Jesse Orosco

Jesse Russell Orosco (born April 21, 1957) is an American former professional baseball relief pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball from 1979 to 2003 for the New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers, Cleveland Indians, Milwaukee Brewers, Baltimore Orioles, St. Louis Cardinals, San Diego Padres, New York Yankees and Minnesota Twins.

Orosco was named to the MLB All-Star Game in 1983 and 1984. Orosco won a World Series in 1986 with the Mets and in 1988 with the Dodgers. He retired when he was 46 years old, one of the oldest players to still be playing in the modern age. Orosco is one of only 31 players in baseball history to date to have appeared in Major League games in four decades.

Orosco holds the major league record for career pitching appearances, having pitched in 1,252 games. His longevity was aided by the increasing use of left-handed specialist relief pitchers from the 1990s onward; in his last several years, he was used almost exclusively in this role.

Orosco was originally drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1977 Major League Baseball draft but chose not to sign. He was then drafted out of Santa Barbara City College by the Minnesota Twins in the 1978 Major League Baseball draft. In February 1979, the Twins traded Orosco to the New York Mets to complete a deal that had sent veteran starter Jerry Koosman to Minnesota two months earlier.

Orosco made his debut on April 5, 1979, with the Mets. Orosco had his best seasons in the early and mid-1980s with the Mets. He had a career-best 1.47 earned run average in 1983. That year, he also won 13 games and saved 17, with 110 innings pitched, making his first All-Star Team and finishing third in the National League Cy Young Award voting. He had 31 saves in 1984, which was third in the National League, and went 10–6 in 60 appearances, good enough for his second All-Star selection. In 1985, he began sharing closing duties for the Mets with right-hander Roger McDowell, giving the Mets a vaunted lefty–righty combo coming out of the bullpen to close games.^{[citation needed]}

In 1983, Orosco became just the third and, to date, the last Mets pitcher to record two wins in the same day. This feat had been accomplished by Craig Anderson in 1962 and Willard Hunter in 1964. On July 31, 1983, Banner Day, the Mets won both games of a double-header against the Pirates in extra-inning walk-off wins. Orosco pitched the last four innings of the first game and the final inning of the second game, and both times was the pitcher of record when the Mets rallied to win.

Orosco's clutch relief pitching in the 1986 postseason was one of the key reasons the Mets won the World Series. He was on the mound for the final pitch of the final game of both the NLCS against the Houston Astros, and the World Series against the Boston Red Sox, striking out the final batter in both series. He became the first (and only) relief pitcher to get three wins in one playoff series, which he accomplished in the NLCS against the Astros.

At his peak, Orosco was virtually unhittable against left-handed batters. Rob Neyer later wrote that Orosco stayed in the majors for almost a quarter-century because of "his ability to make lefties look foolish."