Baseball is here and so are memories of my idol Camilo Pascual. Back in 1960, the Havana, Cuba native set an opening day record of 15 strikeouts with the Washington Senators (now The Minnesota Twins). In other words, 15 of the 27 outs were either a called strike three or swing and miss.
The opening day record still stands. Randy Johnson came close twice with 14.
From 1959 to 1965, Pascual won 100 games and led the AL in complete games and strikeouts 3 times. He retired with 176 wins and a 3.63 ERA. Pascual pitched for the 1965 AL champs Twins. Unfortunately, injuries limited him that season. He did start game 3 of the World Series against the Dodgers.
Back in 1960, Camilo’s curve ball was the talk of baseball.