Sunday, November 13, 2011
Charlie Lea
Charlie Lea is an icon. He has a statue in his honor standing tall in front of a ballpark. He played with legends and watched many more. He is in the record books for a no-hitter thrown on May 10, 1981. And he is dead at the age of 54.
"It would be difficult to imagine a less likely candidate for no-hit fame. After all, the 24-year-old righthander Lea had been massaged for 16 hits in his previous11 innings this season. In two previous starts he hadn't lasted past the fourth inning." ~ The Sporting News, May 23, 1981
The above paragraph, taken straight from an article written about Lea's no-hitter in Montreal, captures the surprise of Lea throwing a no-hitter. It's also fitting considering the sudden and surprising nature of his death. It seems to be a heart attack that took down the Memphis Redbirds broadcaster and former Major League All-Star. His death adding to the growing list of former players and managers taken before their time this year.
Lea is a celebrated figure in Memphis. He began his career there. He played high school ball there. He played college ball there. He broadcast games for the Double-A affiliate Redbirds there. And in the end, he died there.
While I do feel it necessary to pay tribute to a man lost well before his time, such eulogies are better written and better prepared by those who directly knew him. For me, I'd like to take a look at his career. A career full of more success than you would expect based on the few sentences captured above from The Sporting News.
Charlie Lea pitched for seven seasons in the Major Leagues. He made his big-league debut with the Montreal Expos on June 12, 1980. He was there on an emergency basis. They needed a pitcher and looked to Lea to fill that void for one game. However, he pitched well enough, earning the victory, to stay with the club. Lea finished the 1980 season with a 7-5 record in 21 games, 19 of which he started. At only 31 years old, Lea left the game because of nagging injuries. Prior to that, he was on his way to being one of the game's better pitchers.
In 7 seasons, Lea compiled a WAR of 10.1. His career FIP was 3.84. He never allowed more than 19 home runs in a season, but never struck out more than 137 batters in a season.
When trying to compare Lea with other pitchers, I came across an interesting comparison. While Andy Ashby pitched longer, he has strikingly similar statistics in his first 7 years in the league. Below are cummulative graphs of Lea's and Ashby's WAR and strikeouts over their first 7 years.
Their upward slopes for both categories are almost identical. They had completely different careers, but as with their statistics, their careers had similarities. Lea threw a gem in his 1981 no-hitter. Ashby threw a gem in his 1998 75-pitch complete game. Lea made one All-Star Game, Ashby made two.
No-matter the parallels, Lea and Ashby were different men whose lives went down different paths. With Lea gone, we are left with the memories, the photos, the videos, the recordings, and the statistics. As is often the case with men taken so young, the lingering questions of what-if will haunt the families and friends. They will haunt those who knew him and those who didn't.
Charlie Lea was one month away from turning 55.
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1 Responses to “Charlie Lea”
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