There are some losses that
are heartbreaking, such as the New York Yankees’ 2-1 ;oss to the Tampa Bay
Devil Rays in Friday night’s American League Championship Series clincher.
And there are some losses that while expected, are inexplicable, and that was the case with the death of Edward Charles “Whitey” Ford on that same day.
Whitey Ford was the best pitcher of his generation, one of the best left handed pitchers ever, and he was truly the last link to the franchise that so dominated Major League Baseball in the 1950s and the early 1960s.
Ford is the winningest Yankees pitcher with 248 victories, and losing just 106, his winning percentage of .690 is the best of all time.
He holds many World Series records, including most wins—10—and his 33 consecutive scoreless innings in the Fall Classic is one of those baseball reocrds that might never be broken.
The native New Yorker—he grew up in Queens and lived most of his adult life on Long Island in Lake Success—I mean, he couldn’t live in any other place other than “Success”—epitomized the Yankees during those years, with their swagger as large as their talent.
These were the Casey Stengel Yankees—Mickey Mantle, Billy Martin, Yogi Berra and others—and the later Ralph Houk Yankees—Elston Howard, Roger Maris and Ralph Terry among them—who simply dominated the sport during the first 15 years of Ford’s time with the team.
It was almost a given that they would at least go to the World Series each and every year, and while they did not win the grand prize every year, they were right there competing in the Fall Classic most of the time.
And a lot of it had to do with Ford.
He was not huge in stature—5 feet, nine inches at best—and he didn’t throw 100 miles per hour, but he was certainly the smartest pitcher of his generation, most of the time being pitted against the best teams in the league on five days’ rest.
He was called by Howard “the Chairman of the Board,” and the nickname stuck for the test of his career, on top of the “Whitey” that he received because of his pale complexion and blond hair during his minor league days.
Ford was the link from the last days of Joe DiMaggio to Mickey Mantle to the great downfall, and when he retired in 1967 due to arm problems, he was the next to last Yankee standing during this period, with Mickey Mantle retiring after the 1968 season.
He was a Korean War veteran, and later, a member of baseball’s Hall of Fame, going in the same year as Mantle, his best friend.
And he retired on his own terms.
The story has it that in 1967, with arm woes plaguing him for a few years, he pitched his last game, and in his last inning, he got the side of the other tam out pretty cleanly.
It was in the middle innings of the game, and he walked back to the dugout as he finished the inning, flipped the ball to manager Houk, and said, “I’m done,” and that was that.
Ford was a constant face at spring training and old timer’s day celebrations for the next 50 years, but had been in ill health, first battling cancer, and then we learned dementia leading to Alzheimer’s Disease.
He died at age 91 at home in Lake Success, and to honor his passing, the Yankees wore his No. 16 on their sleeves for Friday night’s game and will probably continue to wear it next season.
Ford now joins Tom Seaver and Bob Gibson as dominant pitcher who have left us in recent weeks, and he is the fifth Hall of Famer to die this year, including Lou Brock and Al Kaline.
I never got to see Ford pitch during his heyday, but just looking at his records, this guy was the real deal, a street kid from New York who played for the only team he ever wanted to play for, the New York Yankees, and led them to greatness.
“The Chairman of the Board” will be missed.
R.I.P.
And there are some losses that while expected, are inexplicable, and that was the case with the death of Edward Charles “Whitey” Ford on that same day.
Whitey Ford was the best pitcher of his generation, one of the best left handed pitchers ever, and he was truly the last link to the franchise that so dominated Major League Baseball in the 1950s and the early 1960s.
Ford is the winningest Yankees pitcher with 248 victories, and losing just 106, his winning percentage of .690 is the best of all time.
He holds many World Series records, including most wins—10—and his 33 consecutive scoreless innings in the Fall Classic is one of those baseball reocrds that might never be broken.
The native New Yorker—he grew up in Queens and lived most of his adult life on Long Island in Lake Success—I mean, he couldn’t live in any other place other than “Success”—epitomized the Yankees during those years, with their swagger as large as their talent.
These were the Casey Stengel Yankees—Mickey Mantle, Billy Martin, Yogi Berra and others—and the later Ralph Houk Yankees—Elston Howard, Roger Maris and Ralph Terry among them—who simply dominated the sport during the first 15 years of Ford’s time with the team.
It was almost a given that they would at least go to the World Series each and every year, and while they did not win the grand prize every year, they were right there competing in the Fall Classic most of the time.
And a lot of it had to do with Ford.
He was not huge in stature—5 feet, nine inches at best—and he didn’t throw 100 miles per hour, but he was certainly the smartest pitcher of his generation, most of the time being pitted against the best teams in the league on five days’ rest.
He was called by Howard “the Chairman of the Board,” and the nickname stuck for the test of his career, on top of the “Whitey” that he received because of his pale complexion and blond hair during his minor league days.
Ford was the link from the last days of Joe DiMaggio to Mickey Mantle to the great downfall, and when he retired in 1967 due to arm problems, he was the next to last Yankee standing during this period, with Mickey Mantle retiring after the 1968 season.
He was a Korean War veteran, and later, a member of baseball’s Hall of Fame, going in the same year as Mantle, his best friend.
And he retired on his own terms.
The story has it that in 1967, with arm woes plaguing him for a few years, he pitched his last game, and in his last inning, he got the side of the other tam out pretty cleanly.
It was in the middle innings of the game, and he walked back to the dugout as he finished the inning, flipped the ball to manager Houk, and said, “I’m done,” and that was that.
Ford was a constant face at spring training and old timer’s day celebrations for the next 50 years, but had been in ill health, first battling cancer, and then we learned dementia leading to Alzheimer’s Disease.
He died at age 91 at home in Lake Success, and to honor his passing, the Yankees wore his No. 16 on their sleeves for Friday night’s game and will probably continue to wear it next season.
Ford now joins Tom Seaver and Bob Gibson as dominant pitcher who have left us in recent weeks, and he is the fifth Hall of Famer to die this year, including Lou Brock and Al Kaline.
I never got to see Ford pitch during his heyday, but just looking at his records, this guy was the real deal, a street kid from New York who played for the only team he ever wanted to play for, the New York Yankees, and led them to greatness.
“The Chairman of the Board” will be missed.
R.I.P.
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