Page 133 - 1975 BoSox

126 ’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL
windshield (I reported with two shiners!), but strained my pitching arm (both arms) by absorbing the impact with the steering wheel,” Willoughby said. He was assigned to Fresno for 1968, but was ine ective, so the Giants demoted him to Medford for most of the season.
In June 1969, again pitching for Fresno, Willoughby was named the California League player of the month, and was named to the circuit’s year-end all-star squad. He injured his right elbow with several weeks left in the season and had to see Dr. Frank Jobe in Los Angeles. When the Giants knew he was healthy, they added him to their 40-man roster. But he wound up pitching for Phoenix in the Triple-A Paci c Coast League in 1970. Willoughby had always been fasci- nated by spaceships — both the real and science- ction varieties—and got into model rocketry during his Phoenix years. After the season, Willoughby pitched in the autumn Arizona Instructional League. He returned to Phoenix in 1971, and made the Paci c Coast League all-star squad that year with a 14-9 record. Best of all, he was called up to the Giants on August 30.
It’s a treat for any player when he rst makes the majors. In Doug Hornig’s e Boys of October, Willoughby recalled arriving in the dugout for his rst major-league game. ere were two coolers. One had water, but the other one had “red juice,” a liquid amphetamine concoction. He tried to take a drink from the wrong cooler and was quickly chastised. “Red juice” was for veterans, not rookies. He pitched in two September games for San Francisco; the rst was a start against Houston on September 5, which he lost, giving up three runs in three innings.
e next season, 1972, saw Willoughby’s third tour of duty with Phoenix, but he was called up again to San Francisco on August 3 when a sore shoulder placed Sam McDowell on the 21-day disabled list. ree days after his arrival, Willoughby extracted revenge on the Astros for that debut-start loss the year before by recording his rst major-league victory against them, a 6-2 Giants win. Willoughby started 10 more games for San Francisco and nished the season with a 6-4 record and a 2.36 ERA. e Giants nished the season
in fth place in the National League West Division, 17 games below .500.
Willoughby was a groundball pitcher who relied on a sinker and a slider and was more e ective when he threw from a three-quarters arm slot or side-arm instead of overhand. He used a slow curve 10 percent of the time as well. He had what was described as a “herkyjerky”motion.Hehadsmallhandsforapitcher, despite a 6-foot-2, 185- to 205-pound frame.
During the o season the Giants harbored high hopes for Willoughby and penciled him into a ve-man rotation in 1973 along with Juan Marichal, McDowell, Tom Bradley, and Ron Bryant. Obeying the new rule of Giants manager Charlie Fox, Willoughby shaved o the mustache he wore in 1972. Wearing number 42, Willoughby indeed began the season in the starting rotation, but in mid-May the Giants moved him to the bullpen. Fox and pitching coach Don McMahon were trying to get him to throw harder; this caused him to throw more over the top. While Willoughby got more velocity, he lost movement on his pitches, making them atter — and more hittable. Willoughby worked most of the rest of 1973 out of the bullpen, compiling a 4-5 record and a 4.68 ERA. Toward the end of the year, he studied lm of his delivery and corrected it by dropping down more.“ ere’s so much Cinderella in this game,” he said. “When I was going bad with the Giants and had changed my whole way of throwing, I had to get work. But when you’re in the bullpen, you often aren’t in the best throwing shape and the whole thing snowballs. One bad outing and you don’t work for a couple of weeks, and when you get back, you’re completely out of whack.”
After the season Willoughby pitched winter ball in Venezuela with the Maracay club, managed by Giants scout Ozzie Virgil. He had wanted to go to Venezuela the previous winter, but he’d worked a combined 250-plus innings between Phoenix and San Francisco. In 1973 he had pitched only 123 innings, and felt he needed more work. After nishing in Venezuela with an 8-7 record and an ERA under 3.00, Willoughby wanted another shot at the San Francisco starting rotation in 1974. According to the March 3, 1974, New