He also became a renowned pitching coach, much like his Dodger teammates Johnny Podres and Ron Perranoski. (And, in an unofficial capacity, Koufax.) Five shutout innings.

osteen could have been the ace of many staffs....he was always overshadowed by sandy and don...nice tribute

Sounds like you know your baseball...not familiar with this pitcher, but a well done tribute

Hey Paul! Its great to see you again! You keep hiding away from AmIRight then you come back with a vengance! Back to your parody, its great like it always is. 555

I really know not very much about baseball, but this was a very good parody, Paul...paced extra inn......I mean, good. : ) 5's

Paul, what are you saying about 4-man pitching rotations and pitching complete games? Are you telling me that starting pitchers were expected to pitch 9 innings on 3 days rest??? Those pitchers must have been very well compensated, right? What, you’re telling me that Claude Osteen never made more than $100 thousand, while starting pitchers today “earn” $3 million for pitching 5 innings every 5th day? Doesn’t seem fair, does it?

Finally Paul, I commend you for writing about one left-winger that I can appreciate (actually, that’s not true �" I do appreciate all of AmiRight’s “lefties” �" I just tend to disagree with you).

Sorry I couldn't get over sooner, I had no InterNet yesterday. Thanks to all! MP, yes - Osteen served as Pitching Coach with several different teams, including the Dodgers, after he retired as a player. alvin, yes, that's true..in fact in the '66 season he was 2nd on the Dogers (to Koufax, of course) in wins and ERA (starter's only), eclipsing both Drydale's and young Don Sutton's numbers. AFW - you'd have to have been a fan in the 60's-early 70's to remember Osteen. Jason & Pat - Thanks! JJ - yes, 4-man rotations were the norm back then...not only did these guys generally make 38-41 starts a year (there were more double-headers back then), but they did not start the game with the idea of giving the ball up automatically to a reliever if they had a lead after 6 or 7 innings. No, Osteen certainly never made 100K in a season, in fact, prior to the '66 season Koufax AND Drysdale staged a tandem hold-out, seeking $125,000 and I think about $110 or $115K respectively. The Dodgers held fairly firm, but eventually gave Koufax about $100K and Drysdale slightly less, I believe. The player's had no leverage back then due the "Reserve Clause", which bound them to a team once they signed their original contract...until they retired/quit or got traded. Actually, JJ, the owner's brought much of their current Salary situation on themselves by failing to fairly modify the old (from the 1920's or earlier) Reserve Clause...they eventually lost an arbitration case (Andy Messersmith, I believe) that opened the Salary floodgates. Opinion, despite the constant moaning of ball fans everywhere about outrageous salaries, I believe the incredibly outrageous sums paid to modern ball player's generates a significant amount of fan attention and interest, thus generating larger Team Revenues. Bitch as they will, folks are for some reason more interested in watching performer's who make multi-millions than ones who make $40,000 or $50,000 a year. Yeah, I used to follow baseball very seriously, I still check the scores of the local teams, but I don't watch or attend games anymore...they take too long, for one thing...Thanks!

Hey, is this a joke, or...? I am looking to find the song about Claude. Have I been duped?