It's the 34th anniversary of the darkest day in Astros history.
The day the team signed Jim Clancy to replace Nolan Ryan.
The team earlier lost Nolan Ryan to the Rangers by offering him $1.3 million per year for 2 years. The Rangers offered $1.8 million for the first year and $1 million plus incentives for the second. The Astros declined to match, then signed Clancy for 2 years, $2.375 million. This for a pitcher who had gone 11-13 with a 4.49 ERA the year before.
Clancy roared out of the gate with an opening-week win for the Astros on April 8. His next victory came on May 26. On June 16, he pitched 6-2/3 innings of shutout ball to get to 5-4 with a 3.57 ERA. Then he lost 10 of his final 12 decisions. He was really great in September, losing to the Padres 9-0 and the Giants 10-2. For the season, he went 7-14 with a 5.08 ERA. Meanwhile, old man Nolan struggled to a 16-10 record with a 3.20 ERA and 301 strikeouts, which led the majors. That was at age 42 by the way. Did I mention the Astros finished 6 games out of first that year? With Clancy at 7-14 while Nolan went 16-10. Just thought I'd mention that.
The Astros started off 1990 with Clancy in the bullpen. Because when you suck ass for 162 games, you get made into the fifth starter / long reliever. on April 21, he got his first start of the season at Dodger Stadium and gave up 3 earned runs on 6 hits in 4 innings.
Two starts later, he gave up 10 hits and 6 earned runs in 4 innings to the Phillies. He started just twice more in May,
By June, when the Astros started to notice they collectively sucked, they turned Clancy loose to start some games. He made it past the 5th inning once in five starts, 4 of them losses. That sent him back to the bullpen and he finished the year with a sterling 2-8 record with 1 save and a 6.51 ERA. Meanwhile, Old Man Ryan went 13-9 with a 3.44 ERA, again led the league in strikeouts with 232, and also pitched his 6th no-hitter.
1991 was Clancy's coup de grace, the Astros completely stopped letting him start games, and he sucked not as much to the point where he got traded to the Braves for future Astro legends Matt Turner, who never played for the Astros, and Earl Sanders, who pitched 1 game in AA Jackson in 1992 and was released.
Clancy meanwhile, went on to win the NLCS with the Braves and play in the World Series. Meanwhile, Old Man Ryan, now 44, went 12-6 with the Rangers with a 2.91 ERA and pitched his 7th no-hitter and reached 5,000 strikeouts.
The silver lining of this tale of woe is that during the 1989 season, I got to hear my dad say the F-word in public when he stood up during a conference on the mound at the Dome and screamed "HEY CLANCY YOU ****ING SUCK!!!" Many cheers were given to my dad from our section and the police officer by the Astros dugout started laughing.
