Jimmy Key turns 63 today. Jimmy Key was born in Huntsville, Alabama. He was drafted in the 3rd round of the 1982 amateur draft by the Jays out of Clemson University. He quickly rose to the Majors, making the Jays out of spring training in 1984. They had him pitch out of the bullpen that season. Back then, the Jays tended to use first-year pitchers in the pen, figuring that was the best way to teach them how to pitch in the majors .
Key had a great 15-year major league career, finishing 186-117 with a 3.51 ERA in 389 starts. In his time with the Jays, he had 116 wins in 250 starts over nine seasons. Not quite a Hall of Famer but squarely in the Hall of Very Good. In his first season as a starter, he didn’t strike out many batters, just 3.6 per 9 innings, but after that, he struck out slightly more than the average pitcher, finishing with an average of 5.3 strikeouts a game, but he was never a big strikeout guy.