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Dick Radatz 1962 (in 1969)
Back to the Brace file:
Exactly when Dick Radatz hurt himself, or what he hurt, is unclear. His splits in 1965 and 1966 are inconsistent. He had slumps before his decline seemed to have begun; he logged high strike out totals after it clearly had.
Still, he went from whiffing 608 men in the first 538 innings in the first 270 games in compiling 49 wins and 98 saves in the first four years of his career, to winning three games, saving 22 and being dealt four times in the last three years of his career.
Mickey Mantle batted 16 times against Radatz and struck out in 12 of them.
The last stop was when the Tigers sold him to the Expos at the June 15th deadline in 1969. This was something of a collecting finish by the first-year Montreal franchise. It signed the great Pirates closer Roy Face on April 27th, bought Radatz, and bought the ex-Astros All-Star reliever Claude Raymond from the Braves on August 19th. In a touch of irony the first Expo game ever was started by Jim "Mudcat" Grant, whom they traded to the Cardinals on June 3, thus beginning his three-year renaissance as a pretty solid closer for teams other than theirs.
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