#CardCorner: 1989 Donruss Tom Gordon

One of just three pitchers in history with at least 100 wins, 100 saves and 1,900 strikeouts, Tom Gordon parlayed a remarkably durable arm and a burning desire to compete into 21 big league seasons.

Few pitchers have succeeded in as many roles as the 5-foot-9 curveball master who earned the nickname “Flash” with his electric arsenal of pitches.

Born Nov. 18, 1967, in Sebring, Fla., Gordon grew up in nearby Avon Park in Central Florida and began showing up in newspaper stories as early as 1980 when he was in Little League. By the time he reached high school, Gordon was striking out virtually as many batters as he faced – including 21 in one game and 46 of 48 over three games.

But it may have been Gordon’s sophomore year – where he was ineligible to play varsity baseball due to academic issues – that proved most important in his development.

“He got himself into a little trouble with his grades, but he really grew up his sophomore year,” Avon Park baseball coach Ronny Jackson told the Tampa Tribune about Gordon, who had started on the varsity team as a freshman but missed playing for Avon Park’s state title team a year later. “We were a really senior-heavy team that year we won the state title and Tom would have been the only underclassman starter on that team.

“Thomas was a very confident young man. He told me in ninth grade that he was going to make the major leagues. A lot of people told him that he was too small, but I would say that he proved them all wrong.”

After dominating opponents as a senior – going 12-1 with 188 strikeouts in 88 innings – Gordon was selected in the sixth round of the 1986 MLB Draft by the Kansas City Royals. He was sent to the Royals’ Gulf Coast League affiliate in Sarasota, Fla., where he went 3-1 with a save and a 1.02 ERA, striking out 47 batters in 44 innings.

With the Royals’ Triple-A team in Omaha in need of pitching in late August, Gordon was summoned to the highest level of the minor leagues at the age of 18. He allowed seven runs in 1.1 innings against Oklahoma City on Aug. 26 – but just facing Triple-A batters was a huge step for a pitcher who was working in high school games three months before.

“I knew they were going to hit it,” Gordon told the Kansas City Star. “I just didn’t think they were going to hit it that hard.”

Gordon did not pitch in a game the rest of the season but the Royals were unconcerned about his Triple-A debut. He pitched for both Eugene of the Northwest League and Fort Myers of the Florida State League in 1987, going a combined 10-0 with a 2.83 ERA over 86 innings.

Then in 1988, Gordon became one of the game’s hottest prospects when he blazed through three minor league levels – Class A Appleton of the Midwest League, Double-A Memphis of the Southern League and Triple-A Omaha. He posted a combined record of 16-5 with a 1.55 ERA to go with 263 strikeouts in 185.2 innings.

“When I started out the year, I expected to get no higher than Double-A,” Gordon told the Tampa Tribune in late August as he raced up the Royals’ organizational ladder. “Now I am this close to Kansas City.”

Baseball America named Gordon its Minor League Player of the Year, and the performance got Gordon all the way to Kansas City. He debuted with the Royals on Sept. 8 with two scoreless innings in relief against the eventual American League champion Athletics before starting his first big league game nine days later against the A’s. Gordon finished the MLB season with an 0-2 mark and 5.17 ERA but struck out 18 batters over 15.2 innings, bringing his season total to 281.

Only Roger Clemens, who struck out 291 batters for the Red Sox in 1988, had more strikeouts than Gordon at any level in baseball that year.

“Gordon was impressive,” Royals manager John Wathan told the Associated Press after Gordon’s debut.

Wathan would be even more impressed the following spring when Gordon pitched his way onto the Royals’ Opening Day roster. He began the season in the bullpen, amassing four wins in April to go with a 2.66 ERA over 11 appearances. On April 12 – having appeared in a game the day before – Gordon worked 6.2 innings of shutout relief against the Orioles, allowing just four hits and striking out 10 in a game Baltimore won 5-4 in 15 innings.

It remains the only game in Royals history where a reliever worked at least six shutout innings and fanned at least 10 batters. There have been fewer than 25 such games in AL/NL history.

After suffering two losses in May, Gordon ran his record to 10-2 before the Royals moved Gordon into the starting rotation. He defeated the Brewers 3-2 on July 17 in his first start, striking out 10 batters over eight-plus innings. He remained in the rotation for the rest of the season, finishing 17-9 after dropping four decisions in September as he tired down the stretch.

“He’s really given our rotation a big lift,” Royals manager John Wathan told the Associated Press as Kansas City chased Oakland in the AL West race in August of 1989. “It’s amazing what he has done at age 21.”

Gordon finished second in the AL Rookie of the Year voting, 46 points ahead of third-place Ken Griffey Jr. Gordon and Griffey Jr. received one first-place vote apiece – the only first-place votes that did not go to winner Gregg Olson of the Orioles.

The Royals opened the 1990 season with Gordon in their rotation, and Gordon made 32 starts – going 12-11 with a 3.73 ERA and 175 strikeouts in 195.1 innings. But starting in 1991 – when Gordon discarded his uniform No. 36 for No. 16 in tribute to his friend and former teammate, Bo Jackson, who was released that spring – Gordon was shuffled between the rotation and the bullpen during an ongoing debate about his optimal role.

After starting the season 4-2 with six starts in his first nine games, Gordon went 0-4 in June with a 6.53 ERA. Then on July 19, Gordon threw 124 pitches and allowed six earned runs in six innings in a 17-0 loss to Detroit. That start came on the heels of a 125-pitch outing against the Tigers five days earlier and prompted new Royals manager Hal McRae to move Gordon to the bullpen.

“Based on what I’ve seen of him in both roles – not that he’s better suited to do one or the other – he conducts himself better to pitch out of the bullpen than to start,” Royals pitching coach Pat Dobson told the Kansas City Star. “He’s just more focused out of the bullpen. I look at him right now and would say he’s got a better chance of being a closer than being a quality starting guy.”

Gordon pitched effectively out of the bullpen the rest of the 1991 season, finishing with a 9-14 record and a 3.87 ERA over 158 innings. The work earned him a raise of almost half a million dollars for 1992 when he agreed to a one-year deal worth $815,000. But the questions about his role continued as he battled a sore elbow for much of the year. Gordon began the season in the rotation, going 0-5 with a 5.64 ERA in nine starts before McRae moved him back to the bullpen.

“I think he performs better out of the pen,” McRae told the Star that July. “I think he has a bullpen mentality. He’s a better pitcher when he doesn’t know if he’s going to pitch or not.”

Gordon made only two starts the rest of the 1992 season after May 21, finishing with a 6-10 record and 4.59 ERA in 117.2 innings. But he still saw himself as a starter – even after working in a swingman role in 1993 while going 12-6 with a 3.58 ERA in 48 appearances, including 14 starts which all came after he was moved back to the rotation in late July.

McRae and the Royals were now committed to using Gordon as a starter, and Gordon went 11-7 with a 4.35 ERA in 24 games – all starts – in 1994. He posted similar numbers in 1995, going 12-12 with a 4.43 ERA in 31 starts.

A free agent following the 1995 season, Gordon told the Star that the Royals offered him a 63-percent pay cut from his $3.3 million salary. Not surprisingly, Gordon signed elsewhere – agreeing to a two-year deal with the Red Sox worth a reported $5.8 million that also included a vesting option for 1998.

“I’m glad that someone thinks that I am better than average,” Gordon told the Star. “I guess I was in the right place at the right time.”

Gordon made 34 starts in 1996 and worked a career-high 215.2 innings. But he also allowed an MLB-leading 134 earned runs while going 12-9 with a 5.59 ERA. Then in 1997, Gordon was 6-9 with a 3.59 ERA in 25 starts when the Red Sox moved him to the bullpen in August. It was a move necessitated by the trade of closer Heathcliff Slocumb to the Mariners – a deal that brought future Red Sox heroes Derek Lowe and Jason Varitek to Boston.

Gordon, meanwhile, thrived as the Red Sox’s stopper, saving 11 games over the last month-and-a-half of the season. He would not start another big league game in his career.

“Flash has everything you look for in a closer,” Red Sox pitching coach Joe Kerrigan told the Hartford Courant. “Two outstanding pitches…resiliency, which he has. He bounces back pretty well. Now, you look at the makeup of the man. He’s advanced and matured on the mound to the point where the man controls the pitcher. He’s in control.”

The Red Sox and Gordon agreed to a re-worked three-year contract that also included an option for 2001. Gordon responded with the best season of his career, saving an AL-best 46 games while going 7-4 with a 2.72 ERA. He failed in only one save opportunity the entire year and set new MLB marks for consecutive saves and consecutive saves in one season (both with 43). The Red Sox won 92 games and advanced to the ALDS, affording Gordon the opportunity to pitch in the postseason for the first time. He appeared in two games against Cleveland in the Division Series, suffering the loss in the deciding Game 4 when David Justice doubled in two runs in the eighth inning in the Indians’ 2-1 win.

But Gordon remained pleased with his status in Boston.

“I signed with the Red Sox because I always liked Boston and its fans,” Gordon told the Springfield (Mass.) Republican in the spring of 1999. “I wanted to play here, and I was thrilled when I got a new contract. Put all that with my new job as a closer, and I figure I’m in the ideal baseball situation.”

The good times in Boston, however, did not last. Elbow pain forced Gordon onto the disabled list in June of 1999, and he questioned the Red Sox’s diagnosis before returning for three games at the end of the season. He pitched in five games in the postseason that year as the Red Sox advanced to the ALCS, allowing runs in three of those appearances.

Following the season, Gordon’s dispute with the team was settled via talks between the Commissioner’s Office and the MLB Players Association, resulting in Angels’ team physician Lewis Yocum performing Tommy John surgery on Gordon’s elbow. Consequently, Gordon did not pitch in 2000.

The Red Sox did not exercise the 2001 option on Gordon’s contract, and Gordon signed a two-year deal with the Cubs worth a reported $5 million on Dec. 14, 2000. He saved 27 games in 47 appearances in 2001 but was sidelined with a shoulder ailment for much of 2002, making his first appearance that season on July 2. On Aug. 22, the Cubs sent Gordon to the Astros in exchange for three minor leaguers. He appeared in a total of 34 games that season and did not record a save.

But in 2003, Gordon rebuilt his career with the White Sox, going 7-6 with a 3.16 ERA and 12 saves in 66 games – striking out 91 over 74 innings – after signing a one-year “prove it” contract worth $1.4 million. A free agent once again, Gordon agreed to a two-year deal with the Yankees worth $7.25 million, signing on to become the set-up man for Mariano Rivera.

The deal worked to perfection as Rivera saved 96 games in 2004-05 while Gordon went a combined 14-8 with a 2.38 ERA in 159 games, striking out 165 batters in 170.1 innings. Gordon was also named to his second All-Star Game in 2004 and made his third and fourth trips to the postseason. But the Yankees lost in the ALCS in 2004 and the ALDS in 2005.

With his contract expiring after the 2005 season, the 38-year-old Gordon signed a three-year, $18 million deal with the Phillies to replace Billy Wagner as the team’s closer.

“I’m confident Tom will do an excellent job,” Phillies general manager Pat Gillick told the AP when announcing the deal. “From our scouting, he has absolutely no problem. We don’t see any decline in his talent. This guy is in great shape.”

Gordon gave the Phillies what they asked for in 2006, saving 34 games while going 3-4 with a 3.34 ERA in 59 games. But in 2007, Gordon blew three saves in April before a sore shoulder forced him to the disabled list in May. When he returned in July, Brett Myers had taken over the closer role, leaving Gordon as a set-up man for the rest of the season. Gordon finished with a 3-2 record, six saves and a 4.73 ERA in 44 appearances. The Phillies won the NL East but were swept in the NLDS by the Rockies, with Gordon working in two of those games.

It would be the final postseason appearances of his career.

The Phillies acquired Brad Lidge from Houston in a trade after the 2007 season, putting the writing on the wall about Gordon’s future role with the team.

“Whatever my job is with this team, I feel loyal to them,” Gordon told the Philadelphia Inquirer in Spring Training of 2008. “And I want to do whatever I can to help.”

Lidge had a season for the ages as Philadelphia’s closer in 2008 – saving 41 games while going 2-0 with a 1.95 ERA in 72 appearances. Gordon served as a set-up man for the first half of the season before right elbow inflammation put him on the disabled list once again. Gordon did not pitch in a game after July 5, missing out on the Phillies’ run to the World Series title but still earning a ring after going 5-4 with two saves in 34 games.

Following the season, Gordon signed a one-year, $500,000 deal with the Diamondbacks. But he injured his hamstring after just three appearances and was released on Aug. 11, ending his career.

Gordon pitched in 21 big league seasons, going 138-126 with 158 saves and a 3.96 ERA, striking out 1,928 batters in 2,108 innings. He is one of only 10 pitchers in big league history with at least 130 wins and 800 appearances, and only Dennis Eckersley, Hoyt Wilhelm, Lindy McDaniel and Gordon have at least 130 wins, 800 appearances and 100 saves. Only Eckersley, Gordon and John Smoltz totaled at least 100 wins, 100 saves and 1,900 strikeouts.

Though he struggled for years to find his perfect role, Gordon succeeded in becoming one of his era’s most effective pitchers.

“I am looking for bigger and better things for myself,” Gordon told the Kansas City Star when he was moved to the bullpen in 1991. “I’m not looking to stay down in the bullpen and be a middle reliever. I would love to go back to the starting rotation or I would love to be a closer.”

Craig Muder is the director of communications for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum