[Terry D]

Alabama-born Mickey Mahler was a very marginal left-handed pitcher from the late 70s to the mid 80s. He was the brother of the much better known Rick Mahler, who had a couple of decent mid-80s years for the Braves before turning into a punching bag in the later years of the decade. Mickey too started out with the Braves. He came up in 1977 after a pretty fair year in AAA and spent two plus years in Atlanta, mostly as a starter. In those seasons Mickey went 10-24 for the Braves with ERAs of 6.26, 4.68, and 5.85. That might have finished him, but thanks to his own obstinacy and the general shortage of LHP Mickey hung on by his fingernails for most of the 80s, pitching successively for the Pirates, Angels, Expos, Tigers, and Blue Jays, finishing with an overall MLB record of 14-32 with a 4.68 ERA. His minor league record has gaps in it but he was not terribly impressive down there; he didn't get much time in the low minors before the Braves promoted him, which may have been part of his problem. His best AAA year was '80 for Portland in the Pirates chain, where he went 14-8 with a 2.65 ERA, really good for a hitters' league like the PCL. Mickey's major league record doesn't show that he was much better as a situational southpaw than he was generally, but he was much better as a reliever (2.73 ERA) than as a starter (5.45). Ironically his best ML season was 1985, when he worked mostly as a starter. Mickey began the year with the Expos. He threw a one-hitter and posted a 3.54 ERA, but went only 1-4 so the Expos let him go to Detroit. For the Tigers Mickey was even better, posting a 1.74 ERA in the heat of the pennant race but finishing just 1-2. Through it all Mickey kept or developed a sense of humor about himself and his career. All but a few of his pictures show him smiling and he once said that he would sweep the dugout, chalk the field, or do anything else a club wanted him to do. I had almost given up on finding him as a Tiger, but I finally located him in film of a Sept. 85 game between Detroit and Toronto. The film is on youtube if anyone wants to try and better this screenshot.