When Burt Hooton Was an L.A. 'King'

Happy was better than you remember

1976 Topps Burt Hooton (#280) - Card of the Day

Baseball never lets us down when it comes to drawing throughlines between players who seem to have very little in common.

Take the curious case of Felix Hernandez, for example. During the opening decade or so of his career, King Felix was on a beeline for the Hall of Fame. Through his first ten-plus seasons, ending in 2015, Hernandez compiled a gaudy resume that included: a 143-101 record, 3.11 ERA, 128 ERA+, 2142 strikeouts, 1.171 WHIP, a Cy Young Award (and two runner-up finishes), two ERA titles, six All-Star selections, and 49.9 WAR.

Entering his age-30 season, all Hernandez had to do was keep his arm attached to his body and he’d be golden.

More milestones followed in 2016, but also a calf injury that limited him to fewer than 30 starts for the first time since his rookie year in 2005. Shoulder and elbow injuries followed, along with an opt-out of the COVID season in 2020. And, though he gave it another couple shots, he never took the mound again after 2019.

Heading into his first Hall of Fame ballot this year, Hernandez’s line looks decidedly more mortal: 169-136, 3.42 ERA, 117 ERA+, still 49.9 WAR. He holds several Mariners pitching records, but will that be enough to get him into Cooperstown?

We’ll start to get the answer soon.

In the meantime, we can let our eyes wander over the list of the most similar pitchers to King Felix, by measure of Baseball Reference’s Similarity Scores. When we get down to number nine, we find a fellow who never seemed destined for the Hall of Fame but who ended up with a fine career, anyway.

Burt Hooton spent the first five seasons of his career with the Chicago Cubs, mostly in the rotation, but also as enough of a swingman to make 37 relief appearances. During that time, he was generally good for 200+ innings and run prevention a tick or three above average in the National League.

In May of 1975, the Cubs traded Hooton to the Dodgers in exchange for Eddie Solomon and Geoff Zahn. The righthander (Hooton) immediately took to starting for a contending team in the California sunshine, running up an 18-7 record with a 2.82 ERA in 30 starts as Los Angeles finished second to the Big Red Machine in the National League West.

That early-season trade and Hooton’s subsequent performance earned him his first Dodgers baseball card in the 1976 Topps set. There was plenty of time to capture him in a “real” L.A. uniform, so we get to see the marriage sans airbrush job and with a classic card pose. Complete with a wistful gaze to a future that turned out to be even brighter.

That 1975 performance also earned Hooton a slot in the middle of Walter Alston’s rotation in 1976, and Tommy Lasorda kept him there in 1977 when the Dodgers won the division. Hooton went a combined 23-22 those summers, then struggled in the NLCS against the Phillies before going 1-1 against the Yankees in the World Series (in an overall losing effort).

The next year was Hooton’s best in the big leagues by many measures. He led Dodgers starters with a 19-10 record and 2.71 ERA, finishing second to Don Sutton with 236 innings pitched. Hooton also posted a 1.089 WHIP and finished second to Gaylord Perry in National League Cy Young Award voting.

Hooton never quite hit those heights again, though his performance in the strike-torn 1981 season was top-notch, even as he was overshadowed by rotation mates Fernando Valenzuela and Jerry Reuss. Hooton did make his only All-Star team that summer.

The results weren’t quite as stellar in 1982, as Hooton’s ERA jumped to 4.03. He spent some time in the bullpen in 1983 before relieving for most of 1984. Of his 54 appearances that Olympic summer, only six were starts. He was a free agent for the first time that winter and signed with the Rangers, going back to his Texas roots.

“Happy” made 20 starts and nine relief appearances for the Rangers in 1985, posting a 5-8 record with a 5.23 ERA.

That was the end of the road for Hooton, who hung up his spikes with a 151-136 record and 3.38 ERA, not far off from King Felix on the surface. Hooton’s peripherals were a bit softer (more than 1000 fewer strikeouts despite more innings pitched, for example), leaving him with 36.4 WAR.

When Hooton came up for Hall of Fame consideration in 1991, he received a single vote and fell off the ballot. Inducted that year? Rod Carew, along with Perry and Hooton’s former Cubs teammate, Fergie Jenkins.

Seems fitting for a pitcher who spent nearly his entire career in the shadows of bigger names, don’t you think?