[Terry D]

Jim Lewis was a tall right-handed pitcher out of Florida who signed with the expansion Mariners as an amateur free agent in 1977. Jim spent three seasons in the Mariners chain as a starting pitcher, posting one decent season and two bad ones. In 1980 the Mariners sent him to the Yankees as part of a multi-player deal which also brought Ruppert Jones to New York. I don't know the names of the manager and pitching coach at the Yankees AAA Columbus farm, but somebody there saw immediately that Lewis was miscast as a starter and that he had potential as a relief pitcher. Lewis worked out of the Clippers' pen for the next three seasons, posting good ERAs in two of those years and pretty good numbers all around. (1980: 3.29 ERA, 10-7, 7 SV, 93 IP, 73 H, 45 BB, 76 K; 1981: 4.98 ERA, 8-7, 13 SV, 150 IP, 147 H, 65 BB, 100 K; 1982: 2.60 ERA, 12-6, 5 SV, 166 IP, 139 H, 64 BB, 107 K.) By '82, Lewis was probably among the Yanks' better minor league pitchers, but they gave him just 2/3 of an inning of big league work that year (54.00 ERA) and left him unprotected over the winter. The Twins drafted Lewis and converted him back to a starting pitcher, which essentially ruined him. He got sips of the saucer in Minnesota and Seattle before quitting, but he was never really effective after leaving the Yankees organization. Major league Images of Jim have been very hard to come by. The only one I'd ever seen until recently was a blurred enlargement of a black and white image from a 1980 or 1981 Yankees yearbook. Now the estimable ebay store kylesportscards has to come to our aid with two good color images of Jim from 1981. Enjoy.