(Story & Photo by Marco Stoovelaar; Videos by MLB Film)
IN MEMORIAM
...Gaylord Perry...
(1938 - 2022) |
 Legendary Major League-pitcher and Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry passed away
Nederlands
 GAFFNEY, South Carolina (USA) -
Gaylord Perry, who pitched in the Major League in 22 seasons for eight teams and was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991, passed away on Thursday (December 1) at age 84.
Perry, who became a legendary pitcher, won the Cy Young Award twice.
Throughout his long career, it was always suspected that the righthander threw a forbidden spitball.
In 1976 and 1977, Gaylord Perry was a teammate of Dutch-born pitcher (and also future Hall of Famer) Bert Blyleven at Texas Rangers.
Gaylord Jackson Perry was born on September 15, 1938 in Williamston, North Carolina.
He was a very talented athlete in High School, playing several sports, including baseball, basketball and American football.
At Williamston High School, he played together with his brother Jim Perry, who is three older and also played several sports.
Jim also went on to become a Major League-pitcher.
When he was in High School, Gaylord Perry started his baseball-career as an infielder, but later became a dominating pitcher.
Thereafter, the Perry-brothers attended Campbell University in Buies Creek, North Carolina and also were teammates there in the school's baseball-team.
In June 1958, Gaylord Perry was signed by San Francisco Giants.
In his first professional season, 1958, the pitcher earned 90,000 dollars and played in Single-A.
Gaylord Perry promoted to Double-A in 1959 and he played at the same level in the following season.
Another promotion followed in 1961 when he played in Triple-A.
There, playing for Tacoma Giants, Perry led the Pacific Coast League in Wins (16) and Innings Pitched (219).
Gaylord Perry made his Major League-debut on April 14, 1962 when he was the starting pitcher (2 2/3 innings, no-decision) for San Francisco Giants for whom he played in his first ten seasons.
That was the beginning of a long and successful career, as the righthander played in 22 Major League-seasons (1962-1983) for eight teams, including two stints with Texas Rangers.
After making his debut against Cincinnati Reds, Perry would pitch in twelve more games, then was sent back down to Triple-A.
In his first season, Perry was the starter in seven of the thirteen games he pitched in.
He was 3-1 and struckout 20 batters.
Perry returned to the Major League in 1963 when he mostly was inserted as reliever (four starts in 31 games).
In 1964, the righthander became one of the starters (44 games, 19 starts) for San Francisco Giants and finished the season with twelve wins, eleven losses and a 2.75 ERA.
His wins and ERA were second-best of the team behind legendary pitcher Juan Marichal.
Gaylord Perry was one of the leading pitchers of the Giants-team in 1966, together with Marichal.
Perry (36 games, 35 starts) dominated and was 20-2 when the month of August got underway.
During the 1966 season, Perry played in his first All Star Game.
Perry closed the season with a 21-8 record, a 2.99 ERA and 201 strikeouts, the first time he reached 200 or more.
From 1966 on, Perry was a starting pitcher.
...Gaylord Perry in 1965 with...
...San Francisco Giants... |
Perry's stats dropped somewhat in 1967 and 1968.
However, he struckout 230 batters in 1967 (when he was 15-17) and in 1968 (16-15), he closed with a 2.45 ERA and also threw a No-Hitter.
On September 17, 1968, two days after he hard turned 30, Perry gave up no basehits in a home-game against St. Louis Cardinals, for whom Bob Gibson, another pitching-legend, was on the mound.
San Francisco won with an 1-0 score and that lone run was a homerun by Ron Hunt in the first inning.
The next day, it was St. Louis-pitcher Ray Washburn, who threw a No-hitter against San Francisco in a 2-0 win.
This was the first time that back-to-back No-Hitters were thrown.
In the 1968 season, Juan Marichal led the Giants-staff (and the league) with 26 wins, 30 complete games and 325 2/3 innings pitched.
In the 1969 season, Perry was 19-14 and finished with a 2.49 ERA and 233 strikeouts.
He completed 26 of his 39 starts.
There is a famous story about Gaylord Perry dating from 1969.
On July 20 of that year, Apollo 11 landed on the moon and some hours later, American Neil Armstrong became the first human being to step on the moon.
In those years, the designated hitter-rule was not yet invented and so, pitchers batted themselves.
The DH was introduced in the American League in 1973, the rule was adopted in the National League for the first time this year.
In 1969, Perry played in his eighth season for San Francisco Giants and was known more for his pitching than for his pitching.
The story goes that in 1963 Alvin Dark, who was the Manager of San Francisco in 1961-1964, must have said that there would be a man on the moon before Perry would hit a homerun.
And that is exactly what happened.
Less than an hour after Apollo 11 had landed on the moon, Perry hit a homerun in the third inning of a home-game at Candlestick Park against Los Angeles Dodgers off of lefthander Claude Osteen, one of the pitching-aces of the opposing team.
In 1970, Gaylord Perry was the ace of San Francisco's pitching-staff.
He led the National League in Wins with 23, Innings Pitched with 328 2/3 and Games Started with 41.
His 328 2/3 innings pitched are still a single-season record for San Francisco.
He completed 23 of his 41 starts and his 3.20 ERA was the best amongst the Giants-starters.
The following season, Perry won the title in the National League West Division with San Francisco.
In the National League Championship Series, San Francisco faced Pittsburgh Pirates and lost the best-of-five, 3-1.
Gaylord Perry was the winning pitcher in the opening game, which was won by San Francisco, 5-4, thanks to a 4-run rally in the fifth inning.
The game was a pitching-duel between Perry and Steve Blass.
Trailing 2-0, San Francisco scored its first run in the third inning when Chris Speier was moved into scoring position via a sacrifice bunt by Perry and then scored on a single by Ken Henderson.
In the fifth inning, the Giants took then lead, thanks to 2-run homeruns by Tito Fuentes and Willie McCovey.
Pittsburgh won the next two games (9-4, 2-1).
In the fourth game, Perry was the starter again for San Francisco, while Bruce Kison started for Pittsburgh.
Halfway the second inning, San Francisco led 5-2, but Pittsburgh then came alongside.
In the remainder of the game, the Giants were kept scoreless, while the Pirates rallied for four runs in the sixth to win 9-5 and advance to the World Series.
This would be the lone time that Gaylord Perry played in the postseason.
In November 1971, Perry was traded by San Francisco to Cleveland Indians, together with infielder Frank Duffy, for lefthanded pitcher Sam McDowell.
In all of his ten seasons with San Francisco Giants, Perry played together with other future Hall of Famers: pitcher Juan Marichal and outfielders Willie Mays and Willie McCovey, who were respectively elected in 1983, 1979 and 1986.
Other longtime teammates include third baseman Jim Davenport, infielder/outfielder Jim Ray Hart (both nine seasons), pitcher Bobby Bolin, middle infielder Hal Lanier (both eight seasons), outfielder Ken Henderson, closer Frank Linzy (both seven seasons), outfielder Jesus Alou, catcher Dick Dietz, second baseman Tito Fuentes and catcher Tom Haller (all six seasons).
...Major League Baseball remembers Gaylord Perry...
(© Video: MLB Film) |
Through the years, other teammates at San Francisco include Matty Alou, Bobby Bonds, José Cardenal, Orlando Cepeda (Hall of Fame 1999), George Foster, Chuck Hiller, Ron Hunt, Harvey Kuenn, Don Mason, José Pagan and pitchers Mike McCormick and Ray Sadecki.
In his final season with the Giants, Perry played together with Jim Barr, Dave Kingman and Chris Speier, who all would play for the team in the coming seasons.
There were three more legendary players who were teammates of Perry at San Francisco.
They were pitcher Don Larsen (1962-1964), outfielder Duke Snider (1964) and pitcher Warren Spahn (1965).
Larsen had thrown a Perfect Game in the 1956 World Series, while pitching for New York Yankees.
Snider played in his final Major League-season in 1964 after having played sixteen seasons for Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers.
Spahn also played in his final big league-season in 1965 after he had played in twenty seasons for Boston/Milwaukee Braves.
Spahn and Snider were inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1973 and 1980 respectively.
After being traded in 1971, Gaylord Perry played in four seasons for Cleveland Indians (1972-1975).
In his first season with Cleveland, Perry was 24-16 and closed with an 1.92 ERA.
He led the American League with 29 complete games (40 starts).
After the season, Perry won the Cy Young Award.
In the following two seasons (1973, 1974), Perry won 19 and 21 games and threw 29 and 28 complete games respectively.
In 1973, Perry recorded a career-high of 238 strikeouts.
In the 1975 season, he was 6-9 before being traded by Cleveland to Texas Rangers on June 13 for pitchers Jim Bibby, Jackie Brown and Rick Waits.
Several years later, Waits pitched in the Italian Baseball League for Rimini Pirates (1987-1989).
That trade was made at the beginning of a 3-game series between Cleveland and Texas.
During the 1974 and 1975 season, Gaylord Perry played together with his brother Jim Perry.
He also was traded during the 1975 season, less than a month before Gaylord.
His teammates in Cleveland include Buddy Bell, Kurt Bevacqua, Jack Brohamer, Rico Carty, Chris Chambliss, Frank Duffy, Dave Duncan, John Ellis, Ray Fosse, Oscar Gamble, George Hendrick, Duane Kuiper, John Lowenstein, Rick Manning, Tommy McGraw, Graig Nettles, Boog Powell, Frank Robinson, Charlie Spikes and pitchers Dennis Eckersley, Ed Farmer, Steve Mingori, Brent Strom, Dick Tidrow and Milt Wilcox.
Robinson became Cleveland's new Manager in 1975 and also became a Hall of Famer in 1982.
Eckersley, Kuiper and Manning are longtime commentators.
Kuiper is a TV-announcer for 36 years for San Francisco Giants.
Manning is the color commentator for Cleveland since 1990.
Eckersley, who became a Hall of Famer in 2004, was an analyst and color commentator for twenty years for Boston Red Sox and retired after the 2022 season
Strom is a Major League Pitching Coach since 2000.
After eight seasons with Houston Astros, he was the Pitching Coach of Arizona Diamondbacks of this year.
After joining Texas Rangers in June 1975, Gaylord Perry played in two more full seasons (1976-1977) for the team.
In the remainder of the 1975 season, the righthander was 12-8 for Texas and struckout 148 batters.
In 1976, Perry was 15-14 with a 3.24 ERA and 143 strikeouts and completed 21 of his 32 starts.
He again won fifteen games in the 1977 season and finished with a 3.37 ERA and 177 strikeouts.
Perry started 34 games and completed 13 of them.
...Gaylord Perry warming up in the bullpen for Texas Rangers...
...in September 1977 for his start against Oakland A's...
...Perry went the distance and was the winning pitcher...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
In 1976 and 1977, Gaylord Perry was a teammate of Dutch-born pitcher Bert Blyleven, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2011.
Blyleven came to Texas from Minnesota Twins in a trade in June 1976.
The righthander was traded by Texas to Pittsburgh Pirates in March 1978.
As Pitching Coach, Blyleven was a member of the coaching-staff of the Netherlands Team during the World Baseball Classic in 2009, 2013 and 2017.
The author of this article watched Gaylord Perry throwing his twelfth complete game of the 1977 season.
In September of that year, I was in California with my parents and brother, as we were part of the group of some 30 baseball-fans who took part in the USA Tour, organized by Dutch baseball/softball-magazine Inside.
On September 23 of that year, Texas Rangers played against Oakland A's at Oakland-Alameda County Stadium.
Texas took an early 3-0 lead in the second inning via a 3-run homerun by Mike Hargrove.
Oakland reacted with four runs in the bottom of the second when Tony Armas hit a grand slam homerun.
Texas came alongside in the third on an RBI-single by Bump Wills, then trailed 5-4 after seven innings, but scored two runs in the eighth on singles by Dave May and Claudell washington to win 6-5.
Perry struckout six batters, gave up only three basehits and won his 14th game.
Amongst his teammates in Texas were Sandy Alomar, Juan Beniquez, Kurt Bevacqua, Jeff Burroughs, Bert Campaneris, Gene Clines, Mike Cubbage, Jim Fregosi, Tom Grieve, Mike Hargrove, Toby Harrah, Ken Henderson, Willie Horton, Roy Howell, Dave May, Lenny Randle, Roy Smalley, Jim Spencer, Jim Sundberg, Cesar Tovar, Claudell Washington, Bump Wills and pitchers Doyle Alexander, Bert Blyleven, Nelson Briles, Dock Ellis, Ferguson Jenkins (Hall of Fame 1991) and Jim Umbarger.
In 1976, Perry was in a starting rotation with Blyleven, Briles and Umbarger.
In 1977, the starting rotation of Texas was Alexander, Blyleven, Ellis and Perry.
In January 1978, Gaylord Perry was traded by Texas to San Diego Padres for whom he played in 1978 and 1979.
The veteran righthander had a strong first season with his new team, as he was 21-6 with a 2.73 ERA, while striking out 154 batters and started 37 games (five complete).
In the final game of the season, Perry struckout his 3,000th batter.
With that, he became only the third pitcher in history to reach the 3,000 strikeouts-milestone, the other two being legends Walter Johnson (Hall of Fame 1936) and Bob Gibson (Hall of Fame 1981).
Perry led the National League with his 21 victories and won his second Cy Young Award for being the Best Pitcher.
With that, Perry became the first pitcher ever to win the Award in both leagues.
As mentioned, he won his first Cy Young Award, when he played in the American League for Cleveland Indians in 1972.
In his second season with San Diego, Perry was 12-11 (32 starts) and 140 strikeouts.
At San Diego, led by Manager Roger Craig, amongst his teammates were Bill Almon, Kurt Bevacqua, Bill Fahey, Oscar Gamble, Fernando Gonzalez, George Hendrick, Fred Kendall, Gene Richards, Ozzie Smith, Gene Tenace, Derrel Thomas, Jerry Turner, Dave Winfield (Hall of Fame 2001) and pitchers John D'Acquisto, Rollie Fingers (Hall of Fame 1992), Randy Jones, Mark Lee, Mickey Lolich, Bob Owchinko and Bob Shirley.
In 1980, Gaylord Perry played for two different teams.
In February of that year, San Diego traded him back to Texas Rangers and in August, Texas traded him to New York Yankees.
In his second stint with Texas, Perry was 6-9 in 24 starts.
With the Yankees, he pitched in ten games (eight starts) and was 4-4.
At Texas, with Pat Corrales as Manager, Perry was re-united with Ranger-teammates Ferguson Jenkins, Jim Sundberg and Bump Wills.
Other teammates included Buddy Bell, Pepe Frias, Johnny Grubb, Bud Harrelson, Jim Norris, Al Oliver, Pat Putnam, Mickey Rivers, Rusty Staub, Richie Zisk and pitchers Danny Darwin, Jim Kern, Sparky Lyle, Doc Medich and Dave Rajsich.
With the Yankees, led by Manager Dick Howser, Perry's teammates included Bobby Brown, Rick Cerone, Bucky Dent, Oscar Gamble, Reggie Jackson (Hall of Fame 1993), Bobby Murcer, Graig Nettles, Lou Piniella, Willie Randolph, Eric Soderholm, Jim Spencer, Fred Stanley, Bob Watson and pitchers Ron Davis, Rich Gossage (Hall of Fame 2008), Ron Guidry, Tommy John, Rudy May, Luis Tiant and Tom Underwood.
Gaylord Perry was without a contract after the 1980 season, but in January 1981, the veteran righthander signed a new contract with Atlanta Braves.
In his lone season with Atlanta, Perry was 8-9 with a 3.94 ERA and 60 sttrikeouts.
At Atlanta, legendary Bobby Cox was the Manager (and future Hall of Famer in 2014).
Amongst his teammates were Bruce Benedict, Brett Butler, Chris Chambliss, Bob Horner, Glenn Hubbard, Dale Murphy, Biff Pocoroba, Rafael Ramirez, Jerry Royster, Claudell Washington and pitchers Tommy Boggs, Rick Camp, Gene Garber, Al Hrabosky, Rick Mahler, John Montefusco and Hall of Famer (1997) Phil Niekro.
Atlanta released Gaylord Perry after the 1980 season.
It then took until March 1982 for him to sign with a new club, Seattle Mariners.
Wearing the uniform of his new club, on May 6, Gaylord Perry won his 300th game to reach another milestone.
In his first season with Seattle, which had joined the American League in 1977, Perry was 10-12 with a 4.40 ERA and 116 strikeouts, starting 32 games.
It was during the 1982 season that Perry was ejected for the only time in his career for suspicion of throwing a spitball by umpire Dave Phillips.
1983 would be the final season in the impressive career of Gaylord Perry.
He was 3-10 with a 4.94 ERA (16 starts) when he was released by Seattle at the end of June.
At Seattle, his teammates included Tony Bernazard, Bruce Bochte, Manny Castillo, Al Cowens, Julio Cruz, Todd Cruz, Jim Essian, Dave Henderson, Steve Henderson, Orlando Mercado, John Moses, Spike Owen, Lenny Randle, Joe Simpson, Rick Sweet, Richie Zisk and pitchers Larry Andersen, Floyd Bannister, Jim Beattie, Bill Caudill, Mike Stanton and Ed Vande Berg.
Seattle released Perry on June 27, 1983.
Nine days later, he signed with Kansas City Royals with whom he completed the season.
There, he was re-united with Manager Dick Howser, who also was the Manager when Perry played for New York Yankees.
The remainder of the season included a famous game with a famous incident.
Gaylord Perry pitched in 14 games (all starts) and was 4-4 with a 4.27 ERA for Kansas City with 40 strikeouts, including the 3,500th of his career.
On August 19, now at age 44, he was pitching a No-Hitter for seven innings against Baltimore Orioles.
With a 4-0 lead, he then gave up a lead-off single to Eddie Murray (Hall of Fame 2003) in the eighth, followed by a single from Ken Singleton and a runscoring double by Joe Nolan.
Perry gave up two runs, then was relieved in the ninth.
Baltimore then scored three runs and won 5-4.
...The famous pine tar-incident in 1983...
...Kansas City: #5 is George Brett, #10 is Manager Dick Howser...
...#30 is U L Washington, #11 is Hal McRae...
...New York: #1 is Manager Billy Martin, #9 is 3B Graig Nettles...
...#54 is pitcher Rich Gossage, #46 is 1B Don Mattingly...
...Umpires: Tim McClelland (HP, #36), Drew Coble (1B, #37),...
...Joe Brinkman (2B, #15), Nick Bremigan (3B, #2)...
(© Video: MLB Film) |
On July 24, Kansas City played against New York Yankees in Yankee Stadium.
In the top of the ninth inning, New York led 4-3.
With two outs, U L Washington singled for Kansas City and next batter George Brett (Hall of Fame 1999) homered off of reliever Rich Gossage.
This became the famous pine tar-incident.
While next batter Hal McRae approached the batter's box, New York Yankees Manager Billy Martin (another legend) came out and stated to the umpires that there was too much pine tar on Brett's bat.
After reviewing the situation with his colleagues, Home Plate Umpire Tim McClelland checked the bat (measure across home plate), confirmed that there was too much pine tar, then ruled Brett out.
As the homerun was annulled and Brett was the third out, the game ended with a 4-3 win for New York.
Brett reacted heatedly and charged McClelland.
During the following discussions, Gaylord Perry tried to bring the bat to the Royals clubhouse.
However, he was stopped by 2B Umpire (and crew chief) Joe Brinkman.
Brett, Perry, Manager Dick Howser and Hitting Coach Rocky Colavito were all ejected.
Kansas City filed a protest against the umpiring decision and four days later, the ruling was reversed by American League President Lee McPhail.
With that, the homerun was valid again, Kansas City led 5-4 and the game had to resume from that moment on.
That was done three weeks later on an off-day for both teams.
The Royals-ninth ended with a strikeout, then the Yankees were retired in order in the bottom of the ninth by closer Dan Quisenberry.
By the way, in this game, Perry faced several of his former teammates: Bert Campaneris (Rangers), Rick Cerone (Yankees), Oscar Gamble (Indians/Padres/Yankees), Rich Gossage (Yankees), Ron Guidry (Yankees), Graig Nettles (Indians/Yankees), Lou Piniella (Yankees), Roy Smalley (Rangers) en Dave Winfield (Padres).
Amongst his teammates in Kansas City were Willie Aikens, George Brett, Hal McRae, Amos Otis, Leon Roberts, Pat Sheridan, U L Washington, John Wathan, Frank White, Willie Wilson and pitchers Larry Gura, (submarine-pitcher) Dan Quisenberry, Steve Renko and Paul Splittorff.
On September 23, 1983, shortly before the end of the season, Gaylord Perry retired.
During his career, Perry was one of those pitchers who threw complete games when he was on the mound.
Of the 690 games he started, Perry went the distance 303 times.
In his 22 Major League-seasons, Gaylord Perry won 314 games, lost 265 and finished with a 3.11 ERA.
He also earned ten saves.
Overall, Perry pitched in 777 games.
In his long and impressive career, the righthander struckout 3,534 batters in 5,350 innings, walking 1,379.
Throughout his career, but especially since the early seventies, opposing hitters frequently said that Perry threw a spitball, because of the movement on his pitches.
It was said that Perry put something on and was doctoring the balls to come to this result.
The spitball became a forbidden pitch in 1920.
Because Perry made several moves with his fingers - touching his cap or uniform or face - before a delivery, it raised suspicions that he was 'doing something' to the ball.
It also led the batters think that way and so, he could come back with another effective pitch.
In 1974, his autobiography was released in a book with the title Me and the Spitter.
In the book, Perry told sportswriter Bob Sudyk what he done to the ball and how he threw them in the past, but had stopped doing it.
Before the start of the 1974 season, the rule that states that a spitball is an illegal pitch, was expanded to enable umpire to call a ball when they thought a spitball was used and also could eject a pitcher when a pitcher did it a second time.
In following years, suspicions kept coming, but it was reported that in those years, Perry never confirmed that he threw a spitball, but also didn't denied it.
In August 1982, Perry was ejected from a game for suspicions of doctoring the ball and was suspended for ten days.
This was the lone time in his long career that he was ejected in relation to throwing a spitball.
Overall, Perry was ejected only three times, the first time came in 1970 when he argued a bal call, the third time during the pine tar-incident in 1983.
...Hall of Fame plaquette...
...of Gaylord Perry... |
Gaylord's brother Jim Perry also was a Major League-pitcher.
Combined, they won 529 games, which is the second highest total for brothers, trailing Phil Niekro (318) and Joe Niekro (221), who won 539 games combined.
In third place are Greg Maddux (355) and Mike Maddux (39) with 394.
Jim Perry won the Cy Young Award in 1970 when he played for Minnesota Twins.
The Perry's are the only brothers to win the Cy Young Award.
By the way, Jim Perry also has been a teammate of Bert Blyleven when both played for Minnesota in 1970-1972.
Gaylord Perry pitched in five All Star Games (1966, 1970, 1972, 1974, 1979) and led the league in wins three times (1970, 1972, 1978).
He won 20 or more games in one season five times (1966, 1970, 1972, 1974, 1978)
After his career, Perry worked at his farm in North Carolina, but also was the baseball-coach of Limestone College in his home-town of Gaffney for six years.
Perry also remained a frequent visitor of ceremonies, such as Hall of Fame-inductions or ceremonies at San Francisco Giants.
In 1991, Gaylord Perry was elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
In July 2005, San Francisco Giants retired his uniform number 36.
In 2008, Perry belonged to the inaugural group of 43 former players to be honored with a plaque on the Giants Wall of Fame.
Perry was inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.
In 2012, the pitcher was inducted into the Cleveland Indians (now Guardians) Hall of Fame.
On August 13, 2016, San Francisco Giants unveiled a statue of Perry at Oracle Park.
It is one of five statues of former Giant-greats, the others being Orlando Cepeda, Juan Marichal, Willie Mays and Willie McCovey.
San Francisco Giants President and CEO Larry Baer said in a statement:
,,Gaylord Perry was larger than life both on and off the field.
Gaylord was not only a Giants legend but a baseball legend with a storied 22-year career that touched three different decades.
Here in San Francisco, he helped lead those early Giants teams in the '60s and early '70s that brought young Giants fans like myself out to Candlestick Park to fall in love with the game of baseball.''
Former teammate Juan Marichal reacted as follows in a statement:
,,It's tough losing a legend.
Gaylord was smart, funny, and kind to everyone in the clubhouse.
When he talked, you listened.
During our 10 seasons together in the San Francisco Giants rotation, we combined to record 369 complete games, more than any pair of teammates in the Major Leagues.
I will always remember Gaylord for his love and devotion to the game of baseball, his family, and his farm.''
Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred issued the following statement:
,,Gaylord Perry was a consistent workhorse and a memorable figure in his Hall of Fame career, highlighted by his 314 wins and 3,534 strikeouts in 22 years.
He will be remembered among the most accomplished San Francisco Giants ever, and through his time in Cleveland and San Diego, he became the first pitcher ever to win the Cy Young Award in both the American and National Leagues.
The five-time 20-game winner pitched for eight different clubs overall and remained a popular teammate and friend throughout his life.
On behalf of Major League Baseball, I extend my deepest condolences to Gaylord’s family, friends and fans across our great game.''
Jane Forbes Clark, Chairman of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, stated:
,,Gaylord Perry leaves a lasting legacy in baseball and in Cooperstown as one of the greatest pitchers of his generation.
During a remarkable 22-year Major League career, he became the first pitcher to win Cy Young Awards in both the American and National Leagues while throwing more than 5,000 innings.
The Hall of Fame will greatly miss Gaylord's presence, as he loved returning for Induction Weekend to be with his friends and fans.
We extend our deepest sympathy to his wife, Deborah and the entire Perry family.''
The webmaster of Grand Slam * Stats & News offers his condolences to the family and friends of Gaylord Perry and wishes them a lot of strength with this big loss.
(December 3)
|
