Dick Mills Milled a Pitching Legacy
The cardboard doesn't tell the whole story
1971 Topps Dick Mills (#512) - Card of the Day
Sometimes, it’s tough to judge what sort of impact a man had on the game solely on the basis of his baseball cardboard legacy. Take Dick Mills, for example.
First selected by the Phillies in the 13th round of the 1965 draft, Ellis instead decided to return to Parsons College in Iowa. Same thing when the Pirates took him in the sixth round the next January. He finally signed on the dotted line when the Red Sox came calling in June 1966, and from there he started his minor league climb.
Mills spent most of the next five seasons in the bushes, working a bit in relief but landing solidly in the rotation at Triple-A Louisville in 1970. That summer, he went 6-6 with a 3.53 ERA in 27 starts, which was enough to get him a late call-up to Boston.
On September 7, Red Sox manager Eddie Kasko brought Mills in to relieve Chuck Hartenstein (who had relieved Cal Koonce) in the sixth inning of the nightcap of a doubleheader in Cleveland. Mills pitched the rest of the game, an 8-2 blowout over the Indians, giving up six base runners and an earned run while striking out two.
Six days later, Mills came in to relieve again, inheriting loaded bases against the Orioles in Baltimore in the bottom of the seventh. With one out and the O’s already up 7-1, Mills took the ball from Gary Wagner and proceeded to give up six runs. It all started when Mills himself committed an error on a ball hit by Andy Etchebarren. Remarkably, Mills wasn’t charged with a single earned run in the slaughter, but he also didn’t live to see another inning.
Or another game in the majors, for that matter. After Mills coaxed Brooks Robinson into a groundout to end the inning, he never took the mound in the bigs again.
Mills did show up in one major-league way, though — he shared a rookie card with Mike Garman in the black-bordered 1971 Topps set, as you see above.
On the diamond, it was back to the farm for Mills in 1971. After one more season with Double-A Pawtucket, he was done with professional baseball at age 26, off to other endeavors. One of those endeavors was raising children, including Ryan Mills, who went on to pitch in the Twins’ minor league system for several years.
Like many fathers, Dick Mills put on his coaching hat when his son started playing ball, and that soon led to an even deeper interest in the ins and outs of pitching. Eventually, Dick developed his own theory and system of pitching and started Pitching.com (Wayback Machine link) as a way to share his passion and knowledge.
Dick Mills passed away in 2015, and his website is now defunct, but there’s no denying the man had a much bigger baseball legacy than his half-card hobby entry would suggest.
And, speaking of that shared RC, Mike Garman has an interesting baseball family tree in his own right. Read more about that right here.
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Boston Red Sox 1971 Vintage 12'' x 16'' Framed Program Cover (at Fanatics.com)
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