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Joe Niekro

Joe Niekro Marquee

b. November 7, 1944 · Chicago Cubs 1967–1969, San Diego Padres 1969, Detroit Tigers 1970–1972, Atlanta Braves 1973–1974, Houston Astros 1975–1985, New York Yankees 1985–1987, Minnesota Twins 1987–1988

Joe Niekro won 221 games, and his older brother Phil won 318. Their combined 539 is more than any other pair of brothers has managed, and the two of them faced each other on a major league mound seven times.

Joe took much longer to find the knuckleball that his brother built a career on. He spent his first eight seasons with four clubs as a conventional pitcher before arriving in Houston in 1975, where he stayed eleven years and won twenty games in 1979 and again in 1980.

Born in Martins Ferry, Ohio in 1944, he pitched 3,584 innings with 107 complete games, made an All-Star team in 1979, and won a World Series with Minnesota in 1987. He was sixty-one when he died, on October 27, 2006.

Honors

Award	Times	Years
All-Star selection	1	1979
Pitcher of the Month	1	1979
The Sporting News All-Star	1	1979
The Sporting News Pitcher of the Year	1	1979

Batting, season by season

Year	Team	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	AVG
1967	CHC	36	46	5	9	2	0	0	11	1	13	1	.196
1968	CHC	34	60	2	6	0	0	0	0	4	23	0	.100
1969	CHC/SDP	42	56	1	7	2	0	0	4	6	18	0	.125
1970	DET	39	66	8	13	3	1	0	7	7	17	0	.197
1971	DET	32	30	5	4	1	0	0	2	2	9	0	.133
1972	DET	18	12	2	3	1	0	0	1	1	4	0	.250
1973	ATL	20	3	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	.333
1974	ATL	27	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	.000
1975	HOU	40	14	1	3	0	0	0	0	2	2	0	.214
1976	HOU	36	27	1	5	2	0	1	1	1	8	0	.185
1977	HOU	44	50	2	7	0	0	0	2	2	13	0	.140
1978	HOU	36	65	6	9	2	0	0	5	0	18	0	.138
1979	HOU	38	83	1	10	2	0	0	4	2	21	0	.120
1980	HOU	37	80	7	22	5	0	0	10	4	15	0	.275
1981	HOU	24	51	1	9	1	0	0	6	2	10	0	.176
1982	HOU	35	89	2	8	2	0	0	5	1	30	0	.090
1983	HOU	38	85	1	8	2	0	0	2	0	22	0	.094
1984	HOU	38	83	4	11	0	0	0	6	2	21	0	.133
1985	HOU/NYY	35	68	6	17	1	0	0	6	1	16	0	.250
1986	NYY	25	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—
1987	MIN/NYY	27	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—
1988	MIN	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—
Career	—	706	973	55	152	26	1	1	72	38	262	1	.156

Pitching, season by season

Year	Team	W	L	G	GS	SV	IP	H	ER	BB	SO	ERA
1967	CHC	10	7	36	22	0	169.2	171	63	32	77	3.34
1968	CHC	14	10	34	29	2	177.0	204	85	59	65	4.32
1969	CHC/SDP	8	18	41	34	0	221.1	237	91	51	62	3.70
1970	DET	12	13	38	34	0	213.0	221	96	72	101	4.06
1971	DET	6	7	31	15	1	122.1	136	61	49	43	4.49
1972	DET	3	2	18	7	1	47.0	62	20	8	24	3.83
1973	ATL	2	4	20	0	3	24.0	23	11	11	12	4.13
1974	ATL	3	2	27	2	0	43.0	36	17	18	31	3.56
1975	HOU	6	4	40	4	4	88.0	79	30	39	54	3.07
1976	HOU	4	8	36	13	0	118.0	107	44	56	77	3.36
1977	HOU	13	8	44	14	5	180.2	155	61	64	101	3.04
1978	HOU	14	14	35	29	0	202.2	190	87	73	97	3.86
1979	HOU	21	11	38	38	0	263.2	221	88	107	119	3.00
1980	HOU	20	12	37	36	0	256.0	268	101	79	127	3.55
1981	HOU	9	9	24	24	0	166.0	150	52	47	77	2.82
1982	HOU	17	12	35	35	0	270.0	224	74	64	130	2.47
1983	HOU	15	14	38	38	0	263.2	238	102	101	152	3.48
1984	HOU	16	12	38	38	0	248.1	223	84	89	127	3.04
1985	HOU/NYY	11	13	35	35	0	225.1	211	96	107	121	3.83
1986	NYY	9	10	25	25	0	125.2	139	68	63	59	4.87
1987	MIN/NYY	7	13	27	26	0	147.0	155	87	64	84	5.33
1988	MIN	1	1	5	2	0	11.2	16	13	9	7	10.03
Career	—	221	204	702	500	16	3584.0	3466	1431	1262	1747	3.59

On this day & linked events

1944

Born November 7, 1944

Martins Ferry, OH, USA

2006

Died October 27, 2006

1967

Major-league debut: Joe Niekro

Joe Niekro made a major-league debut on April 16, 1967.

1988

Final major-league game: Joe Niekro

Joe Niekro played a final major-league game on April 29, 1988.

Image: Unknown author Unknown, public domain