...zarro. No, I couldn't bring myself to feature Juan Pierre, the way he took it to the Cubs. So instead, it's left-handed pitcher Juan Pizarro.
Pizarro broke into the majors with the Braves as a 20-year-old in 1957 and was in Milwaukee through the 1960 season. The Sox acquired in a three way trade with the Braves and Red Sox. He would stay with the south siders for the next six season and have the best years of his career. He made the All Star team in 1963 and 1964, his best two seasons. He was 16-8 and 19-9 those two years. He tailed off in 1965 and in 1966 spent most of his time working out of the bullpen.
The Sox traded Pizarro to the Pirates, and the journeyman portion of his career was under way. It was 1 1/2 seasons in Pittsburgh, a season in Boston, and parts of a season in Cleveland and Oakland before Pizarro ended up back in AAA in 1970.
While with Hawaii in 1970, he posted a 9-0 record and the Cubs purchased his contract for the last two months of the season.
That was good enough for Topps to include him in the 1971 set. The AAA shuttle continued the next season, as he split time between Tacoma and Chicago. With the Cubs he posted a 7-6 record in 16 games (14 starts).
Pizarro spent the entire season in Chicago in 1972, but was used sparingly. He made only 16 appearances, starting seven. His record was 4-5 with an ERA of 3.94. Topps didn't think much of his 1972 season either and left him out of the '73 set. After starting the 1973 season in AAA, he was recalled to the Cubs in mid-May. He pitched in 17 games before the Cubs sold him to the Astros.
He finished the year in Houston, and hooked up with the Pirates a bit in 1974 before being released, ending his career.
His final Chicago stats:
White Sox (6 seasons): 75-47, 3.05 ERA
Cubs (4 seasons): 11-12, 4.78 ERA
First, I see you got the Green C ans S variation!
ReplyDeleteSecond, Pizarro pitched in the 1957 World Series AND the 1974 NLCS. I can't think of any other pitcher who played that entire span....Don McMahon maybe?
Got to have all the Cubs variations!
ReplyDeleteGood question about the span. I did a quick check at baseball reference...these guys pitched in '57 and '74:
Claude Osteen
Bob L Miller (who had some time with the Cubs)
Don McMahon..you were correct here!