Larry Miller

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Larry Don Miller

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Biographical Information[edit]

Larry Miller pitched in the major leagues during 1964-1966. Twenty of his 48 pitching appearances were as a starter.

He is listed as the fifth starter for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1964. He was 27 at the time, the same "baseball age" as Don Drysdale, although in reality Miller was nearly a year younger.

Larry was at the University of Kansas in 1957-1958, a few years after Bob Allison had been there. He pitched for Moose Jaw in the Western Canada League in 1957, going 7-2.

He was signed as a free agent by the Dodgers in 1959 and pitched for Macon and Spokane in the Dodgers' organization in 1959. Miller missed the 1962-1963 seasons due to military service.

In 1964 he went 8-0 for the Albuquerque Dukes under Clay Bryant and came to the majors to make his debut in June of that year. Although the Dodgers had won the 1963 World Series, the 1964 team was less successful and ended up 80-82. Although a pitcher, he went 2-for-2 in his first two career games, then had only three more hits the rest of the year. Still, that made him the last Dodgers player to start off his career with a pair of two-hit games until Yasiel Puig did so in 2013.

After the 1964 season Miller was traded to the New York Mets and appeared in 28 games for the team in 1965, a team that lost 112 games. He also spent part of the season with the Buffalo Bisons, for whom he went 6-1. On June 20th, Miller and the Mets beat Drysdale and the Dodgers by the score of 3-2.

1966 was split between the Mets and Jacksonville, where he had a 3.08 ERA. Teammate Tom Seaver, eight years younger, had a 3.13 ERA. The two of them and Galen Cisco were the big winners for the Jacksonville team that year. Miller pitched in the minors through 1969. Even though he had not appeared in the majors in two seasons, he was featured on a baseball card in the 1969 Topps set, listed with the Baltimore Orioles; expansion had created some free spots in the Orioles' pitching staff, but he failed to take the opportunity to return to the big leagues. In his last year he went 6-2 for the Phoenix Giants with 7 saves. Jesse Gonder, who had also been on the 1965 Mets, was a teammate in 1969 with Phoenix.

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