The melanated mound marauder they called “Smoke” was a four-time 20-game winner, a two-time ALCS MVP, a World Series MVP, and a three-time World Series champion and one of 15 Black Aces in MLB history.
It’s no secret that the Los Angeles Dodgers have been consistently dominating the majors with the best record in baseball. While taking residency as the cream of the crop may have some fans happy, this has been nothing new for the Dodgers in recent years. Usually, the team dominates the regular season only to run out of gas in the postseason.
Outside of the COVID-19 season in 2020, the Dodgers have fallen short of championship glory on many occasions.
Outside of the 2020 season, the bugaboo for LA has been the inability to put together a complete series of consistent pitching and offense at the same time. Sometimes the pitching can be dominant with minimal offense and at other times the pitching, most notably the closers have failed to come up with the crucial out to close out games.
If a World Series championship is in the cards, the pitching dilemma that comes with the season-ending injuries to Dodgers ace Walker Buehler has to be addressed. Despite the fact his numbers weren’t as gaudy as his 2021 campaign with a 16-4 record and 2.47 era that led him to a fourth-place finish in the Cy Young Award voting, the team was preparing to bring him back in September for the playoffs.
Even though Buehler wouldn’t be the go-to pitcher in a starting scenario, he could have been an option coming out of the bullpen in a pinch. Most likely this would be in a close-out situation where the Dodgers needed an out with runners on base. His injury has the team reshuffling the deck of all of their pitching staff from top to bottom.
Here’s where our Black Ace David Price can make an impact and close out his career on the highest level. MLBbro.com’s Senior writer, Kevin Moore shared his steady climb up the all-time and active player strikeout list earlier this season.
Black Ace (@DAVIDprice24) David Price Is Still Rolling | He’s 78th On The All-Time K List And Counting, You Can’t Front On Him a Little. @KevMoore93 writes about the success of the former Cy Young Award winner. https://t.co/966ojbo2Iy pic.twitter.com/VpudFgkUF4
— MLBbro.com (@MLBbrodotcom) July 29, 2022
The one probable Achilles heel the Los Angeles Dodgers have on a team that seems nearly unbeatable these days is a reliable closer who can come in and shut down a rally when needed. With the Dodgers owning several huge winning streaks this season, it is clear that the team does what they have to do and beat the inferior teams while putting them away early. Plus the starting pitching has been out of sight.
For years, the closer for the Dodgers has been Kenley Jansen, whose career the last few seasons had mirrored the championship success of the team. Even though he was collecting saves at a high rate in the regular season, he would struggle in the postseason to the point that he lost his confidence and job as the closer in his last season. Eventually, he moved on to the Atlanta Braves.
David Price will be known as the “other” player who came over in the Mookie Betts trade a couple of years ago. MLBbro.com has been very consistent in highlighting one of the top MLBbros in the game in Betts as he helped Los Angeles to a World Series title.
The last MLBbro pitcher to top the 20-game winning plateau could carve a very important niche as the Dodgers closer after being a full-time reliever this season. He found himself picking up a save over the weekend as LA swept the Marlins.
As the season closes, it is looking more and more that Price will be calling it a career after completing his huge seven-year, $217 million contract that he signed as a free agent with the Boston Red Sox back in 2015. Over the July 4 holiday, he discussed his retirement plans to spend more time with his family via Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register.
“My (two) kids love it so much. That’s the only thing that makes me even think about playing any longer,” Price said. “I always told myself I’d ask my son, “Do you want daddy to play baseball or do you want daddy to be home all the time?’ I asked him before this year and he said, ‘I want you to be home.’ I said, Are you sure?’ He said, ‘Yeah’. Now when I ask him, he says, ‘No, I want you to keep playing.”
If this is his last season, David Price has built himself quite a legacy. In his 14 years, he has collected a Cy Young Award (2012), five All-Star appearances and a World Series title back in 2018 in Boston. Not a bad career for the Tampa Bay Rays’ number one pick of the 2007 draft.
Price was a member of the Dodgers’ championship roster, but he pulled himself out of action because of COVID-19 concerns leaving him out of the World Series run. Now things are very different. Price could become the second former Red Sox to cement his chapter in recent Dodgers championship lore by stepping on the mound during the playoffs to save a crucial game to win the NLCS or World Series in situations that have gone the other way for Los Angeles.
If he does, our MLBbro can walk off into the sunset with another World Series ring, a storybook ending and a hero’s sendoff.
David Price is in his second season with the Los Angeles Dodgers and is looking to win his first World Series title as a member of the Dodgers and his second overall title. Price has had a lot of success throughout his career and the 36-year-old is not ready to walk away from the game just yet.
The former Cy Young Award winner now finds himself in a full-time reliever role with the Dodgers. And for the most part, he has settled in well. Sometimes it’s not easy transitioning to a different role, but Price is a team player and he’s willing to do whatever to put the team in the best position to be successful.
If that means going to the bullpen, then that’s what he’s going to do. Last year he transitioned to the bullpen, but he did make 11 starts out of 39 appearances. In 26 appearances this season, he’s pitched in 26.1 innings and has a 3.08 ERA with a save.
Yes, this is the least amount of innings Price has pitched in his career, but he understands his role and is always ready to get out there when his name is called upon.
“I like these young guys getting their starts,” Price said in an article from The Orange County Register. “I like them being able to get their numbers up so they can go to arbitration, and they can get their money. I got mine.”
And Price did hint that this could be his last season, so going out on top would be a wonderful feeling for the veteran. But a big reason why he’s still playing is because of his kids.
“My (two) kids love it so much. That’s the only thing that makes me even think about playing any longer,” Price said. “I always told myself I’d ask my son, ’Do you want daddy to play baseball or do you want daddy to be home all the time?’ I asked him before this year and he said, ‘I want you to be home.’ I said, ’Are you sure?’ He said, ’Yeah.’ Now when I ask him, he says, ’No, I want you to keep playing.”
For those who have followed Price’s career, know how dominant he was in the league for multiple years. He’s 78th on the all-time strikeout list with 2,068. To be in the top 100 of the list is an accomplishment of itself. Price is in his 14th season and has dealt with numerous injuries the past few seasons and it’s apparent that he isn’t who he was back in 2010 and 2012, but the brother can still go out there and get the job done.
If this is in fact his last season, how great would it be for him to go out as a World Series champion. This is one MLBbro who definitely deserves his flowers. He’s shown why he’s one of the best to ever do it.
Three years ago, on February 18th in 2019, MLB lost one of its pioneers and baseball lost its first Black pitching star. His death was announced by the Dodgers in a Tweet, but it didn’t represent the full impact of Newcombe’s MLB experience as a racial barrier-breaker back in the 50s. Baseball fans, celebrities, and common folk from all walks of life sent their condolences.
And the bad #BlackHistoryMonth news keeps coming 😢😢😢
Another amazing baseball legend and just an all-around fantastic human being is gone. #RIPDonNewcombe 🙏🏽🥀 https://t.co/aHiqhvWPYS
— Holly Robinson Peete 💃🏾♍️ (@hollyrpeete) February 19, 2019
Former President Barrack Obama put things in perspective in 2010 when he said, “I would not be here if it were not for Jackie and it were not for Don Newcombe.
“Newk” was a fearless, ferocious fireballer and baseball pioneer. He was the first black pitcher to start in a World Series and the first Black Ace to win 20 games in an MLB season. He’s also the only baseball player ever to win Rookie of The Year, MVP and the Cy Young Award.
Born in Madison, New Jersey on June 14, 1926, Newcombe only lived there because his dad was a chauffeur for this wealthy family. His pops made a good living making beer and driving.
Newcombe’s only connection to baseball was his uncles, who played sandlot ball on Staten Island. His parents would get into the car on the weekends and go watch them play.
A big-time New Jersey athlete taught Newcombe how to play baseball at age 13.
While Jackie Robinson gets all of the props for being Branch Rickey’s first choice to break baseball’s color barrier, Newcombe was the first African-American pitcher brought in by the Dodgers
He started in the Negro Leagues with the Newark Eagles and then after meeting baseball’s great emancipator, his life changed and he started his MLB career in 1949.
Said Newcombe in a classic interview with former Yankees and Mets announcer Fran Healy:
In 1945, we played in an All-Star Game…Negro League stars like Monte Irvin, Roy Campanella… and I happened to be on the same team with them. And we were playing at Ebbets Field and I pitched the first three innings against a major league team and shut them out.”
(After the game) into the clubhouse walked this thin white man with a great big hat on that looked like a parachute and while I was sitting there getting ready to shower he asked me if I was Don Newcombe? I replied, Yes. He asked me if I could come to the Dodgers office tomorrow in Brooklyn to talk with Branch Rickey about playing on a new Negro League team the Dodgers were starting.”
He says Rickey was using the Negro League All-Star team as a diversion to mask his true intentions of integrating baseball which he eventually and strategically did in 1947 with Jackie Robinson, and then Roy Campanella in 1948 and Newcombe the following season.
The rest is MLB history. Together they played on the first racially-integrated baseball team in the United States.
Of all the positions in baseball, pitcher is considered the glamour position. The pitcher usually gets the riches, glory or becomes the goat. Newcombe had an even rougher time than Robinson according to some historians because he was a pitcher and it was considered a white mans position.
Players, fans and at times, umpires had a strong disdain for Newcombe, and the pressure and racism and some postseason failure eventually drove him to alcohol addiction, which shortened his career.
In addition to the hate mail and death threats, the Black players on the Dodgers couldn’t stay at some of the same Southern hotels as their white teammates. It was a demoralizing and angering experience.
“All we wanted to be was a red-blooded Americans like everybody else,” Newcombe told Healy.
However, Newcombe was able to overcome his addictions and keep his family intact. He became a positive influence on the community and cleaned up his act, maintaining his sobriety from 1967 until his death
This 1994 LA Times article spoke of Newcombe’s redemption song.
Newcombe has given speeches to more than 2 million people ranging from schoolchildren to chief executive officers. The speeches vary, but the theme remains the same.
“The life you have now is the only one you get,” he said. “You can’t burn it out with drugs, or drown it with alcohol, turn it in and get a new one.”
Newcombe became director of community relations for the Dodgers in 1970, and for 14 years headed the team’s alcohol and drug program, the first of its kind in the major leagues.
An amazing, towering Black Ace, the 6-foot-4 Newcombe had a stellar career on the hill with four All-Star appearances, 149 wins, just 90 losses and 24 shutouts. He was in the Top 10 among NL pitchers in ERA four times, wins five times, and strikeouts five times. He also could handle the bat, hitting 271 with 15 homers and 108 RBIs in 878 career at-bats.
But it’s what he did for future generations of players that make him extremely worthy of this Shadow League Black History Moment reflection.
Salute!
Dave Stewart is one of just 15 MLBbro pitchers in history to win 20 or more games and he did it a remarkable four times (1987, 1988, 1989, 1990).
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