MLB history: Forgotten stars of the current AL East teams

Steve Barber, Orioles

The discussion of star pitchers from the mid-1960s always seems to begin and end with Sandy Koufax. Of course, there were other pitchers worth remembering from that specific era, including a right-hander in Baltimore named Jim Palmer.

However, Palmer is too high-profile a figure, partly because of his underwear ads, to be considered a “forgotten star” even more than half a century later. One of his fellow pitchers from the world champion O’s of 1966 definitely qualifies, though: Steve Barber.

Barber is perhaps partly forgotten because there were two Steve Barbers in MLB at the same time, for a brief period, but the one considered here had a fairly lengthy career in the ’60s and ’70s. (The other played only briefly in 1970 and ’71 for the Twins.)

And our Steve Barber, while definitely not as high profile a player as Koufax, is no negligible figure in MLB history.

A native of Silver Springs, Maryland, Barber jumped from high school to what was then D-level ball to the Orioles by the time he had only three seasons under his belt, none of them with a winning record. The left-hander threw very hard and featured a “cannonball sinker.” But he was wild.

That term applied to his personal behavior as well as his baseball life. But he wasn’t as wild on the mound, or elsewhere, as Steve Dalkowski, another O’s farmhand, the truly legendary minor leaguer and alcoholic who allegedly threw over 110 mph.

So, Barber was the one the O’s promoted. He was expected to be the hardest thrower in baseball before he ever pitched in an MLB game, which occurred when he was 22 in 1960. He went 10-7 in 27 starts (36 appearances) with a 3.22 ERA. But he walked an MLB-worst 113 for the 112 he struck out. In other words, he literally needed relief pitchers, even as he contributed to Baltimore’s second-place finish.

The following season he found the plate a little better, striking out 150 to the 130 he walked while going 18-12. He had an MLB-leading eight shutouts, but in both seasons with the Orioles, his WHIP exceeded 1.300.

In 1963, though, Barber won 20 games – still with a less than ideal WHIP – and by 1966, when Baltimore captured baseball’s biggest prize, he had lowered his WHIP to a team-leading 1.148 among the starters. Two of those starters were Palmer and Dave McNally.

However, in ’66 the hard-thrower developed elbow tendonitis, and basically pitched in pain for the rest of his career.

The following season player representative Barber created a kerfuffle by announcing the Orioles wanted to be paid for media interviews. The players eventually backed down (MLB history would wait on such rights), and the pitcher went on to flirt with no-hitters twice in the season, eventually becoming only the second pitcher to lose a no-hitter. Wildness and an error behind a reliever did him in against Detroit.

Interestingly, he said later, “I was pitching so bad that day that I should have gotten beat 10-1.”

It was the kind of remark a supreme natural talent will sometimes make, if he is honest.

In the middle of the season, Barber was traded to the Yankees, and then bounced around among several teams for the rest of his career. Still, he finished 15 MLB years with 121-106 record – not so bad for a guy who never bested .500 as a minor leaguer.