Mickey Lolich Marquee

Sixteen seasons gave him 217 wins against 191, 2,832 strikeouts, 3,638 innings and a 3.44 earned run average, with 195 complete games and 41 shutouts. In 1971 he led the American League in wins with 25 and in strikeouts with 308, and pitched 376 innings doing it, a figure only Wilbur Wood has matched in the half-century since.

The 1968 World Series is what his name means. He started three games against St. Louis, finished all three, won all three, and was the series' most valuable player. He was the second starter on that Detroit staff: Denny McLain won 31 games in the regular season that year and Lolich won 17.

He spent thirteen of his sixteen seasons in Detroit and finished with the Mets and San Diego. The writers put him on fifteen ballots from 1985 and he peaked at 26 percent in 1988; four committees looked at him afterward and none elected him. He died in February 2026, at eighty-five.