Gaylord Perry, Hall of Fame Pitcher With a Doctoring Touch, Dies at 84

[El Supremo]

By Richard Goldstein
Dec. 1, 2022, 11:36 a.m. ET

Gaylord Perry, the Hall of Fame right-hander who won 314 games and struck out more than 3,500 batters, but was remembered as well for his spitballs that enraged opposing batters and managers over his 22 major league seasons, died early Thursday at his home in Gaffney, S.C. He was 84.

His daughter Allison Perry said in confirming the death that Perry contracted the coronavirus last year and never fully recovered.

A strapping 6 feet 4 inches and 205 pounds or so, Perry was exceedingly durable and never had a sore arm. For all the furor over his doctoring the baseball, he had a wide assortment of deliveries: curves, sliders, sinkers, changeups, forkballs and an outstanding fastball, including a split-fingered one.

He became the first of six pitchers to win the Cy Young Award in both leagues, capturing it as the American League’s best pitcher with the Cleveland Indians (now named the Guardians) in 1972 and the National League’s leading pitcher with the San Diego Padres in 1978. His older brother, Jim Perry, won the award in 1970 with the A.L.’s Minnesota Twins.

Gaylord Perry, who pitched for eight teams, was a five-time All-Star, pitched a no-hitter for the San Francisco Giants against the St. Louis Cardinals in 1968 and won at least 20 games five times. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/01/sports/baseball/gaylord-perry-dead.html

[mobeau69]

1. Great pic of the ump looking for sticky stuff. LOL.

[LenaBaby61]

2. They could never find out "where he hid his stuff."

I met him (and many other baseball players) at Dodger's stadium as a kid, because my late great uncle worked for the Dodgers for many years hauling their equipment around (Yep, they did that back in the day, hauled bats et al around in a station wagon or a larger truck similar to one), and he had lifetime access to all games as did his wife, my late great auntie. Perry was so nice, shook my hand and said he hoped that I had a great night at the game, and to take care of myself and be good (He was wearing a God-awful Padre Uniform).

They never found out where Don Sutton hid his "stuff" either Sutton was also an extremely nice person as well.

[Diamond_Dog]

3. My grandma was a big fan of his!

Many years ago I took her to see him at the local mall….. He was autographing his book “Me and the Spitter”. He was very nice and cordial to us. I did get his autograph, too.

[House of Roberts]

4. All the fun we had over whether Gaylord was throwing a spitter

or 'something else', but the most fun was Perry's role in the famous George Brett 'Pine Tar Incident'.

After Brett's home run was being challenged by Yankees manager Billy Martin, Gaylord had the presence of mind to try to hide Brett's bat!

[BlueTsunami2018]

5. It's kind of funny.

Everyone talks about how guys who used PEDs should be forbidden from the Hall and how sign stealers should have their trophies taken away and all that horseshit and here’s a guy who admitted to cheating his entire career and he’s beloved.

Cheating is a time honored tradition in baseball. It’s been going on since the game was invented. It makes me laugh to hear all these people on their high horses pretending that there’s some kind of sacrosanct “purity” to the sport and Barry Bonds and Roger Clemons spoiled it all by making themselves stronger, less prone to injury and have greater endurance and recovery time. It’s absurd.

If they’re pariahs for “cheating” and shouldn’t be allowed in then Perry and anyone else who ever corked a bat, threw a spitter or tipped off a hitter about a coming pitch should be removed.

Sounds ridiculous, right? It’s all ridiculous.

The only thing that actually undermines the “integrity” of the game is gambling on it. Everything else is fair.

[NoRethugFriends]

6. Totally different type of cheating. Ridiculous comparison.

[rurallib]

7. Your post makes me think of Dock Ellis and the no hitter

he threw when he was so high. Baseball sure has the characters:

https://www.si.com/mlb/2017/06/12/dock-ellis-acid-no-hitter-pittsburgh-pirates-anniversary

The details of how that game came to be are almost as much fun as the fact that it happened. According to Ellis (and, it should be noted, all of this is according to Ellis), he went to visit a friend in Los Angeles the day before his start, took some acid and stayed up late into the night drinking and doing drugs, subsequently losing track of which day it was. The day of his start, he woke up and, thinking he was supposed to pitch the next day, took another hit of acid at noon, only to learn two hours later from his friend that he was, in fact, supposed to be on the mound against the Padres that evening in San Diego. Ellis got on a plane an hour later and made it to the park 90 minutes before first pitch.

That Ellis even managed to get from one point to another while high on acid is miracle enough, but it's beyond belief that he then managed to throw a nine-inning no-hitter despite, as he says, being unable to feel the ball or see his catcher (or much of anything else). "I started having a crazy idea in the fourth inning that Richard Nixon was the home plate umpire, and once I thought I was pitching a baseball to Jimi Hendrix, who to me was holding a guitar and swinging it over the plate," he recounted of his start in 1984, when he first told the world of his trip. "I remember diving out of the way of a ball I thought was a line drive. I jumped, but the ball wasn't hit hard and never reached me."

[Auggie]

8. Big part of my youth

It was quite a coup that Cleveland got Perry in his prime. Indians fans had very little to get excited about in the early 70's. But we had Gaylord. One of the most exciting acts in baseball at the time.