From Wikipedia : Gaylord Jackson Perry (born September 15, 1938) is a former Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher. He pitched from 1962 to 1983 for eight different teams. During a 22-year baseball career, Perry compiled 314 wins, 3,534 strikeouts, and a 3.11 earned run average. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991. Perry, a five-time All-Star, was the first pitcher to win the Cy Young Award in each league, winning it in the American League in 1972 with the Cleveland Indians and in the National League in 1978 with the San Diego Padres. He is also distinguished, along with his brother Jim, for being the second-winningest brother combination in baseball history—second only to the knuckleballing Niekro brothers, Phil and Joe.[1] While pitching for the Seattle Mariners in 1982, Perry became the fifteenth member of the 300 win club. Despite Perry's notoriety for doctoring baseballs (e.g. throwing a spitball), and perhaps even more so for making batters think he was throwing them on a regular basis – he even went so far as to title his 1974 autobiography Me and the Spitter[2] – he was not ejected for the illegal practice until August 23, 1982, in his 21st season in the majors. Like most pitchers, Perry was not renowned for his hitting ability, and in his sophomore season of 1963, his manager Alvin Dark is said to have joked, "They'll put a man on the moon before he hits a home run." There are other variants on the story, but either way, on July 20, 1969, just an hour after the Apollo 11 spacecraft carrying Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon, Perry hit the first home run of his career.[3] #MeAndTheSpitter
Saw him pitch in Yankee Stadium (yep, that's how old I am). Howard Cosell was running around on the field with a mic, special cameras were set up to try to catch Gaylord in the act of doctoring the ball. Perry was one helluva showman. Always acted like the country rube, and of course was smart as a whip & shrewd as the fox whut gits in the henhouse.
Thanks for the background CCCDog. I really enjoyed the Perry brothers, as well as the knuckleballing Niekro's growing up as a big baseball fan. I think baseball needs more colorful characters again. I still enjoy it, but the game is pretty vanilla compared to its heyday.
+1 On June 12th, 1970, Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Doc Ellis threw a no hitter. Wearing curlers on the field. And tripping his face off on LSD. I find that more impressive than throwing a no hitter on steroids. True story.
That was a good era of baseball. I saw lots of different teams on the game of the week, and my brothers and I would listen to the senators on radio at night. Good stuff.
Remember Mark "The Bird" Fidrych? Bill "Spaceman" Lee? Man, those were some heady times lol. Talk about coincidence: Gaylord threw out the first pitch for the M's tonight. Seattle is celebrating the anniversary of his #300. Talked with him about his career in the broadcast booth during the game. Just as Yankee described lol.
I'm glad I'm not the only person to think of Gaylord Perry the ball player, when I see the word gaylord. I was a big baseball fan when I was 7 to 11 years old. Maybe even until I was 12. That was 1977-1983. So I remember Gaylord Perry as a baseball player, before I had any idea of what gay even was. I saw Gaylord Perry pitch against the Mets at Shea Stadium. Think he was on the Padres at the time. Then I saw him pitch for the Yankees at old Yankee Stadium a year or two later. I remember thinking ''This dude is old as ****'' at the time, since he was one of the few guys in the league that played well into his 40's. When I was 10 or 11, I remember trading cards with some kid down the block. He was a couple years older. I had Gaylord Perry and he was laughing his ass off. He knew more about homosexuality than I did at the time and I couldn't figure out why he thought Gaylord Perry's first name was so hilarious. He got this huge kick out of the guy's name being Gaylord and I didn't get it at the time.
