Don Cardwell

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Don Cardwell
Pitcher
Batted: Right	Threw: Right
MLB debut
April 21, 1957 for the Philadelphia Phillies
Final game
September 27, 1970 for the Atlanta Braves
Career statistics
Wins-losses	102-138
ERA	3.92
Strikeouts	1211
Teams
Philadelphia Phillies (1957–1960) Chicago Cubs (1960–1962) Pittsburgh Pirates (1963–1966) New York Mets (1967–1970) Atlanta Braves (1970)
Career highlights and awards
Signed by the Philadelphia Phillies as an amateur free agent in 1954.

Don Cardwell (born Donald Eugene Cardwell on December 7, 1935 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina) is a former Major League Baseball pitcher.

A right-handed pitcher, Cardwell pitched for the Philadelphia Phillies (1957-60), Chicago Cubs (1960-62), Pittsburgh Pirates (1963-66), New York Mets (1967-70) and Atlanta Braves (1970).

Cardwell signed with the Phillies as an amateur free agent in 1954. He debuted in 1957 and struggled in three seasons with the Phillies, winning 16 games while losing 24 as a spot starter.

On May 13, 1960 Cardwell was traded to the Chicago Cubs for Tony Taylor. Two days later, he no-hit the St. Louis Cardinals in the second game of a doubleheader at Wrigley Field—the first no-hitter ever thrown by a pitcher in his first start with a new team. Two catches late in the game enabled Cardwell to secure the no-hitter: one by George Altman in the eighth, and one by Walt Moryn on Joe Cunningham’s sinking line drive to end the game, Moryn catching the ball just inches off the ground. Despite the no-hit heroics, Cardwell finished 9-16. However, he also displayed his abilities as a batter with 16 hits (five of which were home runs) in 77 at bats for a .208 batting average.

Cardwell’s best season was in 1961; he won a career-high 15 games and also posted a career best 156 strikeouts. After slumping to 7-16 in 1962, Cardwell, on October 17, was traded, along with Altman, to the St. Louis Cardinals. However, his stay in St. Louis ended before he’d even pitched a game for the Cardinals. A month later the Redbirds traded him to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Dick Groat.

Cardwell won 13 games for the Pirates in 1963 while establishing a career-best 3.07 earned run average, then suffered severe arm trouble in 1964. He rebounded to win 13 more games in 1965 before being traded to the New York Mets in December of 1966.

Pitching mostly as a spot starter, Cardwell went 12-22 in his first two seasons with the Mets. In 1969 he went 8-10 on in a rotation with Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman and Gary Gentry, helping them unexpectedly win the World Series. In late July of that year he had a 3-9 record, then won five straight, including a 1-0 shutout in the second game of a September 12 doubleheader against the Pittsburgh Pirates (in the first game, Koosman had also blanked the Pirates 1-0; both pitchers drove in the only run in their respective games). This victory, the ninth of a ten-game winning streak for the Mets, came two days after the Mets had taken over first place for good in the National League East (in 1969 the two leagues had been split into two divisions) by leapfrogging past the Chicago Cubs, who had been in first place for much of the season, only to stumble late in the season.

In his 14 MLB seasons, Cardwell won 102 games while losing 138 with 1211 strikeouts in 2122 2/3 innings pitched.

[edit] External link

• Baseball-Reference.com - career statistics and analysis