Busy day for me and I have no fresh ideas this morning….fortunately my buddy that runs Centerfield Maz gave me permission to reprint his articles. Here’s one of the great Met villains of all time…Doug Sisk, aka “The Torch.”
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2009
Former Met of the Day: Doug Sisk (1982-1987)
Douglas Randall Sisk was born September 26, 1957 at Renton Washington. He was drafted by the Mets in 1980 and made his debut in 1982 allowing a run in 8 innings pitched. In 1983 he was in 67 games, pitching a career high 104 innings with 11 saves. He walked 59 batters and went 5-4 with a 2.24 ERA. His sinkerball made him only allow one HR all season. In fact in his career he only allowed 15 HRs in 523 innings pitched. Sisk’s problem was walks, in that career 523 innings he walked 267 batters. After saving 15 games (2nd to Jesse Orosco) and going 1-3 with a good ERA of 2.09 in 1984, Sisk and his walks began to irk the fans & Davey Johnson.
As the Mets became a championship team and the emergence of Roger McDowell, Sisk became the long man eating up innings in games where the Mets were either ahead by a lot or behind by a lot. He was the target of the Shea boo birds, especially after George Foster was dismissed.
Looking back at his 1986 season, it wasn’t as bad as you would think; 4-2 with 1 save and a 3.06 ERA. In 70 innings he walked 31 & struck out 31. He got to appear in one game of both post season Series’ only pitching an inning in each one. Sure enough he had to walk a batter each time.
The next season he went 3-1 and lowered his walks to 22 in 78 innings pitched. That December he was sent to Baltimore for Blaine Beatty who would pitch in seven games over two seasons for the Mets. He went 3-3 in Baltimore then moved to Atlanta pitching only 17 games over two seasons, calling it quits in 1991. 22-20 with 33 saves lifetime for Douglas. After baseball he became a coach at the Lakewood Washington Boys & Girls club.
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