Yet another local guy, Mike Witt was born in Fullerton. The Angels drafted him out of high school in the fourth round of the 1978 draft. He made his major league debut at the age of 20 with the Angels in 1981. Standing at 6′ 7″ and weighing 192 lbs., the lanky right hander featured a great curveball and a good fast ball. His breakout year with the Angels came in 1984 when he went 15-11 over 246.2 innings. On the final day of that season, September 30, 1984, he pitched the 11th perfect game in Major League history, which was also one of only five no hitters pitched on the last day of a Major League season. He struck out ten Texas Rangers in Arlington that day and needed only 94 pitches to polish them off.
In 1985 he pitched another 250 innings to a record of 15-9 and in 1986 he pitched 269 innings, went 18-10, and finished third in Cy Young voting. He also went to the All Star game and was 12th in MVP voting. Things began to fall off a little bit beginning in 1987, but he still combined with Mark Langston to pitch a no hitter, pitching the last two innings in relief against Seattle on April 11, 1990. He’s the only pitcher ever to pitch a complete game no hitter and also a combined no hitter working as a relief pitcher. The Angels traded him to the New York Yankees on May 11, 1990. He did not pitch well with the Yankees and retired in 1993 after twelve years in the Major Leagues.
Mike Witt is a member of the Angels Hall of fame.
sadly, for me, my memory of Witt is how well he was pitching on Game 5 of the 1986 ALCS. But enough said about that.
Sometimes early impressions stay with you forever and the Langston/Witt no hitter is one of my earliest Angels fans memories. I had the pleasure of meeting Mike at a charity dinner last winter and he was incredibly nice. We talked briefly about that game.
I hadn’t really looked up his numbers before. Glad this series is teaching me more about the guys from before my fandom.