It is Dave Lemanczyk's 62nd birthday today.
Dave was a starting pitcher for the Blue Jays back in their first season, he started the second game in club history, taking the L in our very first loss.
He was a pretty decent pitcher. We took him from the Detroit Tigers in the Expansion Draft. The Expansion Draft was really a suckers bet, the expansion teams pay a fortune to join the league and they get to pick from players that the established teams don't want. We did get Jim Clancy, Ernie Whitt, Rico Carty and Pete Vuckovich (who would later go on to win a Cy Young, but not as a Jay) among others, but
Lemanczyk had a pretty good year, setting career highs in wins, starts, and innings pitched, among over things. He threw 252 innings, with 11 complete games and 13 wins, 16 losses and a 4.25 ERA. He led the team in wins.
Dave only made 20 starts the next season, and had a 4-14 record with a 6.26 ERA, maybe the 252 innings from the season before were too much for his arm.
He bounced back in 1979, throwing a 1 hitter against the Rangers in April. At the break he was 8-5 with a 3.15 ERA and made the All-Star team. After the break things didn't go as well, he had some injury problems and he finished with an 8-10 record with a 3.71 ERA in 20 starts.
The Jays traded him to the Angels in the middle of the 1980 season and he was released after the season, and he was finished as a major leaguer at age 30, with a 37-63 record (course with some terrible teams), 4.62 ERA in 185 games, 103 starts.
Happy Birthday Dave, I hope it is a good one.