01/21/2004 6:43 PM ET
Orosco ends long career
By John Schlegel / MLB.com
Jesse Orosco celebrates the Mets winning the National League pennant in 1986. (Ray Stubblebine/AP)
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No one in Major League history has pitched more games than Jesse Orosco. On Wednesday, the venerable left-hander decided he has pitched his last.
Orosco, whose 1,252 appearances are almost 200 more than second-place Dennis Eckersley (1,071) on baseball's all-time list, informed the Arizona Diamondbacks that he will not come to Spring Training as a non-roster invitee and has opted for retirement.
Orosco will turn 47 on April 21 but still managed to make 65 appearances for three different teams in 2003, the last of his 24 years in the Majors.
Orosco's journey
Jesse Orosco pitched in 1,252 games for nine teams over 24 seasons:
Team Years Games
Mets 1979, 1981-87 372
Dodgers 1988, 2001-02 146
Indians 1989-91 171
Brewers 1992-94 156
Orioles 1995-99 336
Cardinals 2000 6
Padres 2003 42
Yankees 2003 15
Twins 2003 8
"To take it a quarter-century -- I never imagined that," Orosco said during a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "It's a sad day that I have to call it quits. But it's a great day, too, for the fact I fulfilled my dream."
Drafted by the Twins in January 1978 and dealt to the Mets one year later, the Santa Barbara, Calif., native was a member of the Mets' 1986 World Series team, earning the save and the celebratory photo opportunity in the Game 7 victory over the Boston Red Sox. He spent the first eight of his 24 seasons in the Majors with the Mets, who traded him to the Dodgers prior to the 1988 season -- and he was a member of that year's World Series winner as well.
For many, Orosco will be remembered most for his tenure with the Mets, where he emerged as one of the premier left-handed relievers in the game and gained a solid reputation with teammates and fans alike.
"It was nice to see Jesse extend his career as long as he did," said former teammate Wally Backman, the third baseman on the '86 team. "It was amazing because everyone thought with Jesse's elbow he wouldn't last that long. He was always in a bucket of ice. It was always swollen. But he perfected his role from closer to middle guy and then finally to specialty guy and that extended his career quite a few years."
Said Keith Hernandez, the first baseman on those Mets teams of the '80s: "He never hurt his arm. He had one of those golden arms and he was one of those lefties that could get a lefty out. Jesse could get lefties out and that's why he lasted so long. I remember him saving those games in the World Series against Boston and against Houston."
In Game 6 of the '86 National League playoffs against Houston, Hernandez and Orosco shared a moment both men enjoy remembering to this day. Billy Hatcher had tied the game earlier in extra innings off Orosco with a homer. After the Mets scored three in the top of the 16th, Orosco had allowed two runs in the bottom half, and Kevin Bass hit a long ball foul that just missed being a game-winning homer on a fastball. Hernandez went out to the mound and pretty much told Orosco to stop throwing fastballs, to give Bass a slider so everybody could go home.
"It was just a little light humor to get him to calm down," Hernandez recalled Wednesday. "He was tired and it was a long game. It was really loud in the [Astrodome] and that was just some comic relief to get everyone centered. It was like, 'Just take a deep breath and strike out Kevin Bass.'"
And that's how the game ended, with a strikeout by Orosco of Bass, sending the Mets to the World Series.
In all, Orosco played for nine teams in his tenure, starting 2003 with the Padres before being traded to the Yankees and then to the Twins for the final month of the season. He did not pitch in the Twins' American League Division Series loss to the Yankees, ending his career with a Sept. 27 appearance against Detroit in which he suffered the loss in unique fashion -- striking out Warren Morris but allowing the winning run to score on a wild pitch.
An All-Star in 1983 and '84, Orosco finishes his career with an 87-80 record and 144 saves, which ranks 58th on the all-time list and was 17th among active pitchers. His 3.16 lifetime ERA ranked fifth among active players before his retirement.
"Jesse has had one of the great careers in our game and we respect his decision of ending it before officially taking the field as a member of the Diamondbacks," said Joe Garagiola Jr., Diamondbacks senior vice president and general manager. "It's a shame that our young pitchers will not have the opportunity to learn from a true baseball professional, but he's made a decision and we wish nothing but the best for Jesse and his family in the future."
The ageless wonder finally hangs them up. He was still pitching before some of us was even born! Good guy to have around a clubhouse and in the game of baseball. We'll miss him..
