Willie Hernandez, MVP and Cy Young winner for champion 1984 Detroit Tigers, dies at 69

Article content

Three-time All-Star relief pitcher Willie Hernandez, who won the 1984 AL Cy Young and Most Valuable Player awards for the World Series champion Detroit Tigers, has died. He was 69.

Article content

Tigers spokesman Chad Crunk said Tuesday that Hernandez died in Florida and the team confirmed Hernandez’s death with his family. No cause was announced.

Article content

Article content

Article content

The left-handed Hernandez had a 13-year career but is mostly known for his role as the closer on one of the most dominant teams in the past 40 years. The 1984 Tigers, led by Alan Trammell, Lou Whitaker and Jack Morris, opened 35-5 and cruised to the AL East title with a 104-58 mark before sweeping Kansas City in the AL Championship Series and beating San Diego in a five-games World Series.

Hernandez had a 9-3 record and 32 saves in 33 chances in 1984, with a 1.92 ERA over 80 games and 140 1/3 innings. He is among just 11 pitchers to win the Cy Young and MVP in the same year, edging Kansas City’s Dan Quisenberry for Cy Young in 1984 and Minnesota’s Kent Hrbek for MVP.

Hernandez would go on to have an excellent postseason and got the final out of the clinching Game 5, coaxing a short fly ball to left field from Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn, setting off a celebration. The Tigers haven’t won a World Series since.

Article content

“Willie Hernandez was a great teammate, and I’m terribly sorry to hear the news of his passing,” former Tigers star Alan Trammell said in a statement. “I will never forget our team’s celebration together on the mound after he recorded the final out of the 1984 World Series. He will always be remembered as a World Series champion. My thoughts and prayers are with this family.”

Guillermo Hernandez was born in Aguada, Puerto Rico, on Nov. 14, 1954. His ascent to baseball stardom couldn’t have been predicted during 6 1/2 solid but unspectacular seasons with the Chicago Cubs that began in 1977. He was traded to Philadelphia during the 1983 season and pitched four scoreless innings in that year’s World Series as the Phillies lost to Baltimore.

Article content

Article content

Detroit acquired Hernandez and Dave Bergman from the Phillies for Glenn Wilson and John Wockenfuss a few weeks before the 1984 season. Hernandez would go on to make three straight All-Star teams from 1984-86.

Hernandez finished with a 70-63 record and a 3.38 ERA.

After a decline in performance led to fan booing, Hernandez poured ice water from a bucket over Detroit Free Press columnist Mitch Albom in March 1988 while the reporter was speaking with Tigers teammate Frank Tanana. The following month, Hernandez asked the team to have the public address announcer refer to him as Guillermo, and Hernandez went by that for the rest of his career.

Article content