Page 74 - 1975 BoSox

’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL 67
cycle, with ashes of greatness followed by mediocrity or worse. He was frequently battling his waistline. His teammates gave him the nicknames “Double Cheeseburger” and “Snacks.” Management and the press could not understand how he could gain weight during the season. While listed as 200 pounds, Cleveland would often carry 230 pounds or more to the mound. He was also, as he would later admit, battling the “major-league lifestyle.” He kept his problem well hidden, however. As Cleveland would tell Dan Turner, he was “such a good drunk.”9
e following season proved to be Cleveland’s best year, at least statistically. He helped the 1973 Cardinals improve to a second-place nish at 81-81 with a 14-10 record, a 3.01 ERA, and three shutouts. He struck out 122, while walking just 61 in 224 innings (his third consecutive year of pitching 220 innings or more). His 14 wins were second only to Rick Wise’s 16 on the Cardinals’ pitching sta . Repeating the pattern of the year before, Cleveland started hot. By the time he shut out the Expos and former teammate Mike Torrez 2-0 in Montreal on August 1, he had compiled a 12-5 record with a 2.94 ERA. After that Cleveland was 2-5. To be fair, Cardinals ace Bob Gibson had a lower ERA (2.77) but managed to lose 10 games as well in 1973. Cleveland was a rising star on the Cardinals sta and other teams were noticing.
On December 7, 1973, Cleveland was traded to the Boston Red Sox with pitcher Diego Segui and in elder Terry Hughes for pitchers Lynn McGlothen, John Curtis, and Mike Garman. Red Sox general manager Dick O’Connell was trying to acquire the 35-year-old Gaylord Perry from the Indians but could not get the deal done, and instead turned to the Cardinals. Truly, Reggie Cleveland, with his fastball, slider, and curve, was the marquee player of the trade. O’Connell com- pleted what amounted to a 10-player deal with St. Louis, getting Rick Wise in a separate deal weeks earlier. After the trade for Cleveland, the Red Sox, who expected him to be a 20-game winner, thought they had “the best sta in baseball.”10
Cleveland had pitched very well for St. Louis and fully expected to be in the starting rotation for the
Red Sox in 1974. It was not to be, at least not at rst. He came into camp overweight and with a bum left knee su ered in winter ball playing for Las Aguilas in Venezuela. Not surprisingly, he had a subpar spring and did not earn a spot in the starting rotation. Cleveland was the long man out of the bullpen and a spot starter coming out of spring training. His poor spring and injury (later learned to be a torn meniscus) carried over to the regular season.11
Cleveland’s rst start for the Red Sox may have been an omen of things to come. On April 15 he su ered a tough-luck 1-0 loss to Detroit. He struck out ve, walked none, and allowed only three hits to the Tigers. Unfortunately for Cleveland, one of the hits was a Norm Cash home run in the fth inning that snuck around the right- eld foul pole. e Red Sox batters, for their part, could not muster any o ense against Boston native Joe Coleman who gave up only three singles. e Cleveland-Coleman pitching match-up occurred once again, on July 26. In that game Cleveland pitched 101⁄3 innings and allowed only three hits and no earned runs, but still lost. An error by Boston third baseman Rico Petrocelli in the bottom of the 11th inning opened the door to a Jim Northrup game- winning single two batters later. Again, the Red Sox batters could do nothing with Joe Coleman, who pitched 11 innings of four-hit ball. Cleveland had a rather lackluster 1974 at 12-14 and it was not all the fault of poor o ensive support. By early June his ERA was 6.30 though he nished with a 4.31 ERA as the Red Sox placed third behind the Orioles and the Yankees.
Cleveland was in the starting rotation along with Luis Tiant, Bill Lee, and Rick Wise to begin Boston’s 1975 season. His rst start (and win) of the year, on April 12, was a memorable one. Cleveland pitched 12 innings and allowed only two runs to the Orioles in a game the Red Sox won in the 13th. e good times would not last, however. After losing to the California Angels on May 25, Cleveland with his 3-3 record and 4.76 ERA was back in the bullpen. Except for a start in the second game of a doubleheader on July 6, he was out of the rotation until July 20.