TBT: Mel Stottlemyre

As the New York Yankees were making a legendary run of greatness with their dynasty of the mid-to-late nineties, one individual who played an important role in the success of those great Yankee units was pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre. When Joe Torre was hired as the new Yankees skipper following the 1995 season, he brought on Stottlemyre as his pitching coach. Stottlemyre was certainly no stranger to the Bronx, having joined the Yankees in the summer of 1964 as a mid-season call-up. He would go 9-3 in 1964 in helping the Yankees win their fifth consecutive American League pennant. As the Yankees faced the St. Louis Cardinals in the '64 World Series, Stottlemyre was called upon to start three games in the series - games two, five, and the decisive game seven. In all three starts, he had the tall task of facing Cardinals great Bob Gibson. Stottlemyre bested Gibson in game two for the Yankees to even the series, while he got a no-decision in game five, and then would lose to Gibson in game seven as the Cardinals won the World Series. Stottlemyre was a five-time all-star, and compiled a 164 -139 record over his career with a 2.97 E.R.A. In 1965 he was a 20-game winner and lead the American League with an astounding 18 complete games and 291 innings pitched. He was also a 20 game-winner in the 1968 and 1969 seasons. After his retirement from baseball as a player, success followed Stottlemyre as a pitching coach. He was on Davey Johnson’s staff of the 1986 New York Mets team as their pitching coach, mentoring a great staff that included Dwight Gooden, Ron Darling, and Sid Fernandez. The Mets, of course, went on to win 108 games, and would win the World Series over the Boston Red Sox in seven games. As he joined Torre’s staff prior to the 1996 season, Stottlemyre brought his success to the Bronx, leading a pitching staff that included former Mets David Cone, and Gooden, plus he would have a big part in the development of Andy Pettitte as the emerging young star of the Yankees' rotation along with a young developing Mariano Rivera. The Yankees World Series champions of  '96, '98-2000 were marked by great pitching. There were certainly some great moments under Stottlemyres’s leadership; Doc Gooden’s no-hitter in 1996, David Wells’ perfect game of 1998, and David Cone’s perfect game of 1999. These were unforgettable moments in Yankees’ history that could be partially attributed to Stottlemyre. Mel’s legacy has reached down to his own family, as two of his sons Todd and Mel Jr. went on to become Major League pitchers. Mel Jr. is now the Seattle Mariners' pitching coach. With all of the battles that Mel Stottlemyre has faced on the pitchers mound and as a coach, the greatest battle of his life is a fight that he has been facing on and off for the past 16 years, and that's cancer (Multiple Myeloma). First diagnosed in 2000, the cancer was in remission for years only to resurface again in 2011. Recently, Stottlemyre was on hand to help celebrate the 20th anniversary of the 1996 New York Yankees World Series Championship team on August 13th, 2016. On June 20, 2015 during the Old-Timers’ Day Ceremony at Yankee Stadium, Stottlemyre received a plaque in his honor in the famed Monument Park. As the years roll on, Yankees fans will always see him in their mind's eye sitting in that Yankees dugout right beside Joe Torre during one of the greatest runs in team history.