Expansion teams can give many baseball players their first
taste of the major leagues and act as a spring board to a big league career.
Such was the case for right-handed pitcher Ernie
McAnally, who nearly gave up on the game before being finding his chance by
the Montreal Expos.
Originally drafted
as a catcher in the 20th round in 1966 by the New York Mets out of
Paris Junior College in Texas, it quickly became apparent that his future was
going to be on the mound instead of behind the plate. His transition was so
impressive that it caught the attention of the fledgling Expos organization,
who made him the 49th selection in the 1968 expansion draft.
Sent to Single-A in 1969, McAnally decided to quit half-way
through the season in order to make a higher wage back home as an insurance
adjustor and thus better support his family. He mistakenly
thought the Expos weren’t that high on him because of where he had been
assigned but in truth they did not yet have a Double-A team and didn’t want to
rush him too much. His decision to return to the franchise was a good one, as
he became a full-time starter for the big league club in 1971.
In the four years (1971-74) that McAnally pitched for the
Expos the team never had a winning record. Although his 30-49 record doesn’t
deserve much attention, his 4.03 ERA and .256 batting average allowed show what
a solid pitcher he was. He was particularly tough against Hall-of-Famer Roberto
Clemente, allowing just a lone single in 15 official at-bats.
McAnally was often the victim of bad offense backing him up.
In 1972 he posted a very respectable 3.81 ERA but finished just 6-15. It could
have been even worse, as he started the year 1-13 but ended up winning five of
his last seven decisions.
Following the 1974 season, he was sold to the Cleveland
Indians. He never appeared in another major league game because of an injured
rotator cuff, and other than one disastrous two-inning appearance (seven runs
allowed) with their Triple-A team in 1975, his career was done at the age of
28.
I had the opportunity to ask the former pitcher some
questions a while back. Keep reading for some memories he shared about his
playing career.
Ernie McAnally
Questionnaire:
What was the
strangest play you ever saw in baseball?: A pop fly in San Diego, with two
outs and the bases loaded. The ball fell in and Dave
Winfield picked it up with runners going to every base. Enzo
Hernandez, the shortstop, was trying to get out of the way, but when
Winfield cut loose with a throw, it hit Hernandez square in the back from 20
feet away. The runners kept running and Enzo was in great pain.
Who was your favorite
coach or manager?: Whitey
Herzog.
Who was your toughest
out?: Ted
Simmons (The catcher collected 16 hits in 29 career at-bats against
McAnally).
If you could do
anything about your playing career differently, what would that be?: Certainly,
there could be a lot of ‘woulda, coulda, shoulda’s,’ but I choose to have the
mind set to have taken my opportunities and abilities; having done my best and
be satisfied with the outcome. It leads to peace and happiness.
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