Yankees pitching ace in lean time
Mel Stottlemyre, the Yankees’ pitching ace in their lean years of the late 1960s and early ‘70s and later the longtime pitching coach for Mets and Yankees teams that won the World Series, died Sunday in a Seattle hospital. He was 77.
His wife, Jean Stottlemyre, said the cause was complications of multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer for which he had been treated for many years. Mr. Stottlemyre lived in the Seattle area.
He made his last visit to Yankee Stadium in June 2015, when the Yankees surprised him by dedicating a Monument Park plaque in his honor when he attended their annual Old-Timers’ Day gathering. The tribute came after their former second baseman Willie Randolph received a plaque as scheduled.
Mr. Stottlemyre, walking with the aid of a cane, told the crowd, “It’s been a thrill over the years for me to wear this uniform.” He said that if it was to be his last Old-Timers’ Day, he would “start another baseball club, coaching up there, whenever they need me.”
Arriving at Yankee Stadium in August 1964, Mr. Stottlemyre posted a 9-3 record while helping the Yankees win a fifth straight pennant. He then faced Bob Gibson, the St. Louis Cardinals’ future Hall of Fame pitcher, three times in the World Series.
The Yankees were beaten by the Cardinals in seven games, but Mr. Stottlemyre became an anchor of their pitching staff. In his 11 seasons with the Yankees, a long stretch of largely lean years after decades of dominance, he was one of their few bright spots. A right-hander featuring a superb sinkerball, he was a five-time All-Star and a three-time 20-game winner.
Mr. Stottlemyre coached the Mets pitchers for 10 seasons, including their 1986 World Series championship year, and the Yankees’ pitchers for another 10, during which he won four World Series championship rings. He was being treated for multiple myeloma for much of his time as the Yankees pitching coach.
Even as a rookie pitcher, he had uncommon poise.
“Here’s a 21-year-old kid nobody knew coming out of nowhere with this great arm and super control who has all the confidence — not a big head, mind you, but a quiet self-assurance — of a Whitey Ford,” his teammate Tom Tresh was quoted as saying in the oral history “Bombers” (2002), by Richard Lally.
Years later, Mr. Stottlemyre was admired by the pitchers he coached for his optimism and his ability to relate to them. The Yankees’ David Cone once said that Mr. Stottlemyre anticipated how pitchers liked to be treated. Mr. Stottlemyre, in turn, said he had benefited from talking with his sons Todd and Mel Jr., both of whom pitched in the major leagues. “It’s like he never got older,” Mr. Cone said of Mr. Stottlemyre.
“When you’re struggling, he’s always there for you,” relief pitcher Mariano Rivera told the New Jersey newspaper The Record in October 1998, after the Yankees defeated the San Diego Padres to begin their string of three straight World Series titles.
Dwight Gooden remembered how Mr. Stottlemyre came to the mound and steadied him when he was two outs away from a nohitter against the Seattle Mariners at Yankee Stadium in May 1996. Mr. Gooden had walked two batters and thrown a wild pitch to Jay Buhner, putting runners on second and third with the Yankees leading by 2-0.
“There’s something about his demeanor — so trusting, so trustworthy — that makes you want to tell him the truth,” Mr. Gooden said in his memoir, “Heat” (1999), written with Bob Klapisch.
Mr. Gooden recalled Mr. Stottlemyre using his nickname while telling him: “I’m not taking you out, Doc. I’m just here to give you a breather. This game is yours, Doc. Yours unless you tell me you can’t go anymore.”
When Mr. Gooden insisted that he still had it, Mr. Stottlemyre told him, “Go get him.”
Mr. Gooden struck out Mr. Buhner and got Paul Sorrento to pop up to Derek Jeter, the shortstop. The nohitter was his.
Melvin Leon Stottlemyre was born Nov. 13, 1941, in Hazleton, Mo., and grew up in Mabton, Wash. He was signed by the Yankees in 1961 out of what was then Yakima Valley Junior College in Washington state.