Athletes - Ron Darling

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	Athletes - Ron Darling

Ronald Maurice Darling (born August 19 1960) is a former right-handed starting pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for the New York Mets, Oakland Athletics and Montreal Expos. Darling is currently a sports broadcaster.

During his 13-year career, Darling amassed a 136-116 won-loss record including 1,590 strikeouts and a 3.87 ERA. He threw thirteen shutouts in his career and was selected to the 1985 All-Star team in 1985.

Darling's weak point was control as he finished in the top four in base on balls three times in his career. On the positive side, he was considered one of the better fielding pitchers of the time, winning a Gold Glove Award in 1989. Darling was known to have one of the best pickoff moves among right-handers. An above-average overall athlete, he was sometimes used as a pinch runner. In 1989, he hit home runs in two consecutive starts.

Darling appeared on the Hall of Fame balloting for 2001, receiving one vote.

College and early career

Darling was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to a Hawaiian-Chinese mother and French-Canadian father and is a fluent speaker of both Chinese and French. Darling is often referred to as highly intelligent and was often cited for getting into trouble during games by overthinking. He attended Yale University, managing a dual major in French and Southeast Asian history. Darling compiled, by far, the most prolific major league career of any Yale alumnus since 19th century pitcher, Bill Hutchinson. Darling was also the last Yale alumnus to play in the majors until pitcher Craig Breslow debuted in 2005.

On 1981-05-21, while at Yale, Darling faced eventual All-Star Frank Viola of St. John's University and had a no-hitter through eleven innings. In the 12th inning, St. John's broke up the no-hitter and then scored on a double-steal to beat Darling 1-0. Darling's performance remains the longest no-hitter in NCAA history and the game is considered by some to be the best in college baseball history.

He was selected in the 1st round (9th overall) of the 1981 MLB draft by the Texas Rangers. He put up medicore numbers with the AA Tulsa Drillers and, before the 1982 season began, he and Walt Terrell were traded to the Mets for Lee Mazzilli in an ill-advised trade. Darling and Terrell combined for seven double-digit win seasons with the Mets and Terrell was traded three seasons later for one of the Mets' all-time stars, Howard Johnson. Mazzilli, meanwhile, never regained his limited glory of the late 1970s and played less than a season with Texas before being traded for Bucky Dent. Dent then batted under .240 for less than two seasons before being released by Texas.

Darling would have compiled decent numbers with the AAA Tidewater Tides in 1982 and 1983 except for very high base on balls counts during both seasons. Despite that, Darling was called up to the majors in late 1983. The Mets had the worst record in the National League and second-worst in the majors when Darling debuted on September 6 1983. He was impressive in that start but left the game down 1-0 and the Mets lost 2-0. The Mets were also last in offense in the N.L. so Darling's 0-3 start were all in decent pitching performances that season. He finished his season with a complete game victory and was in the majors for good.

New York Mets

Building to a championship

In 1984, Darling won a spot in the starting rotation and maintained a spot there almost uninterrupted until 1990. While his early walk percentages were poor — he even led the league in walks in 1985 — he never again showed the astronomical walk percentages he had at AAA. Within a couple seasons, he improved it to decent levels and even so much as halved his Tidewater numbers in that category.

With Darling and Terrell each getting their first long-term chance in the majors coupled with the debut of young star and eventual Rookie of the Year Dwight Gooden, the Mets went from second-worst in the majors in 1983 to fourth-best in the majors in 1984 — but also second-best in the division thereby missing the postseason. Darling had difficulty pitching on the road in 1984 with inferior numbers in most categories compared to those in pitcher-friendly Shea Stadium including an ERA more than 50% higher. He had a fantastic tear of seven wins in seven starts in June (5-0) and July (1.88 ERA) including a pair of complete game four-hit shutouts but the other two-thirds of the season were not nearly as successful. The Mets were in first place at the end of July but Darling's 2-6 record the rest of the way was little help and the Chicago Cubs won the division by 6 ½ games. Still, Darling's 12-9 overall record with an ERA of 3.81 was considered impressive for the 24-year-old.

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Athletes - Ron Darling

College and early career

New York Mets

Building to a championship

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