Raúl Valdés, of the Toros del Este, finished the regular series of the current Dominican baseball championship with a lifetime record of 50 wins and 46 losses.
The total wins of Valdés, who, although he plays as a Dominican is a native of Cuba, places him in first place among the pitchers not born in the Dominican Republic with the most games won in the history of Creole ball. (Valdés, a nationalized Dominican, was selected by the Chosen One in the 2008 native draw in the ninth round.)
Since Valdés throws left-handed, I began to inquire about other left-handed pitchers, not from our country, who stood out decades ago.
I met Mickey Mahler, who had 40 wins in Dominican baseball, to be second behind Valdés among the most successful pitchers born outside the national territory.
Mahler pitched in 9 seasons in the local ball, the first with the Stars and the rest with the Chosen, between 1977 and 1986.
I also located Fred Kipp, who played with the scarlet team in 3 seasons, in the 1957-60 period, and Jerry Hannahs, reinforcement of the Tigers in the same number of seasons, from 1978 to 1981.
Kipp and Hannahs recorded 22 and 20 wins, respectively, and rank 4th and 5th on the list of winningest foreign left-handed pitchers led by Valdes and Mahler. (In third place is Evan MacLane, who achieved 30 wins in 14 seasons, one with the Licey and the others with the Stars, beginning in 2006 until the current season).
Today I will write about Mahler and in other installments I will refer to the great performances of Kipp and Hannahs in Creole baseball.
Mahler, elected Immortal of Dominican Sports in 2016, has been one of the best pitchers of Dominican baseball in its entire history. In his long stay in local baseball, he compiled a record of 40 wins and 17 setbacks, in 81 games as a starter, which he completed 19.
He is the imported pitcher with the highest number of wins in the annals of our ball and eleventh in the general list.
His best performances came with the Lions, in the 1980-81 season, when he went 7-2 with an ERA of 2.56, and in the 1985-86 tournament, in which he finished with a record of 8-3 and an average of earned runs allowed of 1.78.
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