Sam McDowell, the hard-throwing left-hander the San Francisco Giants acquired in one of the most lopsided deals in franchise history, died Monday at his home in The Villages, Florida. He was 84.
The Giants landed McDowell on November 29, 1971, sending Gaylord Perry and shortstop Frank Duffy to Cleveland for the six-time All-Star known as Sudden Sam.
General manager Horace Stoneham was betting on age.
McDowell was 29, four years younger than Perry, and still carried the reputation of one of the game’s most overpowering arms.
In San Francisco, he was supposed to pair with Juan Marichal and keep a Western Division champion in contention.
It never worked. In 1972, McDowell went 10-8 with a 4.33 ERA in 25 starts, his highest earned-run average as a regular starter since 1963.
He struck out 122 in 164 1/3 innings and walked 86, a far cry from the pitcher who had led the American League in strikeouts five times and in ERA once.
The Giants slipped from division champions to also-rans. Perry, meanwhile, won 24 games with a 1.92 ERA in Cleveland and took the Cy Young Award.
By 1973 the experiment was over. McDowell opened the season in the bullpen, went 1-2 with three saves and a 4.50 ERA in 40 innings, and on June 7 was sold to the New York Yankees for cash.
In a season and a half by the bay, he was 11-10 with a 4.36 ERA and 157 strikeouts in 204 1/3 innings. The club had traded a future Hall of Famer for a pitcher whose best years were already behind him.
Those years had been formidable. A Pittsburgh native who debuted with Cleveland in 1961, McDowell finished 141-134 with a 3.17 ERA and 2,453 strikeouts over 15 seasons.
In 1965, he led the league with a 2.18 ERA and 325 strikeouts. In 1970 he won 20 games and fanned 304. At his peak only Sandy Koufax and, later, Nolan Ryan struck out batters at a higher rate.
Alcohol undercut the rest. McDowell later got sober, counseled athletes struggling with addiction and depression, and became part of the real-life inspiration for Sam Malone on the sitcom Cheers.
Cleveland remembered him as a strikeout king and a Hall of Fame inductee. The McDowell trade did no exactly work out for San Francisco, but the Giants still pay him their respects.
