Mike Mussina, a 270-game winner for the Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees, was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame today along with five others, including longtime teammate Mariano Rivera. In the second part of a six-part series, this piece celebrates ten Mike Mussina Hall of Fame moments, ten of the greatest games he ever pitched. As with the other pieces in this series, most of the moments will have video clips that you can play, thanks to YouTube.
Recapping the ground rules established in the piece published recently highlighting the great moments in the career of Edgar Martinez, ranking these moments from 1 to 10 is a highly subjective process so I’m going to go through each player’s career moments chronologically. In most of these features, I’ll share some thoughts about a “bonus moment” or two that I subjectively left out of the top 10.
Anyway, it’s time to look at the greatest games in the history of the pitcher known as Moose, Michael Cole Mussina.
Enjoy!
(cover photo: Baltimore Sun)
Mike Mussina Hall of Fame Moment #1: July 17, 1992 (Orioles at Rangers)
Mike Mussina, highly touted as a 1990 #1 draft pick and College World Series champion out of Stanford, burst onto the MLB scene in 1991, going 4-5 with a 2.87 ERA in 12 starts. As he noted in his speech today, he pitched “pretty well” in his MLB debut, giving up just 4 hits in.
“The problem was that Frank Thomas had three of them, including a solo home run, and we lost 1-0.”
— Mike Mussina (Hall of Fame induction speech, July 21, 2019)
In his first 16 starts of the 1992 campaign (his first full season in the majors), Mussina went 9-3 with a 2.40 en route to earning his first All-Star berth. It was in his first start after the Midsummer Classic (on July 17th in Texas) that Mussina delivered the first real gem of his career. The 23-year old right-hander retired the first 12 batters he faced before yielding a lead-off walk to Ruben Sierra in the 5th. After a strikeout of Juan Gonzalez, Kevin Reimer doubled, putting runners on 2nd and 3rd with just one out. Mussina retired the next two batters to preserve his shutout through the first 5 frames.
Moose went on to retire the next 12 Rangers he faced, preserving a one-hit shutout, an effort featuring just that one walk to Sierra to go with 10 strikeouts.
If you want to re-watch this or any other clip after it’s finished, hit the re-fresh button on the bottom left of the frame.
Mussina finished the ’92 campaign with a 18-5 record and 2.54 ERA, a sophomore campaign that earned him a 4th place finish in the A.L. Cy Young Award voting.
Bonus Moment: Sept. 6, 1995 (Angels at Orioles)
Mussina was the starting pitcher and winner of this regular season game against the California Angels. He went 7.2 innings, giving up 2 runs and 5 hits. This game was not famous for Moose’s performance, however. It was made famous because Cal Ripken Jr. played in consecutive game #2,131, passing the immortal Lou Gehrig (the Iron Horse) for the game’s all-time Iron Man record. Mussina’s role was to help make the Orioles a winner in this rare team game that was all about one individual.
The win was Mussina’s 16th of the season. He would finish the campaign with a 19-9 record and 3.29 ERA. He finished 5th in the Cy Young balloting, having finished 4th in the strike-shortened 1994 season.
In an otherwise mediocre encore, Mussina won 19 games again in ’96. The 19 wins (against 11 losses) gave Moose another 5th place finish in the Cy Young race despite an unsightly 4.81 ERA.
The Baltimore Orioles made the playoffs in 1996 (as the American League’s Wild Card entrant) for the first time since winning the World Series in 1983. For Mike Mussina, the first taste of October baseball was sour. In two starts he went 0-2 with a 5.27 ERA. The O’s managed to defeat the Cleveland Indians in the ALDS but succumbed to the eventual champion New York Yankees in the ALCS.
Mike Mussina Hall of Fame Moment #2: May 30, 1997 (Indians at Orioles)
On a Friday night at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Mussina retired the first 25 members of the Cleveland Indians, who fielded a lineup with 5 batters who were hitting over .300 coming into the game (Julio Franco, Jim Thome, David Justice, Manny Ramirez and Sandy Alomar Jr.).
Mussina retired the first 24 batters in 8 innings, putting him position for a perfect game. After getting Tony Fernandez to ground out to lead off the 9th, Alomar singled to left field to spoil both the perfect game and no-hit bids. Mussina settled down to strike out the last two batters (Brian Giles and Marquis Grissom) to preserve his shutout, a 1-hitter in which the O’s won 3-0.
Moose struck out 10 batters, induced 11 groundouts, 2 infield popouts and just 4 fly balls to the outfield. It was the second of 4 one-hit shutouts in Mussina’s career.
The 1997 Postseason
In 1997, the Orioles were the A.L. East Champions, winning 98 regular season games to the Yankees’ 96. After two consecutive 19-win seasons, Mussina won “only” 15 games (against 8 losses) in ’97 with a 3.20 ERA and an eventual 6th place Cy Young finish, the 5th time in 6 years that he finished in the top 6.
As a first round opponent in the playoffs, the O’s drew the Seattle Mariners. In Game 1 at the Kingdome in Seattle, Mussina was matched up against the M’s ace, Randy Johnson, who had gone 20-4 with a 2.28 ERA during the regular season. The Big Unit was not on his game, however, giving up 5 runs in 5 innings. Mussina, meanwhile, pitched 7 innings of 2-run ball, the only blemishes being solo home runs by Edgar Martinez and Jay Buhner.
Edgar had been somewhat of a nemesis for Mussina; coming into the game, he was hitting .419 with a 1.374 OPS in 34 plate appearances, which included 2 of his then career 12 triples in the same game!
Anyway, despite those solo jobs, Mussina and the O’s easily won the contest 9-3.
Mike Mussina Hall of Fame Moment #3: Oct. 5, 1997: ALDS Game 4 (Mariners at Orioles)
The Orioles and Mariners split Games 2 and 3, setting up a clinching scenario for the O’s in Game 4. Once again, the pitching matchup featured the two future Hall of Famers, Mussina and Johnson. The O’s got off to another good start against the Big Unit, with Jeff Reboulet hitting a solo tater and Ripken delivering a RBI single to give Baltimore a 2-0 lead after one inning.
Martinez continued to torture Mussina, leading off the top of the 2nd with another solo homer. However, that would be the only run Moose would give up in 7 innings. All told, Moose gave up just two hits along with 3 walks and 7 strikeouts to record his second win of the series and send the Birds to the ALCS for the second consecutive season.
Mike Mussina Hall of Fame Moment #4: Oct. 11, 1997: ALCS Game 3 (Orioles at Indians)
After going 2-0 with a 1.93 ERA in two Division Series starts, what could Mike Mussina do for an encore? Well, facing a fearsome Indians lineup in Game 3, he pitched 7 innings, giving up just 1 run on 3 hits with 2 walks along with an ALCS record 15 strikeouts. Moose had already logged those 15 K’s when he gave up a RBI single to Matt Williams to give the Tribe a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the 7th inning.
As good as Mussina was, the Indians’ Orel Hershiser was even better (tossing 7 innings of scoreless ball) and the Indians won the contest by a 2-1 tally in 12 innings.
Interestingly, the Florida Marlins’ Livan Hernandez matched Mussina’s LCS strikeout record the next day against the Atlanta Braves in the famous Eric Gregg game. If you don’t get the “Eric Gregg game” reference, let’s just say that Gregg, the home plate umpire, had an extraordinarily generous strike zone for Livan in that tilt.
Mussina had another hard-luck no-decision in Game 6: he pitched 8 scoreless innings (1 H, 2 BB, 10 K) but was matched by Charles Nagy and the Tribe’s bullpen. Tony Fernandez hit a solo HR off Armando Benitez in the top of the 11th to give the Indians a 1-0 victory and a trip to the World Series.
Mussina’s overall pitching line in the 1997 postseason was Cooperstown worthy to be sure:
2-0, 1.24 ERA, 29 IP, 11 H, 7 BB, 41 K.
It would be the last time the Orioles would make the playoffs during Moose’s 10 years in Baltimore.
Mike Mussina Hall of Fame Moment #5: August 1, 2000 (Twins v Orioles)
Mike Mussina’s third career one-hitter came in a blowout 10-0 victory over the Minnesota Twins in 2000. After retiring the first 11 batters faced (6 via the K), he yielded a two-out walk to Midre Cummings before retiring the next batter (Ron Coomer) on a swinging strikeout. Mussina proceeded to strike out the next 5 batters faced. He still had a no-hitter entering the 7th inning but Coomer spoiled the no-hit bit with a two-out single.
After a walk to the Twins’ 24-year old designated hitter David Ortiz, Mussina retired the next 6 batters. With two outs in the 9th, two errors put runners on the corners but Moose struck out Ortiz to preserve the one-hit shutout. For the game, Mussina struck out 15 batters, matching the career high he had set in the 1997 ALCS.
Sadly, I could not find video of Mussina besting the young Big Papi for the final out of this gem.
After the season, Mussina parted ways with the Orioles, signing a six-year, $88.5 million contract with the New York Yankees.
Mike Mussina Hall of Fame Moment #6: Sept. 2, 2001 (Yankees v Red Sox)
This was perhaps Mike Mussina’s finest career outing. This was Mussina’s first year with the Bronx Bombers; he was matched up with former Yankees’ ace David Cone. Mussina and Cone matched zeroes for 8 innings. Cone had given up 4 hits and 2 walks but Mussina was perfect, retiring his first 24 batters faced (striking out 12 of them).
The Yankees finally scored a run against Cone in the top of the 9th on an Enrique Wilson RBI double. It was an unearned run for Cone thanks to an error by second baseman Lou Merloni.
In the bottom of the 9th inning, Mussina was once again in search of his first no-hitter or perfect game. Troy O’Leary grounded out to first base with Mussina covering the bag for the out. Next, Mussina struck out Merloni, putting him just one out from perfection.
Unfortunately, the next batter (Carl Everett),with a 1-2 count, singled to left-center field to spoil the perfecto effort.
Mussina, on a full count, retired the next batter (Trot Nixon) on a groundout to second base to win the game 1-0. It was Mussina’s fourth one-hit complete game, this one featuring 13 whiffs.
Mike Mussina Hall of Fame Moment #7: Oct. 13, 2001: ALDS Game 3 (Yankees v. Athletics)
With the three-time defending champions, Mike Mussina returned to playoff baseball for the first time since 1997. In his first year in the Bronx, Moose logged a 17-11 with a 3.15 ERA; he finished 5th in the Cy Young balloting, his 8th finish at 6th or better.
The Yankees won 95 games in the regular season, 7 fewer than the A.L. Wild Card entrant, the Oakland Athletics.
In the ALDS, the Yankees were down 2-0, needing to win 3 straight games to make their fourth straight trip to the Fall Classic. In Game 3, Moose delivered 7 scoreless innings, including the final out of the 7th inning, better known as the famous Derek Jeter “flip play.”
With two outs and Jeremy Giambi on first base, Terrance Long doubled to right field. Jeter came from seemingly out of nowhere to flip the errant throw to Jorge Posada to tag out Giambi at home and preserve the Yankees’ 1-0 lead.
Not surprisingly, Mariano Rivera tossed 2 scoreless innings to preserve the 1-0 victory.
The Yankees would go on to win the series in 5 games. In the ALCS, Mussina was the Game 2 winner (6 IP, 2 ER) in the Yankees’ surprising 4-1 series win over the 116-win Seattle Mariners. In his first World Series outing (Game 1 in Arizona), Mussina was shelled for 5 runs (3 ER) in 3 innings.
Bonus Moment: Nov. 1, 2001: World Series Game 5 (Diamondbacks v Yankees)
The World Series (featuring the Yankees and the 4th-year Arizona Diamondbacks) was a memorable Fall Classic, made famous by Derek Jeter’s walk-off home run just past the stroke of midnight to win Game 4, a moment immortalized by the “Mr. November” moniker conferred upon him by Yankees announcer Michael Kay.
The next night, in Game 5, Mussina was matched up against Miguel Batista. It was one of only two games in the 7-game series not started by either Randy Johnson or Curt Schilling. Batista actually out-pitched Mussina, tossing 7.2 innings of scoreless baseball. Mussina also pitched well but gave up two solo home runs in the 5th inning.
Mussina gave up only those two runs in 8 innings, striking out 10 against 2 walks and 5 hits. Still, it looked like he would be on the losing end until Scott Brosius hit a game-tying home run in the bottom of the 9th.
The Bronx Bombers eventually won in 12 innings thanks to a walk-off single by rookie second baseman Alfonso Soriano.
Of course, the Diamondbacks came back to win the series in 7 games.
Mike Mussina Hall of Fame Moment #8: Oct. 16, 2003: ALCS Game 7 (Red Sox v Yankees)
After getting bounced in the first round of the 2002 playoffs, the New York Yankees were back in the Championship Series in 2003, matched up against their longtime rivals, the Boston Red Sox. The teams split the first 6 games, with Mussina being the losing pitcher in both Games 1 and 4 (5.11 ERA in those two efforts).
In Game 7, it was Roger Clemens’ turn in the rotation. The Rocket was matched up against the Sox’ Pedro Martinez, who was on the back end of a brilliant 7-year run in which he posted a 2.20 ERA during the height of the PED era. This was a starting pitcher slate for the ages. The 41-year old Clemens, however, did not have his best stuff this evening.
Yankees manager Joe Torre summoned Mussina from the bullpen in relief of Clemens in the top of the 4th with the team down 4-0 and with no outs and runners on the corners. This was Mussina’s first relief appearance after 400 starts (including regular and postseason contests).
Mussina struck out Jason Varitek and then got Johnny Damon to ground into a 6-3 DP. Mussina delivered two more scoreless innings to keep the Yankees in the game.
As you know, Martinez would also falter late in the game and the Yankees would eventually win on Aaron Boone’s walk-off in the bottom of the 11th.
Mike Mussina Hall of Fame Moment #9: 2003 World Series Game 3 (Marlins v Yankees)
With Mussina having come out of the bullpen in Game 7 of the ALCS, Torre went with David Wells and Andy Pettitte to start the first two games of the World Series, which the Yankees split with the Florida Marlins.
In his lone start of that Fall Classic, Mussina was the Game 3 winner (7 IP, 1 run, 7 H, 1 BB, 9 K), a 6-1 victory.
The Marlins won the series in 6 games so Moose did not get the chance to finish his turn in the rotation in Game 7. This would be the last time during Mussina’s career that the Yankees would get as far as the World Series. Moose would never would get that elusive World Series ring, possibly one of many reasons that it took him 6 times on the BBWAA ballot to make the Hall.
Mike Mussina’s Twilight Years
From 2004 to 2007 (his age 35 to 38 seasons), Mussina was not the same quality hurler that he had been throughout his career. His ERA was 4.36 during those four campaigns. Still, despite pedestrian performances by Moose, the Yankees managed to make the postseason in each of those four seasons.
Mussina’s performance in each of those four postseasons can be best summed up as “average,” just as was his regular season performance. In seven playoff outings from ’04 to ’07, Moose went 2-3 with a 4.31 ERA. The Yankees famously got as far as Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS but did not advance past the LDS in any of the following three postseasons.
In 2008, now 39 years old, Mussina had a bit of a renaissance. Although the Yankees would fail to make the playoffs for the first time since 1993 (no, 1994 doesn’t count), it wasn’t because of the veteran righty who was their best starter. In his first 33 starts, Moose went 19-9 with a 3.47 ERA. This gave him a chance, for the first time to win 20 games.
Mike Mussina Hall of Fame Moment #10: Sept. 28, 2008 (Yankees v Red Sox)
In this, what would be the final start of his 18-year career, Mike Mussina pitched 6 innings of scoreless ball, giving up just 3 hits with 2 walks. The bullpen held on for a 6-2 victory, his 20th of the season.
Postscript
Mike Mussina formally announced his retirement on November 20th but he had made the decision long before that, intent on spending more time with his family. Mussina became the oldest first-time 20-game winner and the first hurler since Sandy Koufax to retire after a 20-win season. Upon announcing that he was leaving the game, he told the assembled reporters via conference call that he would have hung up his spikes even if he had failed to win that 20th game.
“I knew when I got up that morning that was going to be my last day. It didn’t change my opinion of what I was going to do. It’s a nice finishing touch, I’ll say that. To be able to do something I hadn’t done for the first 17 years of my career, to do it on the last day of the last season, that really made it kind of nice.”
— Mike Mussina (Nov. 20, 2008)
Mussina finished his career with a superb 270-153 record (.638 WL%) to go with a 3.68 ERA. It’s likely because of that relatively high career ERA and the fact that he never won a Cy Young Award that Mussina was slow to catch on with the writers who vote for Hall of Famers. Still, the sum total of his accomplishments was not lost upon the collective voting body, who finally reached a 76.7% consensus this January.
Mussina, as the lone living starting pitcher to be inducted this year, was the first inductee to speak in Cooperstown today. In part of his speech, he thanked his fellow Class of 2019 inductees Mariano Rivera and Lee Smith for all the games they saved for him. In total, Rivera saved 49 of Mussina’s 123 wins for the Yankees; Smith saved 8 of Moose’s 16 wins in 1994.
For more on what makes Mike Mussina worthy of his plaque in the great Hall in Cooperstown, I invite you to read this piece published shortly after his election.
Thanks for reading.
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