Born Lee William Capra in Chicago, he enjoyed a distinguished collegiate baseball career at Illinois State University before being selected in the 27th round of the 1969 MLB Draft by the New York Mets. Capra would make his big-league debut with the Mets in 1971 as a September callup.
Over the next two seasons, Capra would shuttle between the Mets and their Triple-AAA affiliate in Tidewater although he would be part of the You Gotta Believe Mets which won the NL pennant under Yogi Berra in 1973.
Alas, Capra did not pitch in the post-season. The only action he saw was partaking in a brawl during the NLCS against the Cincinnati Reds when Pete Rose slid into Bud Harrelson starting a pier-six brawl. Capra would end up scrapping with Reds reliever Pedro Borbon who would take Capra's hat and wear it taunting the Mets dugout. Well, at least Capra wasn't bitten by Borbon.
Prior to the start of the 1974 season, the Mets sold Capra's contract to the Atlanta Braves. Capra began the season in the Braves bullpen and would earn a save the night Hank Aaron passed Babe Ruth on the all-time HR list.
Capra would be moved into the starting rotation following an injury to Ron Reed in which he would pitch six innings of one-hit ball against the San Diego Padres. Four days later, Capra would pitch his first career complete game against the eventual NL champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
Over his next four starts, Capra would generate a buzz tossing complete game shutouts in three of those starts - one against the Houston Astros and back-to-back shutouts against the Montreal Expos. Between May 15th and June 6th, Capra pitched 51 innings allowing only 3 earned runs. During this period, Capra lowered his ERA from 3.06 to a miniscule 1.18 ERA. To put that number in perspective, Bob Gibson posted an MLB record 1.12 ERA with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1968.
Following a rough start against his former team in which he was knocked out in the second inning, Capra rebounded with four consecutive wins against the Cardinals, got even with the Mets, had another complete game victory against the Dodgers before throwing a 10-inning shutout against the Big Red Machine. By the end of June, Capra was 9-2 with a 1.32 ERA.
Capra would come back down to Earth in July but was 10-5 with a 2.08 ERA at the All-Star Break and would be named to the NL All-Star Team by his former skipper Yogi Berra although he would not pitch in the game. He would finish the 1974 season with a 16-8 record with a league leading 2.28 ERA along with 11 complete games. This was good enough to finish 9th in NL Cy Young balloting and 20th in NL MVP balloting.
Unfortunately, Capra could not sustain his success beyond 1974. Capra would injure his pitching shoulder, and a biceps tendon transfer did little to help matters. Over the next three seasons, Capra would only win 10 more big league games before the Braves released him during spring training in 1978. In 7 MLB seasons, Capra appeared in 142 games (61 as a starting pitcher) and went 31-37 with a 3.87 ERA over 544.1 innings pitched. Capra recorded 362 strikeouts against 258 walks. More than half of his big-league wins would come during that magical 1974 season with the Braves.
Capra would stay in the game as a minor league pitching coach with the Braves and Mets as well as the Philadelphia Phillies, Montreal Expos and the Chicago White Sox as well as at the collegiate level at Northeastern Illinois University. He would also work as a carpenter in his spare time often helping his friends and neighbors. R.I.P.
No comments:
Post a Comment