MIAMI -- Anthony Young, a beloved Mets pitcher best known for losing a Major League record 27 consecutive games, passed away Tuesday following a battle with brain cancer. He was 51.
"Anthony was a true gentleman," said former Mets pitcher Turk Wendell, who participated in Mets fantasy camp alongside Young the past several years. At this year's camp, Wendell said, Young told his friends he had an inoperable brain tumor. "That was Anthony. He never ran away from anything."
Dropping 27 straight decisions from 1992-93 to break an 82-year-old record, Young "took a lot of kidding about his losing records," said another friend and former Met, Doug Flynn. "But he was the victim of some bad luck during the streak. He knew inside that he was a better pitcher than his numbers."
Indeed, Young posted better than league-average park-adjusted ERAs in four of his six big league seasons, going 15-48 with a 3.89 ERA overall. A swingman for the Mets in 1992, Young accumulated 15 of his 20 career saves that year. But he won just two of his 16 decisions.
Though the streak often defined him later in his career with the Cubs and Astros, and during his retirement work as a youth baseball coach, Young took it with his typical good nature. During the middle of the losing streak, he was a guest of comedian Jay Leno on The Tonight Show.
"I got a bad rap on that," Young told the Daily News of his streak in 2009. "I always said I didn't feel like I was pitching badly. It just happened to happen to me. I don't feel like I deserve it, but I'm known for it. It was an 82-year-old record, and it might be 82 more years before it's broken."