John Curtis Marquee

b. March 9, 1948 · Boston Red Sox 1970–1973, St. Louis Cardinals 1974–1976, San Francisco Giants 1977–1979, San Diego Padres 1980–1982, California Angels 1982–1984

John Curtis came up with the Boston Red Sox in 1970 out of Clemson and pitched fifteen years without ever quite establishing himself as either a starter or a reliever — 199 starts among 438 appearances, and a career spread evenly across five organizations.

The best of it was 1973, when he won thirteen games for Boston, and a stretch in San Diego in the early 1980s when he was used as a swingman and was effective at it. He wrote a well-regarded column for a Boston paper while still playing.

Born in Newton, Massachusetts in 1948, Curtis finished 89-97 with 825 strikeouts and 14 shutouts across 1,641 innings.

Batting, season by season

Year	Team	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	RBI	BB	SO	AVG
1970	BOS	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—
1971	BOS	5	9	0	1	0	0	0	0	5	.111
1972	BOS	27	53	2	5	0	0	1	2	23	.094
1973	BOS	35	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—
1974	STL	34	63	7	10	1	0	2	4	30	.159
1975	STL	39	38	6	8	0	0	1	5	16	.211
1976	STL	38	35	3	7	1	1	0	2	13	.200
1977	SFG	44	13	4	3	0	1	0	1	8	.231
1978	SFG	46	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	.000
1979	SFG	29	34	3	5	1	0	3	2	9	.147
1980	SDP	31	62	2	12	1	0	2	2	31	.194
1981	SDP	28	13	1	1	0	0	2	0	6	.077
1982	CAL/SDP	34	37	1	11	0	1	5	0	15	.297
1983	CAL	37	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—
1984	CAL	17	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—
Career	—	445	359	29	63	4	3	16	18	157	.175

Pitching, season by season

Year	Team	W	L	G	GS	SV	IP	H	ER	BB	SO	ERA
1970	BOS	0	0	1	0	0	2.1	4	3	1	1	11.57
1971	BOS	2	2	5	3	0	26.0	30	9	6	19	3.12
1972	BOS	11	8	26	21	0	154.1	161	64	50	106	3.73
1973	BOS	13	13	35	30	0	221.1	225	88	83	101	3.58
1974	STL	10	14	33	29	1	195.0	199	82	83	89	3.78
1975	STL	8	9	39	18	1	146.2	151	56	65	67	3.44
1976	STL	6	11	37	15	1	134.0	139	67	65	52	4.50
1977	SFG	3	3	43	9	1	77.0	95	47	48	47	5.49
1978	SFG	4	3	46	0	1	63.0	60	26	29	38	3.71
1979	SFG	10	9	27	18	0	120.2	121	56	42	85	4.18
1980	SDP	10	8	30	27	0	187.0	184	73	67	71	3.51
1981	SDP	2	6	28	8	0	66.2	70	38	30	31	5.13
1982	CAL/SDP	8	7	34	18	1	128.1	137	61	49	64	4.28
1983	CAL	1	2	37	3	5	90.0	89	38	40	36	3.80
1984	CAL	1	2	17	0	0	28.2	30	14	11	18	4.40
Career	—	89	97	438	199	11	1641.0	1695	722	669	825	3.96

On this day & linked events

1948

Born March 9, 1948

Newton, MA, USA

1970

Major-league debut: John Curtis

John Curtis made a major-league debut on August 13, 1970.

1984

Final major-league game: John Curtis

John Curtis played a final major-league game on September 28, 1984.

Image: Boston Red Sox, public domain