Gaylord Perry, R.I.P.

Hall of Fame pitcher Gaylord Perry passed away this morning of natural causes. He was 84.

A native of North Carolina, Perry followed the footsteps of his older brother Jim who also had a successful career as a major league pitcher. (The elder Perry turned 87 in October). After signing with the San Francisco Giants as a free agent in 1958, Perry would make his big league debut in 1962 as the Giants were en route to a NL pennant. However, he would not come into prominence until 1966 when he went 21-8 with a 2.99 ERA becoming the second part of a one-two punch with Juan Marichal. 

Perry is remembered for no-hitting the St. Louis Cardinals the day after the Redbirds clinched the NL pennant besting Bob Gibson no less. The following day the Cards got even when Ray Washburn no-hit the Giants. It is the only time in MLB history in which two teams exchanged no-hitters on back to back nights.

Like many pitchers, Perry was not an adept hitter. His own manager Alvin Dark declared, "There'll be a man on the moon before he hits a homerun." Well, approximately 30 minutes after Apollo 11 touched the lunar surface, Perry took Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Claude Osteen deep for the only HR of his big league career. 

In 1970, Perry finished runner up in NL Cy Young balloting to Bob Gibson. That season Perry led the NL in wins (23), starts (41), innings pitched (328.2) and shutouts (5). Had Perry won the Cy Young he would have joined older brother Jim in becoming the only brothers to win a Cy Young in the same year. 

Perry would make his only post-season appearances when the Giants won the NL West in 1971. But they would fall to the Pittsburgh Pirates in the NLCS. After that season, the Giants made a blockbuster trade with the Cleveland Indians sending Perry east in exchange for "Sudden" Sam McDowell. However, McDowell's career would go into sudden decline while Perry was just getting warmed up.

In 1972, Perry went 24-16 with a 1.92 ERA in 342.2 innings pitched along with 29 complete games en route to the AL Cy Young Award. Brother Jim would join him in Cleveland in 1974 where Gaylord won 21 games while Jim added 17 of his own. The Perry brothers were responsible for nearly 50% of the Tribe's wins that season (38 of 77).

Perry finished fourth in AL Cy Young balloting in 1974. He might have finished higher if not for his book Me and The Spitter: An Autobiographical Confession detailing his use of saliva and Vaseline to make his ball drop. It would be a source of controversy which followed him the rest of his career. It has been surmised that Perry used this as a psychological edge against batters to make them think he was doctoring the ball. In one game, Perry drove Reggie Jackson to the brink of insanity.

During the 1975 season, Perry would clash with manager (and future fellow Hall of Famer) Frank Robinson and Perry soon found himself traded to the Texas Rangers for pitchers Jim Bibby, Jackie Brown and Rick Waits. Less than a month earlier, the Tribe had traded Jim Perry along with Dick Bosman to the Oakland A's for Blue Moon Odom. 

After posting 15 wins with the Rangers in both 1976 and 1977, Perry was on the move again this time to San Diego for lefty reliever Dave Tomlin who never ended up appearing in a Texas uniform. Perry, by contrast, became a 20-game winner for the fifth time in his big league career going 21-6 with a 2.73 ERA earning the NL Cy Young Award in 1978 becoming the first pitcher to win the award in both leagues. This feat has been since matched by Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Roger Clemens and Justin Verlander. 

By the end of the 1979 season, however, Perry wanted out of San Diego and was traded back to the Rangers. However, Perry's second stint with the Rangers was only half a season as he would be dealt to the New York Yankees. In 1981, Perry returned to the NL with the Atlanta Braves. In 1982, Perry became the "Ancient Mariner" in Seattle as he earned his 300th career win in front of a national TV audience in a game broadcast by the fledgling USA Network. Perry would finish his career in 1983 with the Kansas City Royals.

In 22 seasons, Perry went 314-265 with a 3.11 ERA along with 3,534 career strikeouts. Although Perry never led any league in strikeouts, he is nevertheless 8th on MLB's all-time list. Perry's 5,350 innings pitched is sixth on the all-time list. In six of his 22 seasons, Perry threw in excess of 300 innings. Baseball will never see the likes of him again. In 1991, in his third year of eligibility, the BBWAA elected Perry to the Hall of Fame with 77.4% of the vote. 

I leave you with an interview Perry did with David Letterman in 1983 shortly after his retirement from baseball. In this interview, Perry discusses the spitball and two baby lions who he was raising on his farm in North Carolina. R.I.P.