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Dennis Eckersley is one of only a few pitchers to excel as both a starter and a closer. His 390 saves rank 7th all-time, while his 197 victories put him in a tie for 121st with fellow Hall of Famer Dazzy Vance, among others.
Eck made his major league debut with the Cleveland Indians in 1975. On May 30, 1977, he pitched a no-hitter against the California Angels. After three solid seasons with the Tribe, he was traded to the Boston Red Sox in 1978. That year, he won 20 games and was the team's ace. He remained a mainstay in the Boston rotation until 1984, when he was traded to the Chicago Cubs for Bill Buckner. He won 10 games
Dennis Eckersley is one of only a few pitchers to excel as both a starter and a closer. His 390 saves rank 7th all-time, while his 197 victories put him in a tie for 121st with fellow Hall of Famer Dazzy Vance, among others.
Eck made his major league debut with the Cleveland Indians in 1975. On May 30, 1977, he pitched a no-hitter against the California Angels. After three solid seasons with the Tribe, he was traded to the Boston Red Sox in 1978. That year, he won 20 games and was the team's ace. He remained a mainstay in the Boston rotation until 1984, when he was traded to the Chicago Cubs for Bill Buckner. He won 10 games for the Cubs in 1984 and helped them win their division. He remained in the Cubs' rotation for the next two seasons, and was traded to the Oakland Athletics just before the start of the 1987 season.
Oakland manager Tony LaRussa decided to convert Eckersley into a reliever, and he went on to become one of the most dominating firemen in baseball for the next decade. He notched over 30 saves every year from 1988 to 1993, and Oakland reached the World Series in 1988, 1989, and 1990. In the 1988 ALCS, he saved all four games as the A's swept his former team, the Red Sox. Yet the most remembered moment of Eckersley's career in those years was when he gave up a game-winning home run to a hobbled Kirk Gibson in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series—it is said that Eck coined the term "walk-off home run" during the postgame interview.
In 1990, he had a minuscule 0.61 ERA; that ERA was a record for a pitcher with 50 or more innings until Fernando Rodney put up an ERA of 0.60 in 2012. Eckersley also became the first pitcher since at least 1900 to begin a season with 30 strikeouts and no walks; that mark held for 23 years until Adam Wainwright topped it. In 1992, he recorded 51 saves and won the American League Cy Young Award. Eckersley also was named MVP; it would be 19 years until another pitcher, Justin Verlander, won an MVP Award in the majors.
Before the 1996 season, he was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals. He returned to the Boston Red Sox to finish his career in 1998.
Eckersley was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame on January 6, 2004 by the Baseball Writers Association of America. He is a member of the Red Sox and Athletics team Halls of Fame and had his #43 retired by Oakland in 2005.
He is currently a post-game TV broadcaster for the Red Sox on NESN. An MLB Network special about his life, "Eck: A Story Of Saving", premiered in December 2018.
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Tags: California (2), Baseball (2), Pitcher (2), Oakland (2), Baseball Hall Of Fame (2), American League MVP (2), Rolaids Relief Man Award (1), CA) (1), Washington High School (Fremont (1), Relief Pitcher (1), Cy Young Award (1), Baseball Announcer (1), Right-Handed Pitcher (1), Cy Young Award Winner (1), 6'2" (1), Oakland Athletics (1), Boston Red Sox (1), Alcoholic (1)
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