Mike Marshall, one of the most durable relievers in baseball history and the first reliever to win a Cy Young award has died at the age of 78 on May 31, 2021 exactly 54 years to day of when he made his MLB debut. Marshall passed away in his Zephyrhills, Florida home where he had been in hospice care for Alzheimer’s disease. Michael Grant Marshall was born in Adrian, Michigan on January 15, 1943.
Marshall began his professional baseball career when he was signed as an infielder by the Philadelphia Phillies on September 13, 1960. Marshall made his MLB debut pitching for the Detroit Tigers at the age of 24 with an inning of relief in 9-0 blow-out loss to the Cleveland Indians.
Marshall went on to pitch for the Seattle Pilots, Houston Astros, Montreal Expos, Los Angeles Dodgers, Atlanta Braves, and the Texas Rangers before hooking up as a free agent with the Minnesota Twins at the age of 35 on May 15, 1978 at the urging of Twins manager Gene Mauch who had to work hard to convince Twins owner Calvin Griffith. Mauch wasted no time putting his new pitcher to work as Marshall made his Twins debut that very day when Twins reliever Greg Thayer blew the save when he gave up a two-run home run to the Orioles Doug DeCinces at Met Stadium in the ninth inning tying the game at 6-6. Marshall entered the game in the ninth inning with one out and pitched 1.2 innings of scoreless relief, earning the win when Twins outfielder Willie Norwood hit a walk-off three run home run in the tenth inning for the 9-6 Twins win. Marshall went on to pitch in 54 of the Twins final 128 games posting a 10-12 record with 99 innings pitched and 21 Saves with a 2.45 ERA and finished seventh in Cy Young balloting. In 1979 Marshall appeared in a league leading 90 games pitching 142.2 innings posting a 2.45 ERA and notching a league high 32 Saves earning him the fifth most votes in Cy Young voting.
1980 did not go so well for Iron Mike when the Twins released him on June 6 because of his 1-3 record and 6.12 ERA in 18 games and 32.1 innings. Marshall did not see it that way.
He saw it differently. Marshall was a firm supporter of the player’s union — he even was rumored to be after union boss Marvin Miller’s job — and reported the Twins for every violation of the player’s agreement. That behavior, he said, put him on the outs with owner Calvin Griffith and caused Mauch to sabotage his performance.
Credit to RIP Baseball
The 38-year old Marshall hooked on with the New York Mets in 1981 and appeared in 20 late season games posting a respectable 3-2 won/lost with a 2.61 ERA in 31 innings but the Mets released him after the season ended and his 14-year big league career came to and end.
Marshall appeared in 724 games, with 700 of them coming in relief while pitching 1,386.2 innings. He had a 97-112 record and a 3.14 ERA, with 188 saves. He struck out 880 batters and walked 514 for a WHIP of 1.294. 
There is a tremendous posting on Mike Marshall in RIP Baseball that is a must read. I got a chance to talk with Mike Marshall back about 2008 and he agreed to do a short interview with me (which surprised me). Back then we did not have recorders and digital devices so the interview was done by mail and then I transcribed it for this site, you can see it here.
Twinstrivia.com sends our condolences to Mike Marshall’s family, friends, and fans. Thank you for the wonderful memories.