Word: eckersley
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...Eckersley is not your typical baseball player, and he’s not your typical person...
...pictures of Bill, Dennis and me that are still proudly displayed in my room at home. Finally, Dennis signed numerous balls, hats and pictures, and even showed me the grips of his different pitches. Needless to say, I was enthralled as we remained at the Eckersley home well beyond the few minutes we had expected...
...Still, Eckersley did not believe he had done enough for me. He managed to get every single member of the 1989 Oakland A’s to sign a baseball for me, and he asked his friend Rich Gedman to solicit the same signatures from his teammates on the Red Sox. The next time the A’s were in town, Dennis got tickets for Bill and me right behind the bullpen and talked to me both before and after the game. Over the next couple of years, every time Dennis was in town he would...
Eckersley’s professional career was as remarkable as the gesture he did for me. From his entrance in the league in 1975 until 1986, the Eck was a dominating starting pitcher, compiling double-digit win totals in nine of those seasons. However, Eckersley had a difficult battle with alcohol abuse in the mid-eighties that coincided with his slip from his peak as a 20-game winner in 1978 to the point where he was simply mediocre...
...Eckersley finally decided to get help and went into rehab. He came out invigorated and returned in a different incarnation as a closer for Tony LaRussa’s Oakland Athletics. The Eck proceeded to dominate American League hitters for the next nine seasons in an Oakland uniform, leading the A’s to three consecutive World Series and winning a championship in 1989. Eckersley was also the last pitcher to win an MVP award, picking up the American League honor in 1992 along with the Cy Young Award in a season in which the Eck was virtually unhittable...