Win–loss record 55–56 Role Baseball Coach Earned run average 4.54 Height 1.98 m | Strikeouts 518 Weight 102 kg Name Rich Gale | |
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Pitching Review with Rich Gale
Richard Blackwell Gale (born January 19, 1954) is a former starting pitcher in Major League Baseball who played with four different teams between 1978 and 1984. Listed at 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) and 225 lb (102 kg), Gale batted and threw right-handed. During 1992 and 1993, he served as pitching coach for the Boston Red Sox. In 2006, he earned honorable mention for the New Hampshire Athlete of the Century.
Contents
Pitching Minute with Rich Gale
Career
Gale was selected by the Kansas City Royals in the 1975 draft out of the University of New Hampshire. He entered the Majors in 1978 with the Royals, playing for them four years before joining the San Francisco Giants (1982), Cincinnati Reds (1983) and Boston Red Sox (1984).
Gale's most productive season came in his cookie year, when he went 14–8 with 88 strikeouts and a 3.09 ERA, including a 5–0, one-hit shutout against the Texas Rangers at Royals Stadium on June 13, 1978. His no-hitter bid was broken up by Al Oliver with a triple in the fourth inning. Gale finished fourth in the American League Rookie of the Year vote behind Lou Whitaker, Paul Molitor, and Carney Lansford, and over Alan Trammell and received an American League MVP vote, garnering both the TSN Rookie of the Year and 1978 Topps All-Star Rookie Roster honors.
In 1979, Gale faded to 9–10, but he resurfaced with a 13–9 mark in 1980, helping his team the reach the 1980 World Series. He started games three and six of the Series, going 0–1 with a 4.25 ERA against the eventual World Champion Philadelphia Phillies. During the next three seasons his playing time was limited by arm injuries and he did not pitch again in a major league game after 1984.
In a seven-season career, Gale posted a 55–56 record with 518 strikeouts and a 4.54 ERA in 195 appearances, including 144 starts, 21 complete games, 5 shutouts, 13 games finished, 2 saves, and 970.0 innings of work. A good-hitting pitcher who occasionally pinch-hit, he collected a .150 batting average (9-for-68) with 2 home runs, 2 doubles, 6 runs, and 5 RBI.
Following his major league career, Gale played in the Japan Central League for the 1985 Hanshin Tigers, who won their first-ever Japan Series with Gale pitching the winning game. He later played with the Fort Myers Sun Sox of the Senior Professional Baseball Association 1989–1990 and for Triple-A Pawtucket 1991.
After his playing retirement, Gale worked as a pitching coach for the Boston Red Sox 1992–1993, Double-A Carolina Mudcats 2006, Triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes 2007–2008, and in the Washington Nationals system 2009. From 2010 through June 2011, he served as pitching coach for the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. Gale resigned as a Sounds coach in June 2011, citing personal reasons for his departure.