Sunday, October 21, 2018

Whitey Ford, happy 90th birthday! Pitched in 11 World Series; 22 starts.

Whitey Ford pitched in 11 World Series (WS). To juxtapose two other Hall of Fame WS pitchers from the 1960s: Sandy Koufax (4-3; 0.95 ERA) four WS and Bob Gibson (7-2) three WS. Ford won game one in 1962, bringing his WS record to 10-4 and allowing single runs in the 2nd and 3rd. The shutout inning in the first brought his WS record for consecutive shutout innings to 33. In 1961 Ford had broken a WS record by Babe Ruth of 29.66 consecutive shutout innings. Ford started game six in 1958 on two days rest and allowed a run in the second inning when he was removed. So his shutout innings started with his first of two shutouts against Pittsburgh in 1960.

Ford's never won again, losing his last four WS starts, and finished 10-8, most WS wins and losses.

Ford never started a game 7 even though 6 of his 11 WS went 7 games. He started 3 games in 1958 (0-1) and 1962 (1-1). So for those who think he could have started and won games 1,4,7 in 1960, it's very unlikely.

Bob Gibson: 3 World Series, 9 starts, 81 innings, 7-2. Thursday, October 18, 2018

Bob Gibson is the only pitcher to start and win WS games 1,4,7: 1967 against the Boston Red Sox. In 1957 Milwaukee Braves pitcher Lew Burdette started and won games 2,5,7 against the New York Yankees, all complete games, the last two shutouts.
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Whitey Ford was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1974, so he's been a member 44 years. Ford pitched in these WS, Yankee wins BOLD, seven games in italic: 1950, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964.

Whitey Ford:
236 wins, 106 losses (.690), ERA 2.75
Won Cy Young award in 1961 when only one was given for the two leagues: 25-4, 283 innings.

Yankee catcher Elston Howard (1963 AL MVP) dubbed Ford the Chairman of the Board, supposedly before entertainer Frank Sinatra also got that "title". Casey Stengel, Ford's Yankee manager through 1960, called him Slick.

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