Here we have the first card of a Padre not joined by one
with a “Washington NL” designation. By this point in the set it was clear that
new ownership of the team – namely Ray Kroc – would keep it in San
Diego so the team designation on all the cards – even the ones already issued – would revert to San Diego. So Topps had
to do reissues of all the Padres who had cards before Steve here who looks
mildly discomfited even though he didn’t have to go through the process. I can
certainly understand why. In ’73 he finally put together a season in which his
losses didn’t pretty much completely overwhelm his wins but somehow managed to
inflate his ERA by way over a run in the process. If he could only have matched
his worse ERA of the prior two years he probably would have more than turned
his record around. Tough time to be in San Diego
and Steve was probably pining for his days back in Ohio.
Steve Arlin was born in Seattle
and by his high school years was living and pitching in Ohio. After graduating in ’63 he went to Ohio State
where he would become one of the best college pitchers ever. His sophomore year
of ’65 he went 13-2 with a school-record 165 strikeouts including 20 in a
15-inning game during the CWS, which they ultimately lost – the series, not the
game – to Arizona State. After that season he was drafted by Detroit but opted to stay in school. In ’66 he
went 11-1 with 129 strikeouts while leading Ohio State
to its only CWS title and winning MVP of the tournament. Both seasons he was an
All-American. After his junior year he was tabbed by the Phillies in the draft
and this time opted to go when Philadelphia
met his asking price of $106,000. In A ball that summer he did pretty well,
going 7-6 with a 3.27 ERA and 116 strikeouts in 110 innings. The next year he
didn’t start pitching until late June because a stipulation of his contract was
that he be allowed to attend school until he finished. He threw a no-hitter
that summer in Double A but other than that it was a bust as his K numbers came
way down and his record fell to 2-7 with a 4.46 ERA. That pattern repeated
itself in a ’68 split between A and Triple A and ’69 and ’70 spent at the
higher levels: late season starts because of school with not great results and
strikeout totals that were even with his walks. Prior to the ’69 season he went
to San Diego in
the expansion draft and got his first MLB action that year and got bombed. But
after a shutout late in September of ’70 over the Braves and with his degree
finally in hand, he seemed ready to roll.
Arlin was up to stay in ’71 and although he was able to
resuscitate his strikeout totals and had a pretty good ERA he led the NL in
losses with 19. He turned pretty much the same trick in ’72, this time leading
all of baseball with his 21 losses. Than came that weird ’73, but all his past
would only be prelude for his ’74: a 1-7 record with a 5.91 ERA and twice as
many walks as strikeouts made Steve expendable and that June he went to
Cleveland for Brent Strom, another former great college pitcher who couldn’t
get it going in the bigs. For the Indians things didn’t get better – that’s how
things went for those guys back then – and after going 2-5 with a 6.60 ERA for
the Tribe Steve was done. He finished with a record of 34-67 with a 4.33 ERA
with 32 complete games and eleven shutouts. That was pretty much on par with
his work in the minors: 19-33 with a 4.47 ERA.
After playing Arlin settled immediately into his new
profession, the one that demanded all that schooling. He became a dentist,
first around Columbus, Ohio,
and then back in San Diego.
Baseball-wise his number was retired at Ohio State
and he was elected to the College Hall of Fame in 2008.
That bonus generally moves around from $100,000 to the one posted
in the star bullet. Denny Doyle broke up the no-hitter up top in ’72. His
grandpa broadcasted the first radio baseball game ever in Pittsburgh.
These two are certainly on the right coast for a short
hook-up:
1. Arlin and Ollie Brown ’69 to ’72 Padres;
2. Brown and Ellie Rodriguez ’72 to ’73 Brewers.
I think all the minor-league photos the Phillies had of Arlin back in the day (and maybe even his 1972 Topps card) had Arlin wearing Clark Kent style glassses.
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