A Legendary Southpaw South of the Border

If you ever visit the Baseball Hall of Fame or spend any time reading about it, sooner or later you will probably hear the inductees referred to as immortals. It is, of course, an exaggeration. On the other hand, that bronze plaque in the hall might qualify as immortal, as it will surely be there long after the player so honored is designated for permanent assignment.

Cooperstown is not the only place in North America to honor the immortals of baseball. Consider El Salón de la Fama del Béisbol Profesional de México in Monterrey. Sure enough, the inductees there are referred to as inmortales.

As in the USA, this is an exageración. To be elected to any Hall of Fame, however, longevity is a must. To make it to Cooperstown, you have to play at least 10 seasons in the major leagues. The same is true in Mexico: ten years in either the Mexican League or the Mexican Pacific League, or 15 seasons if the player’s career is split between the two leagues. 15 seasons in Organized Baseball will also fulfill the requirement. So Fernando Valenzuela and Roberto Ávila are inductees, even though most of their fame is based on their diamond deeds north of the border.

It is not necessary to be a Mexican national to be an inductee. A number of Cubans (e.g., Adolfo Luque and Minnie Minoso) are included. Surprisingly, there is only one Puerto Rican (Oscar Rodríguez) and no Dominicans or Venezuelans.

And there are a number of American players. For the most part, they fall into three categories (1) black players who played in the Mexican League before Organized Baseball admitted them (e.g., Josh Gibson and Ray Dandridge); (2) black players who played in the Mexican League but were still young enough to play in the majors after integration (e.g., Monte Irvin, Roy Campanella), and MLB fringe players who figured that if they were destined to be career-minor leaguers, they might as well do so in the Mexican League (e.g., Jack Pierce, Derek Bryant).

Then there is the outlier. He was an American player with plenty of minor and major league experience in the USA, but he didn’t start playing in Mexico till he was 38 years old. His career trajectory was definitely sui generis. His name was George Brunet.

A left-handed pitcher, Brunet was born on June 8, 1935 in Houghton on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Given the remoteness of the Upper Peninsula (it has just 3% of the state’s population) and its long winters, it would seem an unlikely source of budding ballplayers. Nevertheless, Brunet began playing at age 15. He did well enough in high school ball and American Legion ball to attract the attention of a scout, former Tiger pitcher Schoolboy Rowe, who brought him to Briggs (a/k/a Tiger) Stadium for a tryout.

After graduating from Calumet High School in 1953, Brunet began his professional career with a Tiger affiliate and a league you’ve probably never heard of: the Shelby Clippers of the Class D Tar Heel League. As is often the case with young pitchers, he was plagued with control problems. Pitching for Class D Seminole of the Sooner State League in 1954, he walked 132 batters in 171 innings. That was his personal best (or worst), but he also hit triple digits in 1955 (102 BB for Seminole), 1957 (127 BB for Little Rock of the Southern Association), and 1958 (111 BB, 63 for Little Rock, and 48 for Buffalo of the Triple-A International League).

Control issues notwithstanding, he managed to work his way up the ladder, making his major league debut with the Kansas City A’s on September 14, 1956, their second year in KC, but maintained his rookie status till 1960. Playing mostly in the minors, he occasionally surfaced in the Show, not just with Kansas City but also Milwaukee, Baltimore and Houston. By age 29, it looked as though the baseball gods had decreed that he would never stick with a major league team. Then he got a break.

On August 18, 1964, the Los Angeles Angels, then in their fourth year of existence, purchased him from Houston. Over the remainder of the season, he started 7 games and relieved in 3 others, going 2-2 with a 3.61 ERA. Not great but not bad. More important, it was good enough for him to be invited back in 1965. At age 30, Brunet had found a home. They say left-handers mature later, so maybe Brunet was evidence of that maxim.

Though not entirely cured of his wildness (in 1966 he walked 106 in 212 IP), from 1965 through early 1969 he was a member in good standing of the Angels staff, logging 904.1 innings and winning 46 games with a composite ERA of 2.97. The only drawback to his performance was his won-lost record of 46-60. In 1967 (he was the Angels’ opening day pitcher) and 1968, he led the league in losses (19 and 17, respectively). Obviously, he was more effective than his won-lost record indicates, or he would not have been allowed to eat so many innings. He led the staff in 1967 and 1968 with 250 and 245.1 IP, respectively.

By 1969 Brunet was 34 years old. After a so-so start with the Angels (6-7, 3.84 ERA) he was sold to the Seattle Pilots. If you’ve read Jim Bouton’s Ball Four, you know what that one-season wonder of a team was like. Fortunately for Brunet, he was traded before the Pilots (64-98) went bankrupt and moved to Milwaukee and became the Brewers (65-97). Unfortunately, Brunet was traded to the Washington Senators, who were only marginally better (70-92), at a time when the franchise’s future was in doubt. The team was just one season removed from being transplanted to Arlington, Texas.

Brunet’s 1970 record (8-6, 4.42 ERA) in D.C. was nothing special but it was enough to attract the attention of the Pirates, who had just moved into a new ballpark (Three Rivers Stadium) on July 16 and were making a push to win the National League East title (this was only the second year of divisional play). So they acquired Brunet, who appeared in 12 games, going 1-1 with a 2.70 ERA in the home stretch. Unfortunately, he was acquired too late to qualify for the NLCS against the Reds, who swept the Pirates in three games.

Brunet’s reward for helping the Pirates win the division flag was to be traded to the Cardinals in the off-season. After a lackluster performance in the early weeks of the 1971 season, he was released after 7 appearances. After 15 seasons, he had a big league record of 69-93 and an ERA of 3.62. He had no All-Star games or post-season games on his resume. Most 36-year-old pitchers would start looking into coaching if they wanted to stay in the game, but Brunet wasn’t finished playing.

After signing with the Padres, Brunet spent the 1972 season with their Triple-A affiliate, the Hawaii Islanders of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League. His record of 14-9 with a 3.99 ERA was not good enough to propel him back to MLB, not even with the lowly (58-95) Padres.

After signing with the Phillies, he started the 1973 season with the Triple-A Eugene Emeralds, another Pacific Coast League franchise. He was released after 5 games. It appeared his playing career was finally over at age 38. He had moved up in class from career minor-leaguer/MLB fringie to MLB journeyman. But this journeyman had not reached his journey’s end.

During his career, Brunet had made the acquaintance of Chico Carrasquel, a former White Sox shortstop who had become a manager in Venezuela. Carrasquel suggested he continue his career in the Mexican League. Like the Pacific Coast League, La Liga Mexicana (hereafter referred to as MEX), was rated Triple-A, so it was not unrealistic for Brunet to think he might catch on with a team south of the border. Having played winter ball in Panama, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic, he was already familiar with Latin American-style baseball.

So Brunet signed with Los Petroleros (literally oil men; probably better translated as Oilers or Roughnecks) de Poza Rica, a modern city founded in 1951 after oil was discovered in the area.

In fact, the city’s name could be translated as Rich Well. The Petroleros’ 79-53 record in 1973 was good enough for second place in the Southwest Division, just ½ game behind the Charros de Jalisco. The team record was not so much due to Brunet, as he only started four games, but to another 38-year-old former MLB pitcher, Ed Bauta, the staff ace with a 23-5 record and a 2.25 ERA.

In 1974 the Petroleros backslid a bit to 71-65 but the team ERA of 2.80 was the best in the league. In his first full season with the team, Brunet was only 13-13 but he led the staff in IP with 218. Whether he knew it or not, he had found a home in Poza Rica, at least through 1978. But there was a cost. Between the MEX regular season and the Mexican Pacific League (a winter league), he became estranged from his wife and kids in California, making divorce inevitable.

In 1977, at age 42, Brunet threw a no-hitter. It was his second minor league no-hitter. The first had come in 1956 with the Crowley Millers of the Class C Evangeline League. That 21-year gap is surely a professional record. If you’re wondering, that’s three years longer than the time span from Nolan Ryan’s first through last no-hitters.

When Brunet left the Petroleros, he was 43 years old. He logged a 52-55 record in 992 IP. He was not finished with MEX, however. After Poza Rica, he logged time with the Veracruz Rojos del Aguila and the Azules de Coatzacoalcos in 1980. By that time, he was making $3,500/month, which was pretty good pay for a minor leaguer in those days. He supplemented his income by scouting for the Angels.

Slowed down by a heart attack in 1981, he returned to the mound in 1982 and won 14 games for El Águila de Veracruz. He would continue in the MEX as a player/coach for the rest of the decade, logging time with los Rieleros de Aquascalientes, los Saraperos de Saltillo, los Sultanes de Monterrey, and Los Tigres de Mexico City. He did not throw his final pitch till age 54.

Brunet’s professional career spanned 37 seasons (1953-1989), including 33 consecutive (1953-1985). Small wonder he was named to the Hall of Fame in Mexico. If Brunet was not immortal, maybe his left arm was. In 2005, Steve Treder conducted an “interview” with Brunet’s left arm for The Hardball Times web site. The arm boasted that despite all the wear and tear, it had never been on the disabled list. Actually, Brunet once missed a couple of weeks due to a blood clot.

Ironically, on October 25, 1991, Brunet proved to be something short of immortal, dying of a heart attack just two years after his last appearance on the mound. While one might suspect that his lengthy career was the result of strict discipline, in truth, he had a reputation as a hell-raiser prone to boozing and overeating (his listed weight of 195 was charitable), while not being overly fond of workout regimens. True, he mellowed a bit as he matured, but if he had taken better care of himself, he might have pitched into his 60s!

Given his lengthy record, Brunet’s posthumous induction into the Upper Peninsula Sports Hall of Fame in 1993 is not surprising, though given the sparse population of the region, it is surprising that there is an Upper Peninsula Sports Hall of Fame, or any other hall of fame, for that matter. Six years later Brunet was inducted into the Mexican Baseball HOF.

Of course, given his lengthy career, Brunet left a legacy of amazing feats:

He pitched roughly 6,000 innings for 36 different teams.

He holds the MEX record for career shutouts with 55.

He holds the all-time minor league record for strikeouts with 3,175.

One pundit estimated he threw almost 90,000 pitches in his pro career.

His Baseball Reference web site indicates he wore 18 different numbers during his career.

The scroll of his career on Baseball Reference is the longest I’ve ever seen on the web site.

Perhaps most amazing of all – though not verifiable at this late date – is the rumor that during Brunet’s tenure in Mexico he married the madam of a brothel. Yes, the legendary feats occurred even away from the playing field.

Given Brunet’s achievements and his off-the-field appetites, he could almost be characterized as Ruthian – in other words, bigger than life. Unfortunately, life doesn’t like being upstaged. The penalty for being bigger than life appears to be a short life. Brunet was 56 when he died in 1991. Ruth was 53 when he died in 1948.

I guess the moral of the story is that the price of immortality is a short stay on this mortal coil.