{"id":67437,"date":"2024-02-29T09:00:33","date_gmt":"2024-02-29T14:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=67437"},"modified":"2024-02-29T00:00:08","modified_gmt":"2024-02-29T05:00:08","slug":"larry-demery-pirates-pitcher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/02\/29\/larry-demery-pirates-pitcher\/","title":{"rendered":"Larry Demery, Pitcher on 2 Pirates Division Winners, Passes Away"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/d\/demerla01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-02-28_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Larry Demery<\/a>, who pitched for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1974-77, passed away on February 20 at age 70. For his career, the right-hander was 29-23 with a 3.72 ERA. He is the third former Pirates pitcher to pass in recent days, after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mcbeaal01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-02-28_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Al McBean<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/02\/03\/al-mcbean-pittsburgh-pirates-pitcher\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">January 31<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/d\/deleojo01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-02-28_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jos\u00e9 DeLe\u00f3n<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/02\/27\/pitcher-jose-deleon-passes-away\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">last Sunday<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In 1972, Demery was drafted by the Pirates in the seventh round of what was then the January Draft. In 1973, he made the jump from Single-A to Triple-A at the age of 20. Across both leagues, his ERA was 2.84 in 28 games, of which 27 were starts. In six games at Triple-A in 1974, he was 4-2 with a 2.81 ERA and five complete games, earning a call to the major league club.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Larry pitched all four of his <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MLB?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@MLB<\/a> seasons with the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Pirates?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@Pirates<\/a> in both relief and starting roles. Larry Demery passed away last Tuesday at the age of 70. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/RIP?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#RIP<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/p7nuZ5rpwi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/p7nuZ5rpwi<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Bill Nelson (@Thelscwxman) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Thelscwxman\/status\/1762595293227270429?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 27, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Former Pirates Pitcher Larry Demery Passes Away at 70<\/h2>\n<h3>Demery a Poised Young Pirate<\/h3>\n<p>Larry Demery made his major league debut for the Pirates on June 2, 1974, in relief of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kisonbr01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-02-28_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bruce Kison<\/a> against the Cincinnati Reds at Riverfront Stadium. Undaunted by the prospect of facing the Big Red Machine, Demery entered the game with one out in the third inning. In the fourth, he struck out <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/rosepe01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-02-28_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pete Rose<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=morgajo02,morgajo01&amp;search=Joe+Morgan&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-02-28_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joe Morgan<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/d\/driesda01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-02-28_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dan Driessen<\/a> in order. That earned him a spot in the starting rotation. After a rough beginning that saw him at 1-4 with a 5.34 ERA, he settled down. The Pirates won his next eight starts, with Demery the winning pitcher in six of them, including two complete games. Over that stretch, his ERA was 2.77.<\/p>\n<p>Alas, his next two starts in September were disastrous. With the National League East Division race a tight one that the Pirates would ultimately win by a game and a half, manager <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/managers\/murtada01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Danny Murtaugh<\/a> replaced Demery in the rotation with Kison, who had been through pennant races before. However, despite his ineffectiveness that month, the Pirates would not have made it to the postseason without Demery.<\/p>\n<p>Demery came back strong for the Pirates in 1975. Starting and pitching in long and short relief, he was 7-5 with a 2.90 ERA, four saves, and a 1.203 WHIP. Fellow pitcher <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/giustda01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-02-28_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dave Giusti<\/a> praised his maturity and willingness to accept constructive criticism. After a complete game win against the Atlanta Braves on August 26, Murtaugh praised Demery\u2019s determination. The Pirates would again win the division. In the same swingman role in 1976, Demery was 10-7 with a 3.17 ERA, two saves, a 1.248 WHIP, and four complete games.<\/p>\n<h3>The Beginning of the End<\/h3>\n<p>Things fell apart for Demery in 1977. The Pirates\u2019 clubhouse in the 1970s was a wild place where the humor would be considered politically incorrect today. No subject was off limits. In spring training Demery attacked and pummeled teammate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kirkped01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-02-28_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ed Kirkpatrick<\/a>, apparently objecting to a joke made at his expense. This story was unknown until it was included in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/p\/parkeda01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-02-28_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dave Parker<\/a>\u2019s 2021 book, <a href=\"https:\/\/throughthefencebaseball.com\/book-review-cobra-by-dave-parker\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Cobra: A Lifetime of Baseball and Brotherhood<\/em><\/a>. Parker felt that Kirkpatrick was only kidding. Demery thought Kirkpatrick was a racist. In any event, new Pirates manager <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/managers\/tannech01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chuck Tanner<\/a> was unhappy about the incident. Parker thought Demery needed to win 20 games in 1977 to remain with the Pirates.<\/p>\n<h3>Injuries and Attitude<\/h3>\n<p>Demery never got the chance. He made only eight starts that year. In 39 games, mostly in long relief, he was 6-5 with a 5.08 ERA and 1.627 WHIP. He complained that it was a difficult role for a 24-year-old. The time between appearances caused him to become stiff, he felt, hurting his effectiveness. Demery demanded a trade to a team where he could be a regular member of the starting rotation. The next spring, he was lost on a waiver claim to the Toronto Blue Jays. Toronto returned him just four days later when they discovered he had a sore arm. Due to injuries, from 1978-80 Demery would pitch in just nine minor league games before calling it a career.<\/p>\n<p>In the days before the Internet and social media, some matters never left the clubhouse, but there were hints that Demery may have been difficult. In 1979, <em>The Pittsburgh Press<\/em> columnist Bob Smizik wrote that due to \u201cinjuries and attitude,\u201d Demery was \u201ca classic case of a little success spoiling a good future.\u201d The sarcasm drips off the page when Smizik refers to Demery\u2019s \u201ccountless friends in the media.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Demery was the son of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/d\/demerar01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-02-28_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Art Demery<\/a>, who played two games for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/history\/negro-leagues\/teams\/baltimore-elite-giants\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Baltimore Elite Giants<\/a> of the National Negro League II. Nothing else is known about his personal life.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Larry Demery, who pitched for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1974-77, passed away on February 20 at age 70. For his career, the right-hander was 29-23 with a 3.72 ERA. He is the third former Pirates pitcher to pass in recent days, after Al McBean on January 31 and Jos\u00e9 DeLe\u00f3n last Sunday. In 1972, Demery [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5010,"featured_media":66267,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,2,1071],"tags":[5263,28324,3199],"class_list":["post-67437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pirates","category-featured","category-mlb","tag-chuck-tanner","tag-danny-murtaugh","tag-dave-parker"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5010"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}