Mickey Abarbanel

Michael Gary Abarbanel

• Bats Both, Throws Left
• Height 5' 11", Weight 183 lb.

• School Monmouth College
• High School Asbury Park High School
• Born December 10, 1945 in Jersey City, NJ USA
• Died February 14, 2015

BR Minors page

Biographical Information

Mickey Abarbanel was a minor league baseball pitcher who went 28-20 in his career. He was drafted in the third round (57th overall) by the Chicago White Sox in the 1965 amateur draft.

In his debut in 1966, he led the Midwest League with 206 strikeouts while pitching for the Fox Cities Foxes at the age of 22. He was 13-4 with a 2.25 ERA. The next year, Abarbanel went 7-6 with a 2.41 ERA for the Evansville White Sox and 1-2 with a 10.50 ERA for the Indianapolis Indians in his AAA debut. At Evansville, he allowed only one home run and 51 hits in 86 innings, but walked 56. In 12 innings in Indianapolis, he allowed 15 hits, 13 walks and 16 runs but did strike out 14. At the plate, he was 3 for 5 for the Indians.

In 1968, the left-hander was 6-4 with a 3.60 ERA for Evansville, pitching 13 games. He allowed 53 hits in 75 innings and fanned 67 but walked 51. He tied six other hurlers for the Southern League lead with 3 shutouts. He split his final year between the Tucson Toros (0-2, 10.80, 5 BB, 6 H, 6 K, 2 WP in 5 IP) and Appleton Foxes (1-0, 1.38, 5 H, 10 BB, 18 K in 13 IP). Given his career path of a limited number of games started in each of his last three years, injuries seem to have been a problem.

After his professional career ended, he co-founded the Tampa Mustangs in 1980, a youth softball organization which became the largest fast-pitch softball organization in Florida.

Sources

• Baseball Historian
• The Baseball Cube
• MWL Guide
• St. Petersburg Times
• Minor League Addresses Plus
• 1968-1970 Baseball Guides
• Pat Doyle's Professional Baseball Player Database