April 27, 1977 - Yankees 4, Orioles 3
- Sal Maiorana
- Apr 27, 2017
- 3 min read
BALTIMORE - I’m not going to do the research because it could take forever, but I’m willing to bet that very few players – if any - in Major League Baseball history have been drafted by five different teams as right-handed pitcher Gil Patterson was between 1973 and 1975.
The Cardinals picked him in the 42nd round out of Miami’s Norland High School in 1973, but he opted to play ball at Miami-Dade Community College, and so began the odyssey. In those days, there was something called the January and June Secondary Phase drafts, and Patterson was the belle of the ball.
The Padres picked him in the first round (fourth overall) in January 1974, then the Astros picked him in the first round (third overall) in June. In 1975, with Patterson still playing in college, the Dodgers picked him in the January first round (23rd), and the Yankees grabbed him in the first round (seventh) in June.
Patterson mulled an offer from old Yankee Bobby Richardson to come pitch for him at the University of South Carolina, but Patterson decided to get out of the draft pool once and for all and sign with the Yankees.
After a promising season at single-A Oneonta (8-4, 1.95 ERA, 8.2 strikeouts per 9 innings), Patterson showed why there had been so much interest in him. He tore it up in 1976 between double-A West Haven and triple-A Syracuse, going a combined 16-4 with a 2.44 ERA. He was so highly thought of, the world champion Reds allegedly offered star first baseman Tony Perez in a trade, and the Yankees said no.
But almost as quickly as his star rose, it descended, and if you blinked, you missed Patterson’s major league pitching career. It consisted of 10 appearances in 1977, including six starts, a record of 1-2, and an ERA of 5.40.
One of the starts came at Memorial Stadium in this game, and he pitched five innings, allowing seven hits and three runs while striking out five Orioles as the Yankees won the series with a 4-3 victory. Patterson did not get credit for the win; that went to Sparky Lyle who pitched the final four innings and benefited from a late-game rally that wiped out a 3-1 deficit. Willie Randolph doubled in the seventh and scored on a single by Thurman Munson; in the eighth, Chris Chambliss tied the game with a solo homer off Orioles pitcher Scott McGregor; and in the ninth, Randolph doubled, went to third on a Munson single, and scored on Reggie Jackson’s sacrifice fly to left.
Patterson stayed with the Yankees into early June, went down to Syracuse for a couple months, then was recalled in August and made the final two appearances of his major league career before being shut down by soreness in his shoulder.
Gil Patterson working with future Yankee star Dellin Betances back in 2012 spring training in Tampa.
“Playing in Yankee Stadium as a 21-year-old, it was something I had dreamed of since I was a kid,” Patterson said. “I just wish I had played there a whole lot longer.”
At the end of the season he underwent rotator cuff surgery and did not pitch again until 1980. Patterson actually wrote George Steinbrenner a letter thanking him for his financial support throughout his ordeal, but in the end, Patterson never rose above A-level and retired in 1982. ‘‘I let him know how much it meant to me,’’ said Patterson.
Steinbrenner, perhaps touched by that letter, told Patterson he would always have a job with the club, and he made good on his word; he gave Patterson a coaching job in the minor league system, and coaching became his second career. His big-league resume includes a stint as the Blue Jays pitching coach, and as a minor league pitching coordinator for the Diamondbacks (1997-2000), Athletics (2008-2011, and 2016 to present), and the Yankees (2012-2015), though that time he was hired by George’s son, Hal, who has run the club since his father’s passing.
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