John Tudor

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Tudor (born February 2, 1954 in Schenectady, New York) was a left-handed starting pitcher in Major League Baseball. Tudor was drafted by the Boston Red Sox in the third round of the 1976 MLB Draft (Secondary Phase).

[edit] 1985

Tudor's highlight was a spectacular 1985 season for the St. Louis Cardinals. Oddly enough, Tudor started that year with a 1-7 record and a 3.74 earned run average through May. He then went on a tear that has rarely been seen since by going 20-1 with a 1.16 ERA the rest of the season and lowering his overall ERA to 1.93. Only the best season of Dwight Gooden's career stopped Tudor from winning the National League Cy Young Award and leading the league in ERA, wins and complete games. He was even sixth in strikeouts in 1985.

Moreover, Tudor's ten complete game shutouts in 1985 made him the only pitcher since Jim Palmer in 1975 to reach double-digits in that category. In fact, Tudor may end up being the last pitcher to record ten shutouts in a season. Since 1989, no pitcher has logged more than half that amount and, with the trend of five-man rotations reducing the number of starts any pitcher makes and bullpens often taking over games after seven innings, it seems unlikely that Tudor will be matched. To make the achievement more impressive, his ten shutouts were all in the last four months of 1985.

The Cardinals were in the heat of a division race against Gooden and the New York Mets in September 1985. Tudor improved even more by starting the month with two consecutive shutouts and then pitched against Gooden himself in a legendary matchup on September 11. Gooden and Tudor locked horns pitch-for-pitch and the score was 0-0 after nine innings. Jesse Orosco took over for Gooden in the tenth inning and gave up a home run. Tudor came back out in the bottom of the inning and finished the three-hit, ten-inning masterpiece for his third consecutive shutout of the month. After two sub-par performances, he pitched his fourth shutout of the month and then pitched another ten innings of shutout ball against the Mets' Ron Darling but the Mets turned the table and beat the Cardinals' bullpen in the eleventh inning.

Tudor's pitching propelled the Cardinals into the playoffs. He lost Game 1 of the National League Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers but won Game 4 to even the series and St. Louis won 4 games to 2. Tudor was masterful in Game 1 of the 1985 World Series and even better with a shutout in Game 4 but completely fell apart in Game 7 leaving in the third inning as the Kansas City Royals rolled to an 11-0 victory for their only World Championship. Tudor was so upset by his performance in Game 7, that in a post-game tantrum, he cut his pitching hand after punching an electrical fan.

[edit] After 1985

Unfortunately for Tudor, he never matched his dominance of 1985. While still posting impressive ERAs, he never won more than 13 games. In 1987, he was again in the World Series but again lost with a chance to bring the championship back to St. Louis. Injuries limited Tudor's playing time after 1985 and eventually ended his career. He was the victim of a freak accident in 1987 when the Mets' catcher Barry Lyons went into the Cardinals' dugout trying to catch a foul ball and crashed into Tudor (who wasn't even pitching in the game) breaking Tudor's leg. In 1988, Tudor was traded to the Dodgers despite having the league's best ERA. He pitched well again and won his only World Series ring but severely injured his elbow during the postseason. That injury caused him to miss almost all of 1989 and then retire despite a great comeback season in 1990.