This card brings back some special memories for me. We'll get to that in a bit, but for now the man of the hour is Aurelio Lopez, El Lanzallama, Señor Smoke, the rotund, rubber armed reliever for the Detroit Tigers.
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loginLopez never made the Major Leagues until he was almost 30 years of age. Prior to that he pitched in the Mexican League where he was very successful - winning a championship and a league MVP. The records seem to be incomplete regarding his stats in the Mexican League so who knows how many innings he pitched there but I'd imagine it was a ton. The Cardinals bought him in 1978 but traded him to Detroit for Bob Sykes after the 1979 season. It was a great deal for Detroit, Sykes would never amount to anything much and Lopez would be a very valuable asset for the Tigers. He could close out a game or act as setup man.
He had an unusual presence on the mound. He was a gum chewer and he would champ away like mad between pitches. He was considered grossly fat for the time, now days I don't think any one would give him a second thought but the players were more fit then and he stuck out. Then he had this weird little leg kick he did with his left leg - almost like a shiver. Very distinctive - I'm not sure that I've ever seen anyone else quite do that before or since.
His best year in the Majors would be 1984. That was the year the Tigers won the World Series. Lopez would win 10 games against only one loss while saving 14 as the setup guy for Willie Hernandez who was absolutely dominant that year. Lopez would have an unforgettable moment in the World Series. A clip of it is below. Note the gum champ and the leg kick. Scully and Garagiola make the call.
After his time in the majors he returned to his hometown in Mexico. He would become Mayor after beating out the local political machine but he would sadly end up dying in a traffic accident at the age of 44.
So all of that leads to this little story. I pitched in High School. Not particularly well but good enough that the coach kept sending me back out there. Our coach was an old guy named Ochylski. Tough mother. Definitely old school. Ex-Marine - WWII, Korea and Vietnam vet. Whom after surviving all that would end up teaching Industrial Arts and coaching ball. He knew the game inside and out and was a very good instructor. Not exactly the most humorous person though. No one ever saw him laugh and I think the only time I ever saw him smile was when an opposing pitcher hit our big, dumbass first baseman in the head. "Look at that. He might have knocked some sense into Yakimovich's head".
Bright young lads that we were, we decided that we could make Coach Ochylski laugh. One day before practice, all of the pitchers shoved towels down the front of our uniforms so we would have beer guts and loaded up on Bubble Yum. So we trotted out and did our best Aurelio Lopez impressions. Champing away at the bubble yum, doing that funky little leg kick and yelling "ándale", "ariba", "Quatros" or whatever random Spanish word we could think of. Coach O had a conniption. When he asked us just what the hell we thought we were doing, "No habla ingles" was not the right answer. He wind sprinted us from foul pole to foul pole until half of us were barfing. I thought I was gonna die. I'll give him credit though - he was right there keeping pace. He most have been about 65 at the time, Not an ounce of fat on him, beady little eyes gleaming as he screamed demeaning things at us without ever using an obscenity. That ended the Aurelio Lopez impersonations and the attempt to make Coach O laugh.
