John Candelaria

Lore & Background

Candelaria grew up in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn, New York, and was a known New York Mets fan growing up. At age 15, a Los Angeles Dodgers scout called him the best he had ever seen at a tryout. He also played basketball in the Baloncesto Superior Nacional for the Piratas de Quebradillas in 1971 and 1972. He led La Salle Academy to a basketball championship in 1971. He threw a no-hitter against the Los Angeles Dodgers on August 9, 1976. He was a member of the 1979 World Series champion Pirates. His 18-month-old son John Jr. died in 1985 after falling into a swimming pool. He is the only MLB pitcher to record a win in each of the four Canadian big-league ballparks.

In Their Own Story

The humid August night in Pittsburgh, the kind where the air off the Allegheny River makes your jersey stick to your back. Candelaria is in the bullpen, glove on, watching the game from the third-base side. The score is tied. The manager walks over, taps his shoulder. He rolls his shoulders, cracks his neck, and steps onto the mound.

First pitch: the radar gun reads 98. The hitter in the box takes a swing and misses by a foot. Second pitch: 99. Another whiff. The crowd noise swells just a fraction, that low roar you get at PNC Park when a young arm is doing something special. Candelaria shakes his head, not at the hitter, but at himself, like he's still surprised the ball is moving that fast. He fires one more, 97, and the game is over.

He walks back to the bullpen, still buzzing, still a little kid with a cannon for a right arm, and the Pirates dugout gives him a quiet nod. That's the job. That's the night. And for the fans in the upper deck, it's the kind of moment you'll replay in your head for years.

Reader's Guide

Candelaria was a left-handed pitcher (implied by context) who stood 6 feet 7 inches and wielded a mid- to upper-90s fastball. He started his MLB career with the Pirates in 1975, going 8-6 after a call-up, and started Game 3 of the 1975 NLCS. His best season was 1977, when he was 20–5 with a 2.34 ERA. He was moved to the bullpen in 1985 and traded to the Angels that August. He finished his career back with the Pirates in 1993.

Did You Know?

• Candelaria is the only Pirates player from the 1979 team to play for the Pirates during their twenty consecutive losing seasons.
• He once confronted teammate Reggie Jackson about bullying a female reporter.
• Tommy John noted that Candelaria would throw strikes on 0-2 pitches to save his arm.