Jerry Reuss Marquee

Pitcher · b. June 19, 1949

St. Louis Cardinals 1969–1971, Houston Astros 1972–1973, Pittsburgh Pirates 1974–1978, 1990, Los Angeles Dodgers 1979–1987, Cincinnati Reds 1987, California Angels 1987, Chicago White Sox 1988–1989, Milwaukee Brewers 1989

On June 27, 1980 he faced twenty-eight San Francisco batters and no more: a throwing error in the first inning was the only thing between him and a perfect game, and nobody reached base afterward. That season he went 18-6 with a 2.51 earned run average and six shutouts to lead the National League, and was Comeback Player of the Year at thirty-one.

Twenty-two seasons across four decades and eight clubs gave him 220 wins against 191, 3,669 innings, 127 complete games and 39 shutouts. He won 18 games three times, once for Pittsburgh and twice for the Dodgers, and was chosen for two All-Star teams.

He was in the Los Angeles rotation for the 1981 World Series the Dodgers won, and pitched the opening game of it. The eight clubs and the long tail of the career — he was still pitching at forty-one — are why the writing about him is thin: he got two votes of 470 in 1996.

Honors

Award	Times	Years
All-Star selection	2	1975, 1980
Player of the Week	3	1975, 1980, 1982
Pitcher of the Month	1	1980
The Sporting News Comeback Player of the Year	1	1980

Batting, season by season

Year	Team	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	AVG
1969	STL	1	3	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	2	0	.333
1970	STL	20	40	3	2	0	0	0	1	3	32	1	.050
1971	STL	36	65	6	8	1	0	0	4	10	36	0	.123
1972	HOU	33	66	5	7	2	0	0	1	5	40	0	.106
1973	HOU	42	95	7	13	3	0	0	8	4	45	0	.137
1974	PIT	35	86	7	13	1	0	0	4	8	25	0	.151
1975	PIT	32	71	6	14	2	0	0	2	5	27	0	.197
1976	PIT	31	66	7	16	1	1	0	8	9	22	0	.242
1977	PIT	35	70	3	12	2	0	0	6	6	26	0	.171
1978	PIT	23	27	1	5	2	0	0	1	0	12	0	.185
1979	LAD	39	42	4	7	1	0	0	1	3	19	0	.167
1980	LAD	37	68	4	6	1	0	1	3	6	25	0	.088
1981	LAD	22	51	3	10	0	0	0	3	0	18	0	.196
1982	LAD	39	77	8	17	3	0	0	3	2	28	0	.221
1983	LAD	32	71	4	20	2	0	0	3	2	28	0	.282
1984	LAD	30	24	2	4	1	0	0	2	3	9	0	.167
1985	LAD	34	74	1	10	0	0	0	7	2	28	0	.135
1986	LAD	19	20	0	5	1	0	0	0	1	6	0	.250
1987	CAL/CIN/LAD	25	8	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	5	0	.125
1988	CHW	32	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—
1989	CHW/MIL	30	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—
1990	PIT	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—
Career	—	631	1024	71	171	24	1	1	58	69	433	1	.167

Pitching, season by season

Year	Team	W	L	G	GS	SV	IP	H	ER	BB	SO	ERA
1969	STL	1	0	1	1	0	7.0	2	0	3	3	0.00
1970	STL	7	8	20	20	0	127.1	132	58	49	74	4.10
1971	STL	14	14	36	35	0	211.0	228	112	109	131	4.78
1972	HOU	9	13	33	30	1	192.0	177	89	83	174	4.17
1973	HOU	16	13	41	40	0	279.1	271	116	117	177	3.74
1974	PIT	16	11	35	35	0	260.0	259	101	101	105	3.50
1975	PIT	18	11	32	32	0	237.1	224	67	78	131	2.54
1976	PIT	14	9	31	29	2	209.1	209	82	51	108	3.53
1977	PIT	10	13	33	33	0	208.0	225	95	71	116	4.11
1978	PIT	3	2	23	12	0	82.2	97	45	23	42	4.90
1979	LAD	7	14	39	21	3	160.0	178	63	60	83	3.54
1980	LAD	18	6	37	29	3	229.1	193	64	40	111	2.51
1981	LAD	10	4	22	22	0	152.2	138	39	27	51	2.30
1982	LAD	18	11	39	37	0	254.2	232	88	50	138	3.11
1983	LAD	12	11	32	31	0	223.1	233	73	50	143	2.94
1984	LAD	5	7	30	15	1	99.0	102	42	31	44	3.82
1985	LAD	14	10	34	33	0	212.2	210	69	58	84	2.92
1986	LAD	2	6	19	13	1	74.0	96	48	17	29	5.84
1987	CAL/CIN/LAD	4	10	25	23	0	119.0	166	79	29	49	5.97
1988	CHW	13	9	32	29	0	183.0	183	70	43	73	3.44
1989	CHW/MIL	9	9	30	26	0	140.1	171	80	34	40	5.13
1990	PIT	0	0	4	1	0	7.2	8	3	3	1	3.52
Career	—	220	191	628	547	11	3669.2	3734	1483	1127	1907	3.64

On this day & linked events

1949

Born June 19, 1949

St. Louis, MO, USA

1969

Major-league debut: Jerry Reuss

Jerry Reuss made a major-league debut on September 27, 1969.

1980

Jerry Reuss's No-Hitter

Jerry Reuss threw a no-hitter for the Los Angeles Dodgers against the San Francisco Giants on June 27, 1980, winning 8–0.

1990

Final major-league game: Jerry Reuss

Jerry Reuss played a final major-league game on October 3, 1990.

Image: John SooHoo, CC BY-SA 3.0