John Tudor Brought 1985 to Los Angeles
And left his elbow in the Oakland Coliseum
1989 Donruss John Tudor (#195) - Card of the Day
The 1985 baseball season brought all sorts of thrills and chills, revelations and disappointments, just like every other summer does. But if you were looking for breakout pitching performances, you’d be hard-pressed to find a season with more meaty morsels than 1985.
Bret Saberhagen stepped right out of your high school woodshop class to win the American League Cy Young Award, beating out Ron Guidry, who most assumed had been eaten by gators sometime in the early 1980s.
In the National League, Dwight Gooden had already busted out as a rookie in 1984. He became simply otherworldly in 1985. Good thing, too, or 31-year-old Pirates castoff John Tudor might have nabbed the Cy Young for his work with the Cardinals. If not Tudor, it would have been Professor Poindexter himself, Orel Hershiser of the Dodgers, who did his best Elroy Face impression, Starter Division.
Who could have guessed that three short years later, two of these dudes would end up on the same staff and end up facing another of them with most of the marbles on the line?
Here’s how it happened…
After winning pennants but losing heartbreaker World Series in both 1985 and 1987, the Cardinals stumbled into the middle August of 1988 just trying to stay out of last place in the National League East. Tudor was doing his part, posting a sterling 2.29 ERA that netted him a pedestrian 6-5 record.
Meanwhile, the Dodgers were leading the West but trying to hold off the Astros, Giants, and Reds. Looking for a little more pitching help — and who wasn’t and isn’t? — Los Angeles came after the Cardinals lefty.
Gone was 1980s Dodgers icon Pedro Guerrero, swapped straight-up for Tudor on August 16. The lefty didn’t miss a beat, going 4-3 in nine starts down the stretch with a tidy 2.41 ERA that was a nice complement to Hershiser, who won the Cy Young Award that fall, Tim Leary, and Tim Belcher.
Los Angeles spent that stretch run edging further ahead of the pack, eventually winning the West by seven games over Cincinnati. Then it was onto the National League Championship Series, where Gooden and the Mets awaited.
L.A. prevailed in a tough seven-game series, though Tudor got tagged for four runs in five innings in his only NLCS appearance. He looked to be on the road to redemption when he pitched one and a third scoreless innings in Game 3 of the World Series before injuring his elbow striking out Mark McGwire in the second.
Tudor finally got his World Series ring when the Dodgers finished off the A’s two games later, but the injury would keep him off the mound until late June of 1989. By then, collectors were being treated to the sight of him in his Los Angeles Blues, like on the Donruss card above, where the streaking Dodgers logo does a great job of introducing and accentuating Tudor’s delivery.
But even then, it was a halting return for Tudor, and he’d appear in just six games that summer. A free agent in the offseason, he headed “home” to St. Louis, where he put up one final Tudor-esque season in 1990 — 12-4, 2.40 ERA.
It was a great comeback, but Tudor had had enough, and he hung up his spikes. Overall in his career, Tudor went 117-72 with a 3.12 ERA, one World Series title, and one deadline(ish) trade that helped shape the fate of a baseball season.
It Was Later than He Looked
Hershiser has one of those eternally-boyish faces that draws comparisons to Opie Taylor, Richie Cunningham, and probably any number of Ron Howard characters. That youthful vibe was on full display on one of his later minor league cards, the 1983 TCMA number you see above.
Bulldog finally debuted for the Dodgers that September, the same month he turned 25 — ancient for a prospect. Still, Hershiser looked like a kid on his Dukes card, and he still had a long, glorious road ahead of him.
Read all about this card and some more about Orel’s rise right here.
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Hey, the good news here is that it’s Friday! Weekend is on tap, which should have us all feeling a little younger if we play our cards right. Right?
Thanks for reading.
—Adam
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