Athletes - Moe Drabowsky

Home > Listing Index > Athletes > Moe Drabowsky

	Athletes - Moe Drabowsky

Myron Walter (Moe) Drabowsky (born July 21, 1935) is a former Major League Baseball pitcher.

In his 17-year career, Drabowsky pitched for the Chicago Cubs (1956-1960), Milwaukee Braves (1961), Cincinnati Reds (1962), Kansas City Athletics (1962-1965), Baltimore Orioles (1966-1968, 1970), Kansas City Royals (1969-70), St. Louis Cardinals (1971-72) and Chicago White Sox (1972).

Drabowsky was born in Ozanna, Poland and came to the United States with his parents in 1938. In junior college, he pitched a no-hitter in which he struck out 16, and shortly thereafter accepted a $50,000 bonus to sign with the Chicago Cubs. Drabowsky joined the Cubs' pitching staff in 1957 and posted a 13-15 record. His 170 strikeouts placed him second in the National League behind another rookie, Philadelphia's Jack Sanford, who had 188. A sore arm cost Drabowsky his fastball in 1958, and over the next seven seasons he pitched for four different teams, before the Baltimore Orioles signed him for the 1966 season.

Pitching out of relief, Drabowsky won 6 with no losses and 7 saves, and struck out 96 in 98 innings pitched. He also had one of the best games for a relief pitcher in the 1966 World Series opener against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He entered the game in the third inning and set a still-standing one-game World Series record for relievers by striking out 11 batters. He also walked Junior Gilliam with two out in that third inning to force in Lou Johnson for a run that, although it cut the Orioles' lead to 4-2, would be the last run the Dodgers scored. The Orioles would sweep the Dodgers 4-0, their next three wins coming on shutouts from Jim Palmer, Wally Bunker and the man Drabowsky had relieved in Game One, Dave McNally.

Over the next two seasons, Drabowsky continued to perform excellently in relief. In 1967 he posted a 1.60 earned run average and struck out 96 in 95 2/3 innings pitched, and in 1968 he posted a 1.91 ERA. After the 1968 season he was selected by the Kansas City Royals in the expansion draft. He led all relief pitchers in 1969 with 11 victories and also saved 11 games. Drabowsky returned to the Orioles in 1970 where he won another World Series title, this one against the Cincinnati Reds.

In 17 seasons Drabowsky won 88 games, lost 105, saved 55, struck out 1162 and walked 702 in 1641 innings pitched.

In 1987 Drabowsky returned to Poland as a baseball ambassador and helped his birth nation form its first team for Olympic competition.

Trivia

In addition to his 1966 World Series performance, Drabowsky was also on the opposite end of several moments in baseball history. On May 13, 1958 he gave up Stan Musial's 3000th career hit. On July 13, 1963 he was the losing pitcher in Early Wynn's 300th career victory. He also tied a National League record by hitting four batters in the first game of a June 2, 1957 doubleheader against the Cincinnati Reds.

Drabowsky was well-known as a flake whose jokes involved, among other things, being rolled to first base in a wheelchair after being hit by a pitch.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Moe Drabowsky ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Moe Drabowsky; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Searches on eBay