Jim Willoughby

James Arthur Willoughby (born January 31, 1949) is an American former pitcher in Major League Baseball who played from 1971 through 1978 for the San Francisco Giants, Boston Red Sox and Chicago White Sox. Listed at and , he batted and threw right handed.

In his entire career from the rotation to the bullpen, Willoughby was a ground ball pitcher who relied on a sinker ball and a slider, which he consistently threw from a three-quarters arm slot with a high leg lift. Eventually, he used a slow curveball, low and just off the outside of the plate.

Early life "Willow", as he was often called, was the only son of three children born to James Roger Willoughby and Marlene Dickinson Willoughby. He had Pottawatomi heritage in addition to his British ancestry, as his great-aunt Mamie Echo Hawk served as the tribe’s chief lobbyist in Washington DC office for many years. He finished the season with a 6-4 record and a 2.36 ERA in 11 starts, striking out 40 and walking 14 in innings while completing seven games.

Following a subpar season in 1974, Willoughby was traded to the Cardinals in exchange for second baseman Tom Heintzelman. Then St. Louis sent him to the Boston Red Sox in July 1975 to complete an earlier deal made for shortstop Mario Guerrero.

In his next Series appearances, Willoughby hurled two scoreless innings in Game 5 and was called on to calm things down in decisive Game 7. The score was tied, 3–3, in the top of the seventh inning, and Johnny Bench stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs. Willoughby took care of the situation and easily retired Bench on a foul pop to catcher Fisk. He then pitched a clean 1-2-3 eighth inning. In the bottom of the eight, though, with two outs, none on base, and the score still tied, manager Johnson pulled Willoughby in favor of pinch-hitter Cecil Cooper. Cooper was retired on a pop out to third baseman Rose in foul territory. Afterwards, rookie left-handed Jim Burton came on to pitch the top half of the ninth for the Red Sox. Burton was selected by Johnson because the Reds were expected to send up three left-handed hitters in a row. But the strategy did not work, because Burton gave up two walks sandwiched around two outs and surrendered a single to Morgan, allowing Ken Griffey to score the go-ahead and eventual winning run of the Series. Overall, Willoughby allowed an unearned run, three singles and one walk, while striking out three in innings.

In 1976, Willoughby posted an unfortunate record of 3-12 in 54 relief appearances, but he pitched well enough to post a 2.86 ERA in 99 innings while saving 10 games. In 1979, Willoughby played the entire minor league season with undiagnosed diabetes mellitus type 1, but was unaware of it until he went to Venezuela late in the year and suffered a diabetic coma. It was neither lengthy nor deep, but he was briefly in the hospital. At this point, he decided to retire for good from playing. Apparently, the team's owners wanted to put the old Red Sox team on the field. There, he also had a chance to reunite with some of his former 1970s teammates, who, like Willoughby, were dubbed the 'Buffalo Heads' for their counterculture behavior while playing at Boston. Consequently, Bill Lee pitched and managed the Super Sox, Ferguson Jenkins served as their pitching coach, Bill Campbell and Rick Wise pitched, Butch Hobson was the regular third baseman, and Bernie Carbo contributed as a part-time DH and pinch-hitter.

Pitching statistics YearsLeagueWLW-L%ERAGPGSCGSHOSVIPHARAERSOBBIBB 1971–1978 MLB 26 36 4.19 3.79 238 28 8 1 34 558 266 232 250 145 29 1975 WS 0 1 .000 .000 3 0 0 0 0 3 1 0 2 0 0 1967–1972;1974–1975;1979 MiLB 73 55 .570 3.79 217 151 52 12 12 1153 1164 587 478 806 344 27