Steve Arlin: Ohio State’s Baseball Hero
An article on Steve Arlin, an All-American who led Ohio State, a perennial college football power, to its only baseball championship. The piece also gets into Arlin’s career in the Major Leagues, the bad fortune that shortchanged his potential, and finishes with a bit about his post-baseball life.
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Steve Arlin: Ohio State’s Baseball Hero
Ohio State’s 20 men’s team titles ranks it 11th all time among Division I colleges–but only one of those titles was in baseball. The year was 1966, and their star player was Steve Arlin.
He went 11-1, pitched five of the Buckeyes’ six tournament victories, and was named Outstanding Player of the Series and National Player of the Year. The year before, he had pitched Ohio State to its first championship game, when they lost to Arizona State (w/Rick Monday & Sal Bando). The Buckeyes had never been in a title game before those two years and haven’t since.
Steve Arlin had a major league curveball that college kids couldn’t solve–he went 24-3 at Ohio State, was a two-time All-American, and set school records that still stand. He was drafted 13th (right after Andy Messersmith) by the Phillies in the first round of the 1966 amateur draft (secondary phase). In 1968 he was drafted by the Padres as the 57th pick in the expansion draft.
When Arlin was in the minors, some long-forgotten instructor who never went on to amount to anything in baseball changed his pitching motion–his curve was never the same again. This was the first of two twists of fate that would keep him from becoming the major league star he seemed destined to be.
The second was becoming a Padre in 1969–not only did it mean few wins and no chance at post-season play, but it eventually led to a rotator cuff injury that in effect ended his career. “When you’re struggling to win like that, you’re always trying to strike everyone out”, Arlin said.
Worse, when a team is desperate for wins, they tend to overwork their quality starters–especially in those days before middle relief specialists. After Arlin’s shoulder became sore, he wasn’t given enough time to let it recover.
He had a career record of 34-67, most of it with Padre teams that averaged 101 losses a season over a six-year span in the early 70s.
In 1972 he was one out away from a no-hitter against Philadelphia when Denny Doyle got an infield single on a chopper that bounced over the head of third baseman Dave Roberts, who was playing in anticipating a bunt.
But Arlin isn’t the “I coulda been a contenda” type–his perspective is much bigger-picture than that. In fact, after getting his dentistry degree in 1970, he went on to finish grad school at Ohio State in 1974. Jerry Coleman, the Padres’ long-time announcer, would regularly refer to him as “The Doctor, Steve Arlin”.
Arlin still lives in the San Diego area, where he retired in ’03 from a successful career in endodontics. He follows the Padres “somewhere between casually and closely”.
This year Steve Arlin’s number 22 was retired at Ohio State–the only other Buckeye baseball player’s jersey retired is that of Fred Taylor, an All-American in 1950 who went on to coach the basketball team.
