I was saddened to read today that Mike Cuellar just passed away. For those of you who aren’t familiar with his body of work, Cuellar was a struggling Cuban born junk ball pitcher, when he joined the Orioles in 1968. Kind of like today’s Jamie Moyer, Cuellar needed a good combination of time to learn his craft and the right place to practice it before he could reach the status of elite hurler.
Once Cuellar joined the Orioles the team had the final piece to the puzzle to go on it’s magic run of 3 pennants in 3 straight years. While it’s true that Cuellar was 
overshadowed by fellow 20 game winners Jim Palmer and Dave McNally, his contributions to Baltimore can never be overlooked. In his first season with the O’s he shared the AL Cy Young award with Detroit’s Denny McLain. He was a 4 time All-Star and a 4 time 20 game winner.
Many will remember that he outdueled Tom Seaver in game 1 of the 1969 World Series, which turned out to be the only game the O’s would win in that Fall Classic. One year later he would be on the hill when the O’s closed out the Reds to win their second World Championship in 5 years.
On a personal note Cuellar was All-World for me in KOD1. That team will be my all time favorite. They were 30-6 and they lost only 3 more in the post season en-route to winning the first ever KOD Championship. Cuellar was one of the keys. He was 5-0 on the season and game in and game out he was matched up against the opposition’s #1 starter. He had no easy games, but he made it easy to send him out there every 4th day. He was 1-0 in the World Series and won #5 in a series that was tied at 2. Cuellar was clutch as he kept hitters off stride. We will miss him on planet earth, but he will live on forever in KOD and every season replay that is played. Mike Cuellar: RIP
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