Art Mahaffey


Arthur Mahaffey Jr. is an American former professional baseball starting pitcher, who played in Major League Baseball for the Philadelphia Phillies and St. Louis Cardinals. He batted and threw right-handed. In a seven-season MLB career, Mahaffey posted a 59–64 record, with 639 strikeouts, and a 4.17 earned run average, in 999.0 innings pitched.
Mahaffey was signed as an amateur free agent by the Philadelphia Phillies on June 29, 1956, out of Western Hills High School. He began his Minor League Baseball career that summer. After 4 seasons playing in the Phillies' farm system, he received his MLB call-up, playing in his first Phillies game on July 30, 1960; Mahaffey pitched the final two innings of a game against the St. Louis Cardinals. He retired the three batters he faced in the eighth inning. In the ninth, Bill White led off with a single to right field and then was picked off by Mahaffey at first base. The next batter, Curt Flood, singled to center field, and he, too, was picked off by Mahaffey, who threw to first with Flood tagged out on a throw from first to second. He finished the season with a 7–3 record, an ERA of 2.31, 14 games played, while finishing third in the 1960 National League Rookie of the Year balloting.
Mahaffey set a club record with 17 strikeouts in a game against the Chicago Cubs on April 23, 1961. Though he ended the season with an ERA of 4.10, and a record of 11–19, in 36 games, he was selected to represent the Phillies on the NL All-Star team. Mahaffey ended the season with a record of 19–14, and a 3.94 ERA, with a career high 177 strikeouts, in 41 games. He was selected again in 1962 for the NL All-Star team, finishing 26th in balloting for NL Most Valuable Player, despite leading the league in home runs allowed with 36, and earned runs allowed with 120. Mahaffey had a 7–10 record in 26 games with the Phillies, to go along with a 3.99 ERA. In, he finished the season with a record of 12–9, with an ERA of 4.52, in 34 games. The ill-fated 1964 team was in first place in the NL, with a 6-game lead, with just 12 games remaining in the season, before starting a 10-game losing streak that cost the team the pennant. Mahaffey pitched in two of the games in that infamous skid, losing a 1–0 game on a steal of home by Chico Ruiz of the Cincinnati Reds, and was taken out while winning 4-3 in a game against the Milwaukee Braves, in which Rico Carty hit a ninth-inning bases-loaded triple, plating all 3 runners, off of reliever Bobby Shantz, to win the game for the Braves, 6-4. was his last season in Philadelphia, which saw him finish with a 2–5 record, and an ERA of 6.21, in 22 games, mostly in relief.
Mahaffey was traded by the Phillies on October 27, 1965, along with catcher Pat Corrales, and outfielder Alex Johnson, to the Cardinals, in exchange for shortstop Dick Groat, catcher Bob Uecker, and first baseman Bill White. In his only season with the Cards, he had a 1–4 record, in 12 games, with an ERA of 6.43. Mahaffey was the starting pitcher in his final big league game, on July 17, 1966, in the second game of a doubleheader against the Chicago Cubs; that day, he gave up three hits, and three runs, in of an inning, in a game the Cubs won by a score of 7–2.
The Cardinals traded Mahaffey on April 1, 1967, along with infielder Jerry Buchek, and shortstop Tony Martínez, to the New York Mets, in exchange for shortstop Eddie Bressoud, outfielder Danny Napoleon, and cash.
Mahaffey now resides in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

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