#35 michael cole mussina | p

2000 highlights:
despite his very first losing season since going 4-5 in his rookie campaign in 1991, continued to be regarded as one of baseball\s finest pitchers...was 11-15 with a 3.79 era in 34 games started, leading the american league with 237.2 ip and finishing third with his 3.79 era...along with teammate andy pettitte has a career .645 winning percentage and trails only pedro martinez (.691), randy johnson (.653) and roger clemens (.647) for highest winning percentage among active pitchers with 100 or more victories...also ranks seventh in major-leaguehistory with a .637 career road winning percentage (100 or more decisions, careers starting 1900 or after)...pitched 7.0 or more innings in 23 of 34 starts and was tied with sidney ponson for third in american league with 6 cg...finished third in the a.l. with 210 strikeouts and was the second highest single-season strikeout total in ori-oles" history (behind his own personal record of 218 in 1997)...owns three of the four 200+ strikeout seasons in fran-chise history (mussina struck out 204 in 1996, dave mcnally struck out 202 in 1968)...received the lowest run support in the league, at 3.71 runs per nine innings...issued just 7 bb in his last 10 starts...finished third in the a.l. in fewest walks per 9.0 ip (1.74), third in k/bb ratio (4.57) and sixth in strikeouts per 9.0 ip (7.95)...al-lowed the second fewest baserunners per 9.0 ip among a.l. pitchers (10.8), behind only pedro martinez...ranked eighth in the a.l., holding opponents to a .255 average (236-for-924)...ranked third in the league, holding lefties to a .223 average (90-for-404)...his 2.90 era at camden yards was the second best home era in the a.l. behind only pedro martinez\ 1.84 era...averaged 107.59 pitches per start, third most in the league behind texas\ rick helling (108.31) and clevelands' bartolo colon (107.97)...was also second in the league with his 15 losses and tied for third in starts with 34...is the orioles all-time leader in 10 strikeout games with 26 (jim palmer is second with 11 10k games)...recorded 15 strikeouts in a game to establish a baltimore franchise regular-season record (had 15 k in game three of the 1997 alcs at cleveland)...recorded 15k in a complete-game, one-hit shutout vs. minnesota on 8/1...was his third career one-hitter and 15th shutout...also had 15k in his next-to-last-start on 9/24 at boston in only 7.0ip...mussina had previously struck out 14 in a regular season game to share the orioles record with bob turley, connie johnson, and mike boddicker...matched kim palmer\s club record with his sixth opening day start on 4/3 vs. cleveland, and in the process passed dennis martinez for sixth place on the orioles\ all-time innings pitched list...went winless in his first five starts, the first timehe had not won in a span of five consecutive outings since 8/13-9/7/97...lost a career high four straight starts from 5/4-20...allowed a season-high 4 hr in a 5/9 vs. toronto (7.0ip, 12h, 5er, 0bb, 6k)...allowed 14 home runs in his first 10 starts but only 14 round trippers in his final 24 starts...in a 8/21 victory vs. kansas city, passed mike cueller for third place on the orioles\ all-time win list with 144.

personal:
was signed by orioles scout ed sprague...earned degree in economics from stanford in december \90...finished in only 3 1/2 years...signed a national letter of intent to attend stanford, but o\s picked him in the 11th round of the june \87 draft anyway...he did not sign...purchases game tickets for local youth charity organizations; he calls his group the "mooseketeers"...since 1997, he has worked with the college bound foundation and lycoming county (pa) chapter for the american red cross...in \98, mike read a psa for junior achievement...last year was the orioles/baltimore sun summer reading spokesperson and supported the baltimore county "reading makes cents" program. returned to baltimore the past four off-seasons to participate in the annual orioles fanfest.

nickname: moose