ULM Great Inducted to Hall of Fame

By: LaMar Gafford

Posted: 9/2/09

Former University of Louisiana at Monroe pitcher Chuck Finley was inducted to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim's Hall of Fame on Aug. 27 before the Angels played against the Oakland Athletics, commemorating his 14-year tenure with the team that started his professional.

The Monroe native played for ULM (then Northeast Louisiana University) from 1984 to 1985. After leading the team in strikeouts in 1985, Finley was drafted by the Angels with the fourth pick in the secondary phase of the Major League Baseball amateur draft.

With the Angels, Finley recorded 165 wins and 2151 strikeouts in 2675 innings pitched and 379 games started from 1986 to 1999, setting team records in wins, innings and starts. Arguably his best season was 1990 as he finished seventh in voting for the American League Cy Young Award, given to the best pitchers in each league, after going 18-9 with a 2.40 earned run average and 177 strikeouts in 236 innings pitched. Finley was also the team's Opening Day starter four times in 1991, 1995, 1996 and 1998 and was selected to the MLB All-Star game four times in 1989, 1990, 1995 and 1996.

Finley then moved on to the Cleveland Indians in 2000, where he was selected to the All-Star game,and put up decent numbers with a 16-11 record, 4.17 ERA and 189 strikeouts. However, he would go only 12-18 in the next one-and-a-half years with Cleveland and was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals in 2002 to help out their postseason push. He would fare much better in the National League while going 7-4 with a 3.80 ERA and taking the Cardinals all the way to the National League Championship Series against the San Francisco Giants, but St. Louis lost in five games, and Finley retire never getting the World Series title.

For his career, Finley recorded a 200-173 record and 2610 strikeouts in 3197 1/3 innings, with 63 complete games and 15 shutouts. He also holds the dubious honor of striking out four batters and is the only MLB pitcher to accomplish that feat more than once, by actually doing it three times in the span of a year.

Former Angel Brian Downing was also inducted to the team's Hall of Fame. The original game and ceremony would have taken place on April 9, but it was postponed following the death of Angels' pitcher Nick Adenhart and two others due a traffic accident earlier that morning.

Finley took time out to remember Adenhart during his speech by saying, "God bless Nick Adenhart. We miss you and we love you."

Current Angel players and coaches also expressed their feelings about Finley, most notably manager Mike Scioscia and pitcher John Lackey.

Scioscia said, "[Downing and Finley are] two guys that have meant as much to this franchise as anybody that's put on this uniform, and to honor them in the Hall of Fame, it's special to all of us."

Lackey said, "I got to know Fin a little bit. He's probably even a better dude than he was a player, so I couldn't be happier for him."

Finley and Downing's inductions were the seventh and eighth in the Angels' Hall of Fame that already had Don Baylor, Rod Carew, Jim Fregosi, Bobby Grich, Jimmie Reese and Nolan Ryan.