Murray State University Athletics
Former Thoroughbred Rueter to open season for Giants
4/5/2004 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Former Murray State Thoroughbred Kirk Rueter will get the start in tonight's season-opening game for the San Francisco Giants at Houston.
The 6-2 left-hander and 1991 Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year begins his 12th Major League season tonight at 6:05 CT against the Astros in Minute Maid Park. Rueter went 10-5 last season with a 4.53 earned-run average.
Rueter has a career record of 119-73 with an ERA of 4.11. He is 94-61 in his ninth season in San Francisco with an earned-run average of 4.11 as a Giants pitcher.
Rueter is the first Giants lefty to win at least 10 games a season over a seven consecutive seasons since Hall-of-Famer Carl Hubbell ran a string of 15 10-win seasons (1928-42). He is one of only seven Major League pitchers who were active last season to achieve the feat, including Roger Clemens, Al Leiter, Greg Maddux, Jamie Moyer, Mike Mussina and Andy Pettitte.
San Francisco is 143-83 (.633) in 226 starts since his arrival in 1996. His 119-73 (.620) career record is the fourth-best win percentage for a left-hander since 1980, and ranks sixth among active pitchers.
Rueter's 94-61 (.606) mark in San Francisco ranks second only to Hall-of-Famer Juan Marischal in San Francisco history. His 64-32 (.667) career road record tied for second among active pitchers, behind Boston's Pedro Martinez. He is the only San Francisco pitcher to win 14 or more games in four different seasons.
Off the field, Rueter remains active with the Giants' Summer Reading Program by hosting children's book readings at the San Francisco Public Library, which has more than 40,000 children participating. He is an active participant in Giants' Wives post-game auction and clinic to raise money for Jr. Giants and Comfort for Kids, which provides specialized medical care to children throughout Bay Area who are facing life-threatening illness.
Rueter is a native of Nashville, Ill., and pitched at Murray State from 1989 to 1991. He was drafted by the Montreal Expos as the 19th pick of the 18th round in the June 1991 draft and debuted with the Expos in 1993, when he went 8-0, winning the first 10 games of his professional career over 1993 and '94. He was traded to San Francisco with pitcher Tim Scott on July 30, 1996, in exchange for pitcher Mark Leiter, and threw the first pitch at San Francisco's Pac-Bell Park. He is the first Thoroughbred to pitch in the World Series (2002).
