time."
Radatz, who was godfather to Lee's daughter, has a picture of himself in his basement signed by Mickey Mantle. The Yankees legend signed it "The greatest I ever faced," said Lee, noting that Radatz struck out Mantle 54 times in 67 attempts.
Here's his page from BaseballReference.com. Those are impressive strikeout numbers for his first four seasons.
My thoughts go out to his family and friends.
Posted by David Pinto at
09:35 AM
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Holy crap! Did you see the lines for his 1963 and 1964 seasons?
1964: 79 games in relief, 157 innings, 2.29 ERA, over a strikeout an inning (181K), WHIP barely over 1.00, 16 Wins, 29 Saves?
That's one for the ages. The last player to have anything remotely resembling that was Eichhorn in 1986. And it's something I don't think we'll be seeing again for a long time, as unlikely for someone today to match in a season as Owen Wilson's 36 triples.