Ken Holtzman, a left-hander who pitched two no-hitters for the Chicago Cubs and gained three World Collection with the Oakland A’s in a 15-season profession, died on Monday in St. Louis. He was 78.
He had been hospitalized for the final three weeks with coronary heart and respiratory diseases, his brother, Bob, mentioned in confirming the loss of life.
Holtzman gained 174 video games, probably the most for a Jewish pitcher in Main League Baseball — 9 greater than the Corridor of Famer Sandy Koufax, who is taken into account top-of-the-line pitchers ever and who had a shorter profession.
Along with his win whole, Holtzman, who at 6 ft 2 inches and 175 kilos minimize a lanky determine, had a profession earned run common of three.49 and was chosen for the 1972 and 1973 All-Star groups.
Holtzman, at 23, threw his first no-hitter on Aug. 19, 1969, a 3-0 victory over the Atlanta Braves — a efficiency distinguished by the truth that he didn’t strike out any Braves. It was the primary time since 1923 {that a} no-hitter had been pitched with out a strikeout.
“I didn’t have my good curve, and I will need to have thrown 90 % fastballs,” Holtzman informed The Atlanta Structure afterward. “Once I noticed my curve wasn’t breaking early within the sport, I assumed it may be an extended day.”
His second no-hitter got here on June 3, 1971, towards the Cincinnati Reds at their ballpark, Riverfront Stadium, the place he struck out six and walked 4.
“The followers within the first row behind our dugout wouldn’t let me overlook I had a no-hitter going tonight,” he informed The Chicago Tribune. “I suppose from the fourth inning on, they’d yell at me that I used to be going to lose my no-hitter.”
Nevertheless it was a excessive level in a tough season, through which his report was 9-15 and his E.R.A. jumped to 4.48 from 3.38 the 12 months earlier than. He additionally had a fractious relationship with Supervisor Leo Durocher.
Within the off season, the Cubs traded Holtzman to Oakland for the outfielder Rick Monday.
“The air is cleared now,” Holtzman informed The Tribune. “I wouldn’t have cared if the Cubs had traded me for 2 dozen eggs.”
The commerce revived his profession.
Kenneth Dale Holtzman was born on Nov. 3, 1945, in St. Louis. His father, Henry, was a equipment supplier. His mom, Jacqueline (Lapp) Holtzman, managed the house.
Holtzman had a 31-3 report at College Metropolis Excessive College, outdoors St. Louis, and performed for the College of Illinois. As a sophomore, he gained six video games and struck out 72 batters in 57 innings. He was chosen by the Cubs within the fourth spherical of the 1965 novice draft.
He spent many of the 1965 season within the minor leagues, the place he compiled an 8-3 report, earlier than being referred to as up by the Cubs.
Holtzman left the Cubs in 1971 with a 74-69 report. He fared considerably higher with the A’s, a Seventies dynasty whose gamers included Reggie Jackson, Sal Bando, Catfish Hunter and Rollie Fingers. In Oakland’s World Collection championship years, from 1972 to 1974, Holtzman had a 59-41 common season report. In World Collection video games, he was 4-1.
In early 1976, Holtzman was one among 9 A’s gamers whose unsigned contracts had been renewed with 20 % wage cuts by Charles O. Finley, the group’s capricious proprietor.
“The person doesn’t care if I go away or not,” Holtzman, a union activist who was the group’s participant consultant, informed The New York Instances throughout spring coaching that 12 months.
Quickly after, he and Jackson had been traded to the Baltimore Orioles. However in late June, Holtzman was despatched to the Yankees in a 10-player commerce. With New York, although, his pitching was not as environment friendly because it been in Oakland, and Supervisor Billy Martin declined to make use of him within the postseason rotation in 1976, when the Yankees had been swept by the Reds, and once more in 1977, when the Yankees defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers in six video games.
After the fifth sport of the Collection, Holtzman was requested if he anticipated to pitch within the remaining video games.
“No, probably not, not after I haven’t been used all 12 months,” he informed The Instances, referring to an everyday season through which he had appeared in solely 18 video games, a few of them in reduction.
His appearances grew even much less frequent in 1978. He pitched solely 17⅔ innings in 5 video games earlier than he was traded again to the Cubs. On the time of the commerce, Holtzman had challenged the Yankees’ resolution to place him on the 21-day disabled listing for an ailing again.
“I suppose they’re simply glad to do away with me,” he informed The Instances.
He was 6-12 with the Cubs till they launched him after the 1979 season.
Holtzman, who was an insurance coverage dealer throughout his enjoying days, ran the athletic division for a number of years on the Jewish Neighborhood Heart in St. Louis after his retirement.
He returned to baseball in 2007 because the supervisor of a group within the Israel Baseball League. Dan Kurtzer, the commissioner, recalled in a telephone interview that Holtzman’s expertise within the Main League Baseball Gamers Affiliation made being a supervisor tough for him.
“From the start, I impressed upon him that he was a part of administration, nevertheless it by no means sunk in,” he mentioned. “We had some labor points, and I wanted the managers to be supportive, and Ken had bother with that as a result of he was labor oriented.”
Holtzman left the group — the Petach Tikva Pioneers, primarily based close to Tel Aviv, who completed in final place — with two weeks to go within the season. Two months earlier than his departure, he informed an Israeli web site that the league’s organizers had rushed into its first, and solely, season, with out the right preparation, like enough fields.
Along with his brother, Bob, a former minor league pitcher, Holtzman is survived by his daughters, Robyn Schuster, Stacey Steffens and Lauren Fyle; 4 grandchildren; and a sister, Janice Koertel. His marriage to Michelle Collins resulted in divorce.
Holtzman, as a Cub, and Koufax, with the Dodgers, confronted one another as soon as, at Wrigley Subject in Chicago on Sept. 25, 1966.
It was Holtzman’s first full season and Koufax’s final. Within the fifth inning, at which level Holtzman had not given up a success, Bob Holtzman informed their father that he was going to the boys’s room. “He mentioned, ‘You’re not going wherever, he’s pitching a no-hitter,’” the brother recalled in a telephone interview. “He wouldn’t let me go away my seat.”
Holtzman carried the no-hitter into the ninth inning, nevertheless it was damaged up by the primary hitter, Dick Schofield, who singled to heart discipline. Holtzman then surrendered the shutout, however gained, 2-1, on a two-hitter, with eight strikeouts. Koufax gave up 4 hits.
“I used to be glad with my efficiency,” Koufax informed The Los Angeles Instances, “however Ken was too good for us right now.”