One of baseball fans friendliest players Teddy Higuera was all business on the pitching mound. After five seasons in the Mexican League and a year in the Brewers farm system, he arrived on the major league scene with a flourish. As a rookie in 1985 he posted his first win on May 5 1985 with a 4-hit shutout over the Angels and later set a Brewer record for most wins by a rookie, 15-8 record, completing 7 of 30 starts, and was second in the balloting for Rookie of the Year. In 1986 Teddy Higuera, armed with an assortment of 90 plus miles per hour fastballs, curves and changeup had a career year. He fashioned a 20-11 record, was second in the AL to Roger Clemens in ERA with 2.79 and completed a resounding 15 of 34 starts, including 4 shutouts. And was chosen and pitched three scoreless innings in the All-Star Game and was second in the voting for the Cy Young Award. In 1987 he went 18-10, including a 7 game winning streak from August 5 to September 22 and in that streak threw 32 straight scoreless innings, and he set a Brewer record with 240 strike outs. In 1988 he had a 16-9 record and his 2.45 ERA was second best in the AL to Alan Anderson of Minnesota, 2.44 ERA. From then on a series of injuries plagued Teddy Higuera. First he had back surgery take kept him on the disabled list until May 1 1989, and a series of sprained ankles hampered him the rest of the year, although he did post a solid 9-6 mark. In 1990 he went 11-10, in 1991 he had a tear in his rotator cuff, then a operation on his pitching shoulder, and so on. Teddy Higuera pitched nine excellent seasons in the majors and has been missed by his Milwaukee fans. Good Luck. Baseball Historian |