Card #591 -- Mike Hedlund, Cleveland Indians
However, despite the airbruhing job, Mike Hedlund didn't even make it onto the Indians' roster in 1973 and never pitched a major league game after 1972. He had played for the Indians, though: he came up with the team in 1965 and again in 1968. However, he appeared in a total of six innings for them in his two stints before being claimed by the Kansas City Royals after the '68 season in the expansion draft.
The Royals used Hedlund as both a starter and reliever during their first four seasons, and was most effective when used from the bullpen. Unfortunately, he contracted the Hong Kong Flu with pitching in Venezuela after the 1969 season and suffered after that. When the 1972 season ended, he was dealt back to Cleveland; after spending all of '73 in the minors for them an '74 in the White Sox' farm system, he hung it up after he discovered he was about to be dealt to the Reds in '75.
Three + thoughts on Hedlund:
ReplyDelete1. I'm surprised Topps didn't have a pix of him in a Cleveland Uniform from his first stint.
2. I'm surprised that Royals gave up on him relatively quicky after going 15-7 in 1971 (the second best mark for the Royals at the time).
3. Surprisingly he quit after going to the Reds...you could have got World Series money.
3+ Hedlund was traded to the Reds for a player named Ozzie Osborn. I didn't know MLB had their own Ozzie Osborn...he hates thoses bats, stay away from those bats!