December 12 – Happy Birthday Mike Buddie
The 1998 Yankees had a near perfect team. Every player had a role, every player knew his role and every player performed his role perfectly enough to generate a franchise record number of regular season wins (114) and an 11-2 postseason run that culminated in a World Series sweep of a shell-shocked San Diego Padres team.
The pitching staff featured a five-man starting rotation of double digit winners led by David Cone who went 20-7. The bullpen was anchored by the amazing Rivera, and he was surrounded by situational workhorses Mike Stanton, Ramiro Mendoza, Jeff Nelson and Graeme Lloyd. I loved watching that team play. To this day, I can easily name 24 of the players who composed that team’s core 25-man roster for the majority of the regular season. The only name I have a tough time recalling is that of relief pitcher Mike Buddie. The native of Berea, Ohio was the 11th member of the Yankee pitching staff that season. He spent most of the season on the parent club’s roster, appearing in 24 games, including two starts and finishing with a very nice 4-1 record but a rather high ERA of 5.62. It was most likely that lofty earned run average and Buddie’s control problems that got the big right hander left off the Yankees’ 1998 postseason roster. But nobody can take away that beautiful championship ring he earned as a significant contributing member of that team.
Bidde spent most of the 1999 season back pitching in Columbus, where he put together an impressive 9-2 record. After he started the 2000 season still with the Clippers and lost three of his first four decisions, the Yankees released him. He was able to immediately catch on with the Brewers’ organization. During the next three seasons, his career continued on its yo-yo trajectory between Triple A and the big show. He earned his only two big league saves with Milwaukee in 2001 and earned his first and only victory as a Brewer the following season. 2002 would be his final year in the Majors and he quit playing entirely after one more season in Triple A. He than went to work in the athletic department of his alma mater, Wake Forest University.
Buddie shares his December 12th birthday with this long-ago Yankee shortstop, this former New York closer, and this one-time Yankee utility infielder.
| Year | Tm | W | L | G | GS | GF | CG | SHO | SV | IP | H | R | ER | HR | BB | IBB | SO | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | NYY | 4 | 1 | .800 | 5.62 | 24 | 2 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 41.2 | 46 | 29 | 26 | 5 | 13 | 1 | 20 | 1.416 |
| 1999 | NYY | 0 | 0 | 4.50 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1.500 | |
| 5 Yrs | 5 | 4 | .556 | 4.67 | 87 | 2 | 23 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 131.0 | 137 | 76 | 68 | 13 | 52 | 11 | 76 | 1.443 | |
| MIL (3 yrs) | 1 | 3 | .250 | 4.23 | 61 | 0 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 87.1 | 88 | 46 | 41 | 7 | 39 | 10 | 55 | 1.454 | |
| NYY (2 yrs) | 4 | 1 | .800 | 5.56 | 26 | 2 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 43.2 | 49 | 30 | 27 | 6 | 13 | 1 | 21 | 1.420 | |
Pinstripe Birthdays 