October 6 – Happy Birthday Steve Kline

Born October 6, 1947 in Wenatchee, WA, this tall right-hander was brought up from the Yankee farm system in 1970 and pitched extremely well during his first three seasons in Pinstripes. Back then, Joba Rules didn’t exist for young Yankee mound prospects and Kline was asked to pitch 636.3 innings (including 78 in the minors) during those first three seasons, all before he reached the age of 25. He had his best Yankee season in 1972 when he went 16-9 with a sparkling 2.40 ERA and four shutouts.  That’s when all those innings started taking their toll and injuries limited him to just 74 innings of pitching in 1973. At the beginning of the following season he was made part of a four pitcher package that was traded to Cleveland for Chris Chambliss. By then, Kline’s arm was dead and he never again pitched effectively in the big leagues, retiring after a failed 1977 comeback trial with the Braves with a lifetime record of 43-45.

Kline shares his October 6th birthday with this former Yankee pitcher, this one-time Yankee outfielder and this long ago NY shortstop.

Year Tm W L W-L% ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB SO WHIP
1970 NYY 6 6 .500 3.41 16 15 0 5 0 0 100.1 99 42 38 8 24 49 1.226
1971 NYY 12 13 .480 2.96 31 30 0 15 1 0 222.1 206 87 73 21 37 81 1.093
1972 NYY 16 9 .640 2.40 32 32 0 11 4 0 236.1 210 79 63 11 44 58 1.075
1973 NYY 4 7 .364 4.01 14 13 1 2 1 0 74.0 76 39 33 5 31 19 1.446
1974 NYY 2 2 .500 3.46 4 4 0 0 0 0 26.0 26 12 10 3 5 6 1.192
6 Yrs 43 45 .489 3.26 129 105 9 34 6 1 750.1 708 318 272 61 184 240 1.189
NYY (5 yrs) 40 37 .519 2.96 97 94 1 33 6 0 659.0 617 259 217 48 141 213 1.150
CLE (1 yr) 3 8 .273 5.07 16 11 1 1 0 0 71.0 70 44 40 9 31 17 1.423
ATL (1 yr) 0 0 6.64 16 0 7 0 0 1 20.1 21 15 15 4 12 10 1.623
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 10/6/2013.

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