Player Profile: Mike Boddicker

I have 61 cards of Mike Boddicker. This one is from 1986 Sportflics. 

Playing career: Mike Boddicker pitched fourteen seasons in the major leagues. His first two seasons were dominant – 16-8, 2.77 as a rookie for the 1983 World Champion Orioles (and two complete game victories in the postseason in which he did not allow an earned run); followed by leading the AL in wins (20) and ERA (2.79) in in 1984. However, in that 1984 season he struck out only 128 batters in 261.1 innings. Pitchers with that kind of ratio are usually unable to maintain a high level of performance, and Boddicker was no exception. However, he was able achieve double-figures in wins through the 1991 season, maintaining a respectable ERA most years. For his career he finished 134-116 with a 3.80 ERA. Those numbers are inflated by those first two seasons, though. From 1985, when the league started figuring him out, through his 1993 retirement he was 97-96 with a 4.09 ERA.

Where he is now: He does some youth coaching near his home in Iowa.

My memories: I rememer being on a family vacation in Massachusetts in 1988 and reading a local newspaper. It was a treat in those pre-internet days to read a newspaper from a different state. The big news in the paper was the Red Sox acquiring Boddicker in a trade with the Orioles.

Google Autocomplete results: He is second when you type Mike Bod, between Mike Bodge, a web designer, and Mike Bodson, CEO of the DTCC. Another prominent Mike Boddicker is a film composer who did the soundtracks for several famous movies. The two Mike Boddickers are distant cousins.

Coming up next: The next profile will be Brian Boehringer.