{"id":272,"date":"2018-08-20T16:02:27","date_gmt":"2018-08-20T21:02:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/?page_id=272"},"modified":"2023-05-29T21:47:15","modified_gmt":"2023-05-30T02:47:15","slug":"jim-kerns-1979-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/?p=272","title":{"rendered":"Jim Kern’s 1979 season"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Incredible Emu has an incredible year<\/span><\/h3>\n

After several years in the Cleveland Indians organization, Jim Kern<\/span> was traded to the \"KernTexas Rangers after the 1978 season. He responded with one of the greatest and most-underappreciated seasons a relief pitcher has ever had: 13-5 with a 1.57 ERA and 29 saves and 136 strikeouts in 143 innings pitched. I talked with Jim about that special season, and how it came to be.<\/em><\/p>\n

What was your reaction to being traded away from Cleveland?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I got traded to the Rangers, I couldn\u2019t have picked a better team that I wanted to be traded to. I really enjoyed playing in Texas.<\/p>\n

But almost immediately, your role was in question.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A month after they traded for me, they traded for Sparky Lyle. Two years before, he\"Kern had been the Cy Young Award winner. I knew that I wasn\u2019t going to be the short-relief man.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a potentially sticky situation. How was it worked out?<\/strong><\/p>\n

At a midwinter banquet in Texas, right after Pat Corrales had been named manager, Pat, Sparky, and me were having dinner, and getting to know each other. Sparky got up to take a leak, and Pat says, \u201cKernie, we got a problem.\u2019 And I said, \u2018No, Pat, we don\u2019t<\/em> have a problem. When you traded for Sparky, I knew I wasn\u2019t going to be the short man.\u2019<\/p>\n

I want to win.<\/i> I\u2019ll do whatever you want me to do. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>— Kern, to Pat Corrales after the trade to Texas<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I told him, \u2018It\u2019s real simple: I played in the Cleveland chain for 11 years, and I played on two teams that finished over .500.\u00a0 I want to win.<\/em> I\u2019ll do whatever you want me to do. I\u2019ll be happy to be the middle man, and Sparky\u2019s setup man or short man when he needs a rest. I\u2019ll do any damn thing you want me to do.\u2019<\/p>\n

What happened then?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pat really relaxed \u2013 it was a biggie off his chest. So I came back and said, \u2018But I would like a few things:<\/p>\n

\u2018I want to be able to grow my beard.\u2019 Pat said that was no problem.<\/p>\n

\u2018I want to be able to run the way I <\/em>want to run. Sprints don\u2019t do a damn thing for me. I want to run distance. I\u2019ll run more than anybody else on the team, but I want to run the way I want to run.\u2019 He said OK.<\/p>\n

Then I said, \u2018For three years, Frank Robinson wouldn\u2019t let me throw anything but a fastball. After three years of challenging everybody in the world, every day, every pitch, I need to throw the breaking ball.\u2019<\/p>\n

He looked at me, and I could tell he was really concerned. This wasn\u2019t going well.<\/p>\n

I said, \u2018Let me make this suggestion: Let me throw whatever I want to throw in spring training. At the end of that, if you think the pitch selection and the quality of my offspeed pitches [are lousy], then we\u2019ll go back and address this again.\u2019<\/p>\n

So he looked at me and agreed.<\/p>\n

It all worked out, it seems.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think I pitched 24 innings and gave up one run, and there was never any discussion about pitch selection.<\/p>\n

This was definitely a different Jim Kern than the guy who pitched in Cleveland.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I go into the season going against these guys who for 3-4 years knew nothing but a \"1980fastball was coming. Suddenly this idiot\u2019s throwing a changeup and a big swerve [2-7 curve ball] and it just hurt people\u2019s feelings and they really had a hard time adjusting. They\u2019re all looking for the fastball, and they\u2019re looking silly on this other stuff. And when they start thinking about offspeed stuff, the fastball is another two feet faster.<\/p>\n

You got off to a fast start.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think I was 6-0 in May; I was AL Pitcher of the Month. At the All-Star break, I am 10-2 with like a 1.27 ERA, and 16 saves.<\/p>\n

What made the 1979 season different than the others? You had some good seasons with Cleveland before 1979.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was a combination of the attitude that 1) I was someplace where they wanted<\/em> me, instead of a team that was basically a tax writeoff, and 2) I was with a good team. We had more talent than anybody else in the league. It was an awesome team, but we just couldn\u2019t put it together. We fell apart the second half of the season [the Rangers went 10-30 at one point]. It was really pathetic, and it really hurt.<\/p>\n

You still finished the season strong, though the team did not.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Interestingly enough, Bill James said I was the best pitcher in either league that year; I was fourth in the Cy Young balloting and was 11th<\/sup> in the MVP vote. He also said I had the sixth-best relief season ever. Just an awesome year.<\/p>\n

I saw you pitch many times that season, and you just projected the idea that when you came in, the game was over.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the bigger compliments I got was from Earl Weaver. Jim Palmer told me Weaver once said, \u2018let\u2019s get some runs before they get Kern in there.\u2019<\/p>\n

How did Sparky adjust to you getting 29 saves?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sparky was an absolute class act. Remember, he had 13 saves that year, too.<\/p>\n

His locker was right next to mine. He taught me how to be a relief pitcher. He told me that when you walk out of the clubhouse, the fans should not be able to tell whether you won or you got your ass kicked. Live in the middle, and be humble.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Incredible Emu has an incredible year After several years in the Cleveland Indians organization, Jim Kern was traded to the Texas Rangers after the 1978 season. He responded with one of the greatest and […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-272","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-a-moment-in-time"},"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=272"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4271,"href":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions\/4271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}