He played 14 years, all in the A.L. Lindblad was a workhorse who pitched in 655 career games mostly in relief.
In 1975 he was a pitcher in a combined no-hitter. The other pitchers were Vida Blue, Rollie Fingers and Glenn Abbott. He pitched one inning retiring the side in order. Fingers pitched the last two like relievers normally did back then. Today many closers get one inning only.
In over 1,200 innings no one hit more than four homers off of him. No Hall of Famer hit more than two homers off him. Al Kaline and Carlton Fisk managed two homers each while Rick Reichardt had the most of Lindblad with four homers. Reichardt hit two of them in consecutive innings in 1967.
As I said, Lindblad only played in the A.L. I noticed on his stats that somehow he managed to give up one home run in Shea Stadium. Does anyone know how this is possible?
Give up yet? Here is a big hint. When Joe Dimaggio played his final Old-Timer's Game it was also at Shea Stadium.
Need another hint? Lindblad had one career homer and it was at Yankee Stadium in 1967.
It turns out that Thurman Munson was the one to hit a home run off of Paul Lindblad at Shea Stadium. The Yankees played home games there in 1974 and 1975 because Yankee Stadium was being renovated. Since we didn't have cable TV that wasn't something we heard about every day. I'd forgotten that.
Lindblad and Munson are cards #52 and #53 in the 1976 Kellogg's set. They are next to each other in nine-pocket pages.
Did he pitch for the A's the whole time? Would have been a good time to pitch for them.
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