Being somewhat of a grammar nazi, I’ve always looked at the
“Walk/Don’t Walk” sign with a bit of sadness.
There’s no apostrophe in the “Don’t”, I’m not sure who to tell, and it
probably wouldn’t matter anyway. I get
that there’s space consideration there, but couldn’t you just cut out an
apostrophe in the black? Isn’t there
just one big red light illuminating a cutout?
I don’t know. And nowadays, the
public schools have gotten so bad, they just go with white and red people. You don’t even have to read! But this is a baseball blog (hopefully fairly
grammatically correct). We’re not here
to talk about apostrophes. Today, we’re
going to talk about someone who took the DONT WALK sign to heart, Dan
Quisenberry.
Quisenberry signed with the Kansas City Royals as a free
agent in June of 1975, out of the University of La Verne in La Verne, CA. The Leopards have produced a total of 10
major league players, but Quisenberry is the last one to have played in the
majors.
Upon his signing, the Royals assigned Quisenberry to A ball
Waterloo. It was there where he would
make his only professional start, which just happened to also be a complete
game. Overall there, he would go 3-2
with a 2.45 ERA and four saves with 31 strikeouts vs. just six walks (one
intentional) across 44 innings in 20 games.
This earned him a promotion to AA Jacksonville to finish the 1975
season. There, he went 0-1 with a 2.25
ERA and one save with two strikeouts vs. four walks (one intentional) across
eight innings in six games.
The Royals would give Quisenberry the same schedule in
1976. Starting again at Waterloo, he
went 2-1 with a 0.64 ERA and 11 saves with 19 strikeouts and nine walks (four
intentional) across 42 innings in 34 games.
Those numbers, plus a WHIP of 0.881, earned him another promotion back
to Jacksonville. There, he went 0-1 with
a 2.25 ERA and six strikeouts vs. four walks (two intentional) across 12
innings in nine games.
Quisenberry would spend the next two seasons in
Jacksonville, where he would combine to go 7-3 with a 1.17 ERA and 21 saves
with 62 strikeouts vs. 23 walks (eight intentional) across 138 innings in 81
games. He would be promoted to AAA Omaha
for 1979, where he would go 2-1 with a 3.60 ERA and five saves, with 16
strikeouts vs. 10 walks (one intentional) in 35 innings across 26 games.
The Royals finally came to their senses in early July. Quisenberry was called up, and he made his
Major th, 1979. In a 4-2 loss to the Chicago White Sox, he
entered the game in the top of the seventh and induced a ground ball double
play off the bat of Lamar Johnson. In
the eighth, he allowed a single to Rusty Torres, who was quickly erased by
another ground ball double play off the bat of Greg Pryor. In the ninth, he allowed a double to Alan
Bannister amid three more groundouts. The
Royals tried to put something together in the bottom of the frame, with U.L.
Washington hitting a one out single to center field, but a Willie Wilson pop
out and George Brett ground out ended the day.
Quisenberry would pick up his first major league victory 14
days later in a 7-6 win over the Texas Rangers.
He allowed his first run in the bottom of the eighth, blowing the save,
but the Royals scored a run in the top of the ninth, and he shut the door in
the bottom of the frame. The next day,
he would get his first career save against the Rangers. Overall for his first half season in
baseball, one probably didn’t see this guy as a future dominant closer. He finished 3-2 with a 3.15 ERA and five
saves with 13 strikeouts vs. seven walks (five intentional) in 40 innings
across 32 games. He also added three
holds, but he had five blown saves. If
you look at his outings though, there were two instances where he gave up four
runs each in a total of three innings.
If you take those two outings out, his ERA falls to 1.46. In both of those outings, he allowed two home
runs. He only allowed one other home run
in the other 37 innings he pitched.
The 1979 Royals only had a total of 27 saves, and it took
six different pitches to achieve that total.
They finished the season 85-77, three games back of the California
Angels. If they were going to get over
the hump, they were going to need to do better than 27 saves. And so they did.
Quisenberry opened the 1980 season as the closer in Kansas
City, and never looked back. At the end
of May, he was having a pretty decent season, sitting at 3-2 with a 2.61 ERA
and eight saves. Two months later, at
the end of July, he was 7-4 with a 3.12 ERA and 20 saves. Then came August. He pitched in 18 games that month, going 4-1
with a 1.03 ERA and 11 saves, with only one blown save. The Royals were 16-2 in games in which he
pitched that month. He had 10 walks that
month, but seven of those were intentional, including three on the day where he
had his only blown save. He gave up a
run in the bottom of the ninth, allowing the Toronto Blue Jays to tie it at
three. Quisenberry would pitch FOUR MORE
INNINGS that day without allowing a run, before the Jays finally broke through
for a run in the bottom of the 14th inning off of Rawly
Eastwick. Shamed by the outing, Eastwick
would never pitch again for the Royals.
Quisenberry had a somewhat rough September, when he went 1-2
with a 5.48 ERA and only two saves. On September 4th, he allowed six runs on seven hits and a walk
(intentional of course) in a third of an inning in a 9-5 loss to the Milwaukee
Brewers. The Brewers scored eight of
those runs in the ninth inning off of nine singles and the intentional
walk. The Royals though accomplished
what they set out to do though. They had
a total of 42 saves on their way to a 97-75 record, finishing a full 14 games
ahead of the second place Oakland A’s.
They would sweep the Yankees in the ALCS before losing to the Phillies
in six games in the World Series.
Quisenberry was excellent in the ALCS, but struggled in the World
Series, allowing six runs in 10 1/3 innings, going 1-2 with a 5.23 ERA and one
save. Overall for the season, he was
12-7 with a 3.09 ERA and a league leading 33 saves with 37 strikeouts vs. 27
walks (15 intentional) in 128 1/3 innings across 75 games. He finished fifth in the AL Cy Young Award voting,
and eighth in the AL MVP voting.
1981 wasn’t too bad of a season for Quisenberry. The strike that year really hurt him putting
up elite numbers, but it actually seemed to help him. Prior to the strike in mid-June, he was 0-3
with a 2.86 ERA and nine saves, with 11 strikeouts and nine walks (five
intentional). One of his losses came in
another five inning effort where he scattered nine hits and a walk, allowing
three runs in an 8-7 loss to the Boston Red Sox on May 4th. Sixteen days later, he lost another game,
allowing a hit and issuing THREE intentional walks in a 5-4 loss to the New
York Yankees.
After the season resumed in mid-August, Quisenberry only
allowed three earned runs the rest of the season. He went 1-1 with a 0.79 ERA and nine saves,
with nine strikeouts and six walks (three intentional). His post-strike WHIP was 0.882. The Royals made the playoffs, but they were
swept in the ALDS by the A’s. Overall
for the season, he finished 1-4 with a 1.73 ERA, with 20 strikeouts and 15
walks (eight intentional) in 62 1/3 innings across 40 games. He only allowed one home run all season.
The 1982 season began a four year span where Quisenberry was
not only one of the best relievers in the game, but one of the best overall
pitchers in the game. He carried the
second half momentum from ’81 right into April, where he pitched in seven
games, going 0-1 with six saves. He
pitched a total of 14 innings, and only faced 50 batters. That’s just eight over the minimum. By mid-season, he was 4-3 with a 2.35 ERA and
20 saves. That pace slowed a little, but
he still finished 9-7 with a 2.57 ERA and a league leading 35 saves, with 46
strikeouts and 12 walks (two intentional) in 136 2/3 innings across 72 games. It was the first season of three straight where
he walked less than a batter…per nine innings.
He made his first All Star team, finished third in the AL Cy Young
voting, and ninth in the AL MVP voting.
The Royals finished 90-72, but that was three games back of the Angels.
1983 was perhaps Quisenberry’s finest season. At the end of April, he was 1-1 with a 2.04
ERA and four saves vs. three blown saves. That was the highest his ERA would be the rest of the season, and in the other five months, he would only have four more blown saves. He was lights out in May, earning a save in all eight opportunities with a 0.46 ERA, allowing one run in 19 2/3 innings. He had two blown saves in June, but won both of those games, and added seven more saves. July saw one blown save – a game he won on July 22nd throwing a season high 5 1/3 innings in relief in the 3-2
victory of the New York Yankees. He had
his last blown save of the season on August 19th, and four days
later, he would have his last loss of the season. From August 25th on, he was
perfect in his 11 save opportunities. He
allowed four runs in three innings in a non-save situation on September 28th,
but other than that outing, he only allowed one other run in 27 1/3
innings. In those 15 games, he didn’t
walk a batter. Overall for the season,
he went 5-3 with a 1.94 ERA, with 48 strikeouts and 11 walks (two intentional)
in 139 innings across 69 games. His 45
saves destroyed the old single season record of 38 set in 1973 by John Hiller. He set career highs in saves, innings and
K/BB ratio, and career lows in ERA (other than the strike shortened 1981
season), WHIP, hits/9 and BB/9. He was
again an All Star, he finished sixth in the AL MVP voting, and finished second
in the AL Cy Young voting to LaMarr Hoyt.
Despite his efforts, the Royals finished 79-83, which was good enough
for second place, but still 20 games back of Hoyt’s White Sox.
Quisenberry saw much of the same success in 1984. At the end of June, he had 20 saves and a
2.09 ERA. In the second half of the
season, he earned 24 more saves and a 3.13 ERA.
The Royals rode him hard down the stretch. In September, he was 2-0 with eight saves and
two blown saves. In 12 games that month,
he pitched 24 1/3 innings. In five of
those games, he went at least two innings.
Overall that season, he went 6-3 with a 2.64 ERA and 44 saves, with 41
strikeouts and 12 walks (four intentional) in 129 1/3 innings across 72
games. He was an All Star for the third
and final time of his career, finished third in the AL MVP voting behind fellow
reliever Willie Hernandez and Kent Hrbek, and once again he finished second in
the AL Cy Young voting, that award also going to Hernandez.
1985 would be the last year where Quisenberry would be a
dominant reliever. The first half of the
season was pretty pedestrian, at least by his standards. Through the end of June, he was 4-4 with a
2.67 ERA and 14 saves vs. five blown saves.
He gave up 65 hits and nine walks in 57 1/3 innings for a 1.291 WHIP,
but some of this may have been fueled by a .302 BAbip, which was far above his
.258 BAbip at that point in his career.
The second half of the season went a little better, as he went 4-5 with
a 2.13 ERA and 23 saves vs. seven blown saves.
He threw a total of 71 2/3 innings in 46 games in the second half. Overall, he went 8-9 with a 2.37 ERA and 37
saves, with 54 strikeouts and 16 walks (eight intentional). The Royals would finish one game ahead of the
Angels, and after beating the Blue Jays in the ALCS, they defeated the St.
Louis Cardinals in seven games to become World Series champions. That post season, he went 1-1 with a 3.00 ERA
and one save.
Quisenberry then decided to fall off a cliff, as far as
production went. In 1986, he went 3-7
with a 2.77 ERA and only 12 saves. He
walked 24 batters (12 intentionally) and only struck out 36 in 81 1/3 innings
across 62 games. Despite only having 12
saves, he still led the team, as the Royals only had 31 total and finished
third in the AL West. In 1987, he would
only pitch in 49 innings across 47 games and earn eight saves. He went 4-1 with a 2.77 ERA and 17 strikeouts
vs. 10 walks (three intentional).
1988 would mark Quisenberry’s last season in Kansas
City. He earned his last save as a Royal
on April 28th, and pitched his last game as a Royal on June 24th. On July 4th, he was released by
the Royals. Ten days later, he took a
trip on I-70 east, and signed with the St. Louis Cardinals. For the Royals, Quisenberry had a 3.55 ERA
over 25 1/3 innings to start the season, and for the Cardinals in July, his ERA
was actually a bit lower at 3.24 in 8 1/3 innings. Then August happened. For that month, he had a 8.49 ERA in 11 2/3
innings, and in September it was 6.00 in 18 innings. He didn’t earn a single save in the second
half of the season with the Cardinals.
Overall for the year, he went 2-1 with a 5.12 ERA and one save, with 28
strikeouts and 11 walks (three intentional) in 63 1/3 innings across 53 games.
Quisenberry somewhat righted the ship for the 1989
season. He had a rough April where he
had a 5.62 ERA in eight innings, but by the time July 6th rolled
around, he had four saves and a 1.99 ERA.
Two days later, he gave up three runs in two innings, but he wouldn’t
give up multiple runs again until his last two outings of the season, giving up
two runs each in those. For the season,
he went 3-1 with six saves, with 37 strikeouts and 14 walks (nine intentional)
in 78 1/3 innings across 63 games.
The Cardinals released Quisenberry at the end of the 1989
season. For 1990, he signed with the San Francisco Giants. This did not go well. He only pitched in five games for the Giants, all in April, before he tore his rotator cuff, which led him to retire. He gave runs in three of those games; 10 total across 6 2/3 innings. He would pitch his last game on April 23rd, giving up three runs in 2 1/3
innings in a 13-3 loss to the San Diego Padres.
Quisenberry did go out in style though.
That day, the last hit, walk, and run he ever gave up was to Joe Carter,
Jack Clark and Tony Gwynn respectively.
For his career, Quisenberry was 56-46 with a 2.76 ERA and
244 saves, with 379 strikeouts and 162 walks.
Of those walks, 70 were intentional.
Breaking that out, he unintentionally walked a batter every 11 1/3
innings. Quisenberry’s first balk in the
majors came on April 9th, 1988 – his 556th game in the
majors. He would end up with a total of
five. He faced a total of 4247 batters
in his career. He hit SEVEN of them. He threw four wild pitches in his career, or
one every 261 innings. As a comparison,
the best reliever of all time, Mariano Rivera, faced 5103 batters in his
career. He hit 13 of them, and threw 13
wild pitches – one every 98.7 innings.
Quisenberry had a career WHIP of 1.175, which seems a bit
high considering his lack of walks. He
was the epitome of “pitch to contact”, allowing 1064 hits in his 1043 1/3
innings. However, only 59 of those hits
left the yard, good for a 0.5 HR/9 inning ratio. Although his K/9 inning was comically low at
3.3, his low walk rate led to a 2.34 K/BB ratio. His career BB/9 ratio of 1.397 is the 20th
lowest of all time. Of the 19 pitchers
in front of him, only two pitched in the 20th century, the last one
throwing his final game in 1926.
Now that we’ve reviewed some of these numbers, I’ll let you
in on a little secret. If you know
anything at all about Quisenberry, you probably remember the almost-underhanded
delivery he had. You may assume that he
always did that, but you would be wrong.
He didn’t develop that style of pitching until spring training in
1980. His manager suggested the change
because he didn’t have a good fastball, and requested that Quisenberry learn
the style from Kent Tekulve. So not only
was Quisenberry a master control artist, he did it using a pitching style that
was totally foreign to him.
In 1996, in his first year on the Hall of Fame ballot, he
only received 3.8% of the votes and dropped off.
Dan Quisenberry, wherever you are, I’m not sure of your
feelings on the DONT WALK sign, but thank you for taking it to heart and
championing its cause.
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