Quote:
Originally Posted by Terry D
His first season as a pro came in 1969 in the Mets system, and it took him nearly eight years to get above AA ball.
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Nardi was drafted by the Reds in 1969 and his first season as a pro was in their system, not the Mets. The Mets took him in the November 1972 minor league draft. He pitched for AAA Tidewater in 1975...his 7th pro season. His ERA that year was 1.95. He was still just 23 at that point. In 1976 and '77, now with the Phillies organization, he split those years between AA and AAA. He only pitched a handful of games at AAA in '77, but his AAA ERA in '76 was 2.67. It
was 4.24 in '78 and 5.97 in '79, but I wouldn't include the 4.19 ERA with Iowa in 1980 as most of that occurred AFTER he spent May with Chicago, not before. Considering that, the way the game was at the time, many pitchers made their major league debuts around 26 years old and 27 years old was considered "peak", it's hard for me to think of 28 years old as "pushing 30". Also worth mentioning that he went on to coach for the Yankees, Mariners and White Sox.