Today marks Dave Stieb’s 69th birthday.
We saw Stieb on the weekend. He looks like he could still play.
Stieb holds the franchise records for wins, innings pitched, strikeouts, games started, complete games, and many other pitching categories. His 103 complete games in 408 starts for the Blue Jays is a mark unlikely to be matched unless baseball fundamentally changes. It’s hard to imagine another pitcher ever completing a quarter of their starts again.
He and Roy Halladay are 1 and 1A atop the list
of greatest Blue Jays pitchers. My opinion occasionally shifts, but I generally give the edge to Stieb—those complete games and innings pitched mean a lot. But then they played in different eras. In my view, Stieb was the best American League pitcher of the 1980s.
Stieb was also, to put it nicely, an intense competitor. He loved to win and didn’t always react well when teammates made mistakes behind him (can you imagine him playing for the Jays this week?). I remember seeing him glare at fielders from the mound; I doubt that all of his teammates were big fans of his demeanor.
A few years ago, I asked Pat Hentgen a few questions about Stieb:
From the outside, it always seemed like Stieb wasn’t the greatest person?
For some reason, he took a liking to me when I played there, so we got pretty close during my first year with him, and we stayed in touch through the 90s until he made his comeback in 98. We shared the same agent. There’s always been a connection there. He’s always helped me. He’s always been a guy I could call while playing. Call him and talk about the mental focus, things he did, and tools to get back on track. It was nice to have a guy who was 10 years ahead of me in age, experience, and life in general. It’s been a great relationship.
He was a hero of mine as a kid, I guess, because he was the best player on the team at the time.
He was very good. I mean it was way before satellite TV and all that crap. My agent used to tell me he’d go months without a ball hit hard off him. You try to make it through one game without a hard-hit ball. I remember Bob, my agent, telling me that Dave, in his prime, went months without a ball hit hard. Give up singles and balls that bloop in, but no one would hit a ball hard. He was big-time dominant. He was so dominant.
He didn’t always seem to enjoy his teammates.
No kidding. I am sure he has said to me that he regrets some of the things he did early in his career as far as some of that stuff on the field. A very fierce competitor; you go to his place to play darts, it is ‘look out, game on,’ you know. Whatever you play, that is just the way he is. I don’t know if it is because he had an older brother. He was trying to keep up with him or what, but he is one hell of a competitor.
Happy Birthday, Dave. I hope it is a good one.
Cliff Johnson turns 79 today.
Cliff Johnson was a designated hitter who played for the Jays from 1983 to 1986, with a half-season stint for the Texas Rangers in between. I always thought Cliff was our first truly effective DH. He joined the team as a veteran at age 35 in 1983, already with 11 seasons in the majors. He was part of the Jays’ transformation from a struggling expansion team to a perennial playoff contender. In 1985—the franchise’s first playoff year—Bobby Cox platooned him with Al Oliver.
As a Blue Jay, Johnson hit .273/.372/.466 with 54 home runs and 202 RBI over four seasons. Across his 15-year career, he posted a .258/.355/.459 line with 196 home runs and 568 RBI. He was always a solid hitter but never known for his defense. Although he played catcher, first base, and outfield, DH was the ideal role for him.
I remember commentators calling him Heathcliff, but he’s listed as Clifford on his Baseball-Reference page. I thought Heathcliff was a cool name back then.
Happy Birthday, Cliff; have a good one.
Tim Johnson turns 77 today.
Tim played for the Jays in 1978 and 1979, wrapping up a seven-season MLB career. He appeared in 111 games for Toronto, batting .212/.284/.248 with one home run.
And you will likely remember that he was our manager in 1998. The team went 88-74 that season. So since we were 76-86 the season before, we were pretty happy with him.
Tim tried to motivate his players with stories of his time in Vietnam. Unfortunately, it was later revealed that these stories were fabricated—he had never served in Vietnam and was actually a Marine reservist while playing in the Dodgers’ minor league system. Exaggerating a resume is one thing, but lying about military service is unacceptable. He also falsely claimed to have received a basketball scholarship to UCLA.
Gord Ash ended up firing him. Ash didn’t have much luck with picking managers.
Happy Birthday, Tim.
