Athletes - Bob Ojeda

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	Athletes - Bob Ojeda

Robert Michael Ojeda (born December 17, 1957) is a former Major League Baseball left-handed pitcher who pitched for five different MLB teams over fifteen seasons including the 1986 World Champion New York Mets. He is also known for being the lone survivor of a March 22, 1993 boating accident that killed fellow pitchers Steve Olin and Tim Crews.

Early career

Ojeda was born in Los Angeles, California and attended Redwood High School in Visalia, California. He attended College of the Sequoias before being signed as an undrafted free agent by the Boston Red Sox in 1978.

In 1979, as a starting pitcher in Winter Haven of the Florida State League, Ojeda went 15-7 in 29 games started earning a promotion to the AAA Pawtucket Red Sox for 1980. With a good earned run average, Ojeda was called up to the majors in July of 1980. Shelled in his first few starts, he registered his first victory on 1980-08-02 with six shutout innings against the Texas Rangers. Two starts later, he was removed from a game without getting a single out and was sent back to Pawtucket.

On 1981-06-23, Ojeda was the winning pitcher in the longest professional baseball game in history. The famous game between Pawtucket and the Rochester Red Wings had started on 1981-04-18 but was suspended after 32 innings. Ojeda started the 33rd when play was resumed two months later and got credit for the win when Pawtucket won in the bottom of the inning after just eighteen minutes (the first 32 innings had taken over eight hours). Not long after, the 1981 baseball strike began and Ojeda's 2.13 ERA earned him a call-up when it ended. He responded with a complete game seven-hit victory. This time, his stay in the majors was permanent as he pitched well in all but his last two starts for Boston.

Boston

1982 went poorly for Ojeda in his first full season in the majors. After a couple poor starts in May, he started splitting his time between starting and relief pitching and was shut down in mid-August with an ERA near six.

In 1983, Ojeda turned things around for a Boston team that finished near the bottom of the division. As the fourth starter, he posted a 12-7 record and a 4.04 ERA which were both tops in the rotation. In 1984, Ojeda and Bruce Hurst were the number-one starters and Ojeda posted another twelve wins (to go with twelve losses) which included a Major League lead-tying five shutouts. The Red Sox improved in the standings but Ojeda's numbers – including an ERA again near four – mostly stayed the same.

When 1985 started, the Red Sox were overstocked on starting pitchers, including a young Roger Clemens, so Ojeda was relegated to the bullpen. He pitched so well in that capacity that he was moved back into the rotation at the end of May but his ERA again balooned over four prompting him to be traded after the season. The eight-player trade seemed benign at the time but would have repercussions the following year as it sent Ojeda to the New York Mets and Calvin Schiraldi to the Red Sox. Both would play important roles in the 1986 World Series.

New York and a championship

In 1986, Ojeda was fantastic for the Mets almost from day one. Despite starting in the bullpen and then being only the fourth starter, he finished with an 18-5 record, 2.57 ERA (second-best in the league) and 148 strikeouts – all career-bests. He got through the fifth inning in all but two of his starts and allowed zero earned runs in eight different starts. His worst blemish was off the field when, on 1986-07-19, he and teammates Ron Darling, Rick Aguilera and Tim Teufel were arrested outside a bar in Houston, Texas for fighting with security guards (who were also off-duty police officers). All four were released in time for the following game and the worst results were $200 fines but the incident fed into the Mets' reputation as a rowdy crew that season.

The Mets cruised through the 1986 regular season building a double-digit lead before July that only widened in the second half of the season. They lost the first game to the Houston Astros in the 1986 National League Championship Series but Ojeda pitched a complete game to easily win Game 2. He also started Game 6 but quickly gave up three runs in the first inning. The Mets didn't recover until the ninth but won the game in an epic sixteen innings to earn a trip to the World Series. Coincidentally for Ojeda, the Mets' opponents in the World Series were Ojeda's old team, the Boston Red Sox.

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