Anthony Young obit

Former Mets pitcher Anthony Young dead at 51

Anthony Young has died after being diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor.  

He was not on the list.

Former Mets pitcher Anthony Young has died, according to ex-MLB player Lenny Harris. He was 51. The Mets later confirmed his passing.

Young was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor in January. He said in February that doctors treated the growth as cancerous because it was located on the brain stem, meaning it was impossible to do a biopsy to test its malignancy. He underwent chemotherapy and reported at the time that the tumor had shrunk. Harris said earlier Tuesday that Young had fallen into a coma.

Young played six seasons in the majors—three with the Mets, two with the Cubs and one with the Astros—and had a career ERA of 3.89. Most baseball fans remember him as the man who lost 27 consecutive decisions—14 as a starter and 13 as a reliever—from May 6, 1992 to July 24, 1993. Young, though, grew to accept that the streak would be his lasting mark on the game, even though he chalked it up to bad luck.

“I really don’t think I deserved it, but I have the record,” he told MLB.com in 2011. “And I don’t wish it on anyone.”

After retiring from baseball, Young went on to become a youth pitching coach in his hometown of Houston. He continued giving pitching lessons while undergoing treatment for his brain tumor.

Young attended Furr High School in Houston, Texas, and the University of Houston, where he played college baseball and college football for the Houston Cougars. The New York Mets selected Young in the 38th round of the 1987 Major League Baseball draft. He worked his way up through their minor league system, making his major league debut as a relief pitcher on August 5, 1991.

From May 6, 1992, to July 24, 1993, he lost 27 consecutive decisions with the Mets. This losing streak is the longest in MLB history, breaking the mark of 23 set by Cliff Curtis in 1910–11. During the losing streak, Young converted 12 straight save opportunities and threw 23+2⁄3 consecutive scoreless innings while filling in for Mets closer John Franco. During the streak, Young was 0–14 as a starter and 0–13 as a reliever. The streak ended on July 28, 1993, when he earned his first win since April 19, 1992.

Over roughly the same time period from April 14, 1992, to May 1, 1994, Young—as a Met and later a Cub—made 27 consecutive starts without a win. He made 13 quality starts among those 27, but his teams went 4–23 in those games. Before the 1994 season, the Mets traded Young and minor leaguer Ottis Smith to the Chicago Cubs for José Vizcaíno. He signed with the Houston Astros for the 1996 season. For his career, he finished with a record of 15 wins and 48 losses for a winning percentage of .238. He had a ERA+ of 100 and a positive WAR of 1.3 over his six-year career, illustrating the drawback of relying on the win metric as a barometer for pitcher quality.