Where have you gone, Doug Drabek?

In which I discuss a Pirate of the past and why I loved or hated them so much.

Doug Drabek was quite nearly my favorite Pirate as a child. In fact, this blog would have quite nearly been "WHYGDD" if not for all of the qualities that make Andy Van Slyke a 5-year olds favorite player. Still, who wouldn't love the mustache and the mullet to go with the dominant pitching that Drabek brought to the table.

First things first. Drabek started the very first Pirate game I ever attended. The details of his start are murky, but he must've been good because I know the Pirates beat the Expos 6-1 that night. I distinctly remember getting a baseball card that off-season that said "Award Winners" on it with Drabek's picture and the caption "1990 National League Cy Young Winner." That lead to a discussion between me and my dad about what a Cy Young Award was. Funny what sticks with us, isn't it?

I don't remember a lot about Drabek's 1990 campaign, but damn, those numbers are impressive. 22-6. Three shutouts. 2.76 ERA. 1.06 WHIP. That's a dominant season. He followed it up with two more fifteen win seasons. The Pirates have had one fifteen game winner since he left. I remember being a little kid and thinking that every single time I went to a game with my dad, Drabek was on the mound. Looking back, maybe that wasn't a coincidence. He caught some bad luck in '91 with 14 losses, but he didn't really pitch a whole lot worse. After he left, I remember getting trounced by Astro teams that he pitched for on Sunday afternoons and wishing he was still in black and gold.

But the thing that will probably stick with me the most is Drabek in the playoffs. I decry the description of players as "clutch" all the time, but damn am I tempted to use it to describe Drabek. I know he started at least two of the Pirates NL East division clinchers and I think he may have started all three. Whether or not Drabek was a clutch pitcher, he certainly turned in some big time performances in the playoffs. He made 7 career NLCS starts with the Pirates and had an ERA of 2.05 and a WHIP of 1.12 to go with it. I hate to bring this up, but he tossed eight shutout innings in game 7 of the '92 NLCS before running out of gas and giving way to Stan Belinda and... I'm not going there.

Just think about Drabek. Staring a hole in a batter from above that giant mustache with his mullet flapping in the wind behind him. I mean, how could a hitter not be intimidated by him? That's what this pitching staff is missing. After Snell (who everyone knows is nuts and must scare the bejesus out of everyone he faces), Gorzelanny, Duke, and Maholm all look like little kids. There's just not anyone on the team (and not many people in the league in general) with an image created specifically to scare batters. Doug Drabek wasn't afraid of anyone. And that's why I remember him.