Sam McDowell

HandednessBats Left · Throws Left

Listed at6 ft 5 in · 190 lb

BornSeptember 21, 1942 · Pittsburgh, PA, USA

MLB debutSeptember 15, 1961

Final gameJune 24, 1975

Seasons15 (1961–1975)

Cleveland Indians 1961–1971; San Francisco Giants 1972; New York Yankees 1973; San Francisco Giants 1973; New York Yankees 1974; Pittsburgh Pirates 1975

Percentile snapshot

1972 season — qualified pitchers

7.1

13.1

21.4

9.5

SHO

155

83.3

35.7

14.3

122

47.6

164.3

10.7

ERA

4.33

1.2

WHIP

1.467

1.2

K/9

6.68

FIP

3.67

14.3

FIP-

104.8

22.6

ERA+

81.0

sWAR

-0.2

3.6

of 85 qualified 1972 pitchers (min 155 IP)

Career, era-adjusted

ERA+

111.5

75.2

sWAR

35.3

97.4

ERA+ measured against qualified careers (1,000+ IP), 1,334 of them; sWAR measured against every career in history, 24,011 of them. Only era-adjusted career stats carry a percentile — a raw career total gets a rank instead, because pooling the 1890s with the 2020s is a choice, not a measurement.

Season by season

Batting

Season	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	wRC+	OPS+	wOBA	sWAR
1961	1	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	.000	.000	.000	.000	-123.6	-100.0	.000	0.3
1962	25	27	26	1	4	0	0	0	1	0	13	0	.154	.154	.154	.308	-29.9	-15.7	.140	-1.4
1963	15	24	19	1	4	0	0	0	0	1	9	0	.211	.250	.211	.461	26.9	31.4	.218	-0.3
1964	31	64	56	2	8	1	0	0	2	5	25	0	.143	.213	.161	.374	1.5	6.5	.186	3.6
1965	43	101	95	5	12	1	0	0	4	1	35	0	.126	.135	.137	.272	-39.0	-22.3	.127	6.8
1966	36	65	60	2	12	0	1	0	1	1	27	0	.200	.210	.233	.443	17.7	27.8	.201	3.4
1967	37	88	82	5	15	1	0	1	6	1	28	0	.183	.190	.232	.422	11.7	24.4	.193	0.6
1968	38	96	85	5	13	0	0	0	6	3	35	0	.153	.189	.153	.342	-7.6	5.5	.168	6.8
1969	39	104	92	3	16	3	0	0	6	0	31	1	.174	.172	.207	.379	-12.3	4.5	.173	5.5
1970	40	115	105	5	13	0	0	1	2	2	42	0	.124	.140	.152	.293	-39.8	-20.9	.137	6.2
1971	35	80	73	1	13	0	0	0	4	1	26	0	.178	.189	.178	.367	-17.7	1.2	.174	2.9
1972	28	64	59	3	7	1	1	0	4	1	21	0	.119	.133	.169	.303	-33.1	-14.8	.141	-0.2
1973	34	13	12	1	2	0	0	0	0	0	7	0	.167	.167	.167	.333	-24.2	-8.7	.155	0.7
1974	13	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	-0.2
1975	14	8	8	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	0	.000	.000	.000	.000	-128.7	-100.0	.000	0.5

Pitching

Season	G	GS	W	L	SV	CG	SHO	H	ER	BB	SO	HR	IP	ERA	WHIP	K/9	FIP	FIP-	ERA+	sWAR
1961	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	5	5	0	6.3	0.00	1.263	7.11	3.29	83.6	—	0.3
1962	25	13	3	7	1	0	0	81	59	70	70	9	87.7	6.06	1.722	7.19	4.78	123.2	64.1	-1.4
1963	14	12	3	5	0	3	1	63	35	44	63	6	65.0	4.85	1.646	8.72	3.75	103.8	74.6	-0.3
1964	31	24	11	6	1	6	2	148	52	100	177	8	173.3	2.70	1.431	9.19	2.80	77.5	133.8	3.6
1965	42	35	17	11	4	14	3	178	66	132	325	9	273.0	2.18	1.136	10.71	1.96	56.5	159.8	6.8
1966	35	28	9	8	3	8	5	130	62	102	225	12	194.3	2.87	1.194	10.42	2.59	75.7	119.2	3.4
1967	37	37	13	15	0	10	1	201	101	123	236	21	236.3	3.85	1.371	8.99	3.23	99.7	84.2	0.6
1968	38	37	15	14	0	11	3	181	54	110	283	13	269.0	1.81	1.082	9.47	2.09	70.8	163.0	6.8
1969	39	38	18	14	1	18	4	222	93	102	279	13	285.0	2.94	1.137	8.81	2.14	57.7	126.6	5.5
1970	39	39	20	12	0	19	1	236	99	131	304	25	305.0	2.92	1.203	8.97	2.86	73.5	133.2	6.2
1971	35	31	13	17	1	8	2	160	81	153	192	22	214.7	3.40	1.458	8.05	4.08	109.5	109.7	2.9
1972	28	25	10	8	0	4	0	155	79	86	122	12	164.3	4.33	1.467	6.68	3.67	104.8	81.0	-0.2
1973	34	18	6	10	3	2	1	118	62	93	110	8	135.7	4.11	1.555	7.30	3.77	101.3	90.5	0.7
1974	13	7	1	6	0	0	0	42	25	41	33	6	48.0	4.69	1.729	6.19	5.38	151.3	75.9	-0.2
1975	14	1	2	1	0	0	0	30	11	20	29	0	34.7	2.86	1.442	7.53	2.67	75.1	124.7	0.5

sWAR is the season TOTAL for a player who both hit and pitched: the record book carries one figure per season, not a split, so the same number appears on both lines rather than being counted twice.

Career totals

Batting

429

851

774

119

RBI

306

.1537

OBP

.1711

SLG

.1757

OPS

.3468

Pitching

G (P)

425

346

224th-most career GS

141

308th-most career W

134

252nd-most career L

103

397th-most career CG

SHO

207th-most career SHO

2,492

258th-most career IP

SO (P)

2,453

46th-most career SO (P)

BB allowed

1,312

30th-most career BB allowed

ERA

3.174

245th-lowest career ERA

WHIP

1.3080

K/9

8.86

42nd-highest career K/9

A total is called out only where it ranks in the all-time top 500; hover a figure for its rank and the size of the field it was ranked in. Ranks are absolute facts and carry no percentile — the population for "career home runs" would be an editorial choice, and the rank is not.

Best games

Batting

Date	Game	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	TB
1966-10-01	CLE @ LAA Gameday	4	0	2	0	1	0	0	4
1967-05-21	CLE @ BOS Gameday	1	1	1	0	0	1	2	4
1970-05-10	MIN @ CLE Gameday	4	1	1	0	0	1	1	4
1969-06-04	CLE @ MIL Gameday	3	1	3	0	0	0	0	3
1964-09-30	CLE @ BOS Gameday	3	0	2	1	0	0	1	3

Pitching

Date	Game	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
1965-09-04	CLE @ BAL Gameday	10.0	2	0	0	4	16
1968-05-01	ATH @ CLE Gameday	9.0	3	1	0	0	16
1965-06-05	DET @ CLE Gameday	10.0	4	1	0	5	15
1968-07-12	CLE @ ATH Gameday	8.2	4	3	3	3	15
1970-07-06	TEX @ CLE Gameday	8.2	11	4	4	5	15

Ranked from our own play-by-play game log, which begins in 1901 — not from the record book, so a career played outside it shows nothing here rather than a short list.

Honors

6× All-Star

Major awards only — the awards table also records Player of the Week, and forty of those would bury seven MVPs. Hover for the years.