A dominant part of the Detroit Tigers' 1984 World Series championship team has passed away.
Guillermo (Willie) Hernandez, the first relief pitcher to win the Cy Young Award and the American League Most Valuable Player, died Monday at his home in Florida, according to a tweet from the Tigers. He was 69 and had been in ill health for a few years.
"I will never forget our team's celebration together on the mound after he recorded the final out of the 1984 World Series," said Tigers Hall of Famer Alan Trammell, a teammate of Hernandez's, as reported by CBS Detroit. "He will always be remembered as a World Series champion."
Born in Puerto Rico, he started playing baseball as a child. First a third baseman and an outfielder, he moved into pitching. With a stinging fastball, he played for the Puerto Rican national team, and was signed in 1973 to the Philadelphia Phillies as an amateur free agent.
Hernandez was claimed by the Chicago Cubs in the 1976 Rule 5 Draft and was converted to a reliever. He became an effective pitcher for the Cubs and was traded back to the Phillies in 1983. Philadelphia won the National League pennant but lost to Baltimore in the World Series, and Hernandez was traded to the Tigers.
In 1984, Hernandez compiled 32 saves and a 1.92 earned-run average for Detroit, In the World Series, he gave up just one run in five innings pitched, and after the season, was voted the American League's MVP and Cy Young winner.
He was signed to a four-year contract extension in 1985, and at the time, was the highest-paid player in Tigers history. Gradually, his production fell off and he became the target of booing by Tigers fans and ridicule from sports writers. In one famous incident, Hernandez doused Detroit Free Press columnist Mitch Albom with a bucket of ice water during the 1988 spring training season.
His final year was 1989, when his performance had stabilized despite still being unpopular with Tigers fans. He had surgery in 1990 and tried comebacks with the Oakland Athletics, the Phillies, and the New York Yankees without success. He retired to Puerto Rico where he ran a construction company and later a cattle ranch.