#343 Mike McCormick - Baltimore Orioles

Michael Francis McCormick
Baltimore Orioles
Pitcher

Bats:  Left  Throws:  Left  Height:  6'2"  Weight:  195
Born:  September 29, 1938, Pasadena, CA
Signed:  Signed by the New York Giants as an amateur free agent (bonus baby), August 31, 1956
Major League Teams:  New York Giants 1956-1957; San Francisco Giants 1958-1962; Baltimore Orioles 1963-1964; Washington Senators 1965-1966; San Francisco Giants 1967-1970; New York Yankees 1970; Kansas City Royals 1971
Died:  June 13, 2020, Cornelius, NC (age 81)

Mike McCormick was a 16-year veteran, spending two stints with the Giants spanning 11 seasons.  In his first stint with the club he was a four-time All-Star in 1960 and 1961, winning the league's ERA title in 1960 with a 2.70 mark.  He won 11 games as a teenager in 1959, his first of eight total seasons winning ten games or more.  After four seasons away from San Francisco, pitching for the Orioles and Senators, McCormick returned in 1967 for his second stint and had a career year.  He went 22-10 that season with a 2.85 ERA in 40 games, throwing 14 complete games and five shutouts on the way to National League Cy Young Award honors.  He'd pitch for a few more seasons with the Giants before closing out his career with brief stays with the Yankees and Royals.

McCormick's career record was 134-128 in 484 games, with a 3.73 ERA and 1,321 strikeouts.  A good fielding pitcher, he led the National League for four seasons with a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage.  He often returned to Giants' spring trainings as a guest instructor and is a member of the San Francisco Giants Wall of Fame at Oracle Park.

Building the Set
March 6, 2022 from The Philly Show (Sports Cards Plus - Cooper City, FL) - Card #559

This is the 75th of 102 cards acquired for our set from the Baseball Card Sports Memorabilia Show, affectionately known as The Philly Show, held in the basement of the Valley Forge Casino Resort in King of Prussia in early March.  We went nuts and left the show needing only 12 more cards to complete our 1965 Topps set, and I wrote about the show in detail over at The Phillies Room.  After our 51 card haul from Uncle Dick's, and with more card spending budget still in place, I set out to find another dealer with a binder of 1965 Topps cards with reasonable prices.  I had purchased cards from Sports Cards Plus before, finding the last few cards needed for our 1971 Topps set from this dealer back in December 2019.

Settling in, we found 37 cards needed for our set with an average price per card working out to around $6.  The lot, including this McCormick card, consisted mostly of semi-stars and team cards.  After paying for this mini haul, we were officially 13 cards away from a complete set, with one more purchase coming to end the day.

The Card / Orioles Team Set
The back of this card highlights McCormick's All-Star Game performances.  There were two All-Star Games in each of 1960 and 1961, with McCormick named to all four games.  In the first game of 1960, he relieved Bob Friend (#392) and pitched 2 1/3 innings, allowing an unearned run and striking out Bill Skowron (#70) and Ron Hansen (#146).  McCormick pitched three more innings in the first game of 1961, striking out three but allowing a solo home run to Harmon Killebrew (#400).  Topps' math checks out as one earned run over 5 1/3 innings results in a 1.69 ERA.

Surprisingly, this is the last card needed to complete our Orioles team set.

1965 Season
On April 4th, the Orioles traded McCormick to the Senators for minor leaguer Stephen Herman and $20,000, with the Orioles hesitant to count on McCormick due to his prior year shoulder injury.  McCormick reinvented himself with the Senators, given his fastball was no longer effective.  Now relying on control and off-speed pitches, he appeared in 44 games, making 21 starts.  He was 8-8 with a 3.36 ERA in 158 innings pitched as one of the team's top pitchers.  In his 21 starts he threw three complete games, including a two-hit shutout on July 18th against the Yankees.

1959 Topps #148

1962 Topps #319

1966 Topps #118

1968 Topps #400

1972 Topps #682

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1958 Topps #37
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (15):  1958-1972
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2012 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs #ROA-MMC

Topps erroneously used a photo of fellow Giants pitcher Ray Monzant for McCormick's 1958 rookie card.

109 - McCormick non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 8/13/22.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database

Wikipedia

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