Quote:Baseball Hall of Famer and two-time Cy Young Award winner Gaylord Perry, a master of the spitball who wrote a book about using the pitch, died Thursday. He was 84.

The native of Williamston, N.C., made history as the first player to win the Cy Young in both leagues, with Cleveland in 1972 and San Diego in 1978 just after turning 40.

Perry went 24-16 in his debut season with Cleveland after 10 years with the San Francisco Giants. He was 21-6 in his first season with the Padres in 1978 for his fifth and final 20-win season.

“Before I won my second Cy Young I thought I was too old – I didn’t think the writers would vote for me,” Perry said in an article on the National Baseball Hall of Fame website. “But they voted on my performance, so I won it.”

Perry’s 1974 autobiography was titled “Me and the Spitter,” and he wrote that when he started in 1962 he was the “11th man on an 11-man pitching staff” for the Giants. He needed an edge and learned the spitball from San Francisco teammate Bob Shaw.

Perry said he first threw it in May 1964 against the New York Mets, pitched 10 innings without giving up a run and soon after entered the Giants’ starting rotation.

He also wrote in the book that he chewed slippery elm bark to build up his saliva and eventually stopped throwing the pitch in 1968 after MLB ruled pitchers could no longer touch their fingers to their mouths before touching the baseball.

According to his book, he looked for other substances, like petroleum jelly, to doctor the baseball. He used various motions and routines to touch different parts of his jersey and body to get hitters thinking he was applying a foreign substance.

Perry was ejected from a game just once for doctoring a baseball – when he was with Seattle in August 1982. In his final season with Kansas City, Perry and teammate Leon Roberts tried to hide George Brett’s infamous pine-tar bat in the clubhouse but were stopped by a guard. Perry was ejected for his role in that game, too.

(12-01-2022 02:18 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  Gaylord Perry, two-time Cy Young winner, dies at 84

Quote:Baseball Hall of Famer and two-time Cy Young Award winner Gaylord Perry, a master of the spitball who wrote a book about using the pitch, died Thursday. He was 84.

The native of Williamston, N.C., made history as the first player to win the Cy Young in both leagues, with Cleveland in 1972 and San Diego in 1978 just after turning 40.

Perry went 24-16 in his debut season with Cleveland after 10 years with the San Francisco Giants. He was 21-6 in his first season with the Padres in 1978 for his fifth and final 20-win season.

“Before I won my second Cy Young I thought I was too old – I didn’t think the writers would vote for me,” Perry said in an article on the National Baseball Hall of Fame website. “But they voted on my performance, so I won it.”

Perry’s 1974 autobiography was titled “Me and the Spitter,” and he wrote that when he started in 1962 he was the “11th man on an 11-man pitching staff” for the Giants. He needed an edge and learned the spitball from San Francisco teammate Bob Shaw.

Perry said he first threw it in May 1964 against the New York Mets, pitched 10 innings without giving up a run and soon after entered the Giants’ starting rotation.

He also wrote in the book that he chewed slippery elm bark to build up his saliva and eventually stopped throwing the pitch in 1968 after MLB ruled pitchers could no longer touch their fingers to their mouths before touching the baseball.

According to his book, he looked for other substances, like petroleum jelly, to doctor the baseball. He used various motions and routines to touch different parts of his jersey and body to get hitters thinking he was applying a foreign substance.

Perry was ejected from a game just once for doctoring a baseball – when he was with Seattle in August 1982. In his final season with Kansas City, Perry and teammate Leon Roberts tried to hide George Brett’s infamous pine-tar bat in the clubhouse but were stopped by a guard. Perry was ejected for his role in that game, too.

(12-04-2022 07:40 PM)UofMstateU Wrote:  

(12-06-2022 01:26 AM)GoodOwl Wrote:  Wow. She lived a very hard life medically, some of which was drugs from what I have read. She said she "did a lot of cocaine," and she "was crazy." There was about a year’s span that she "did cocaine that (she) was doing it -– you could say –- more occasionally, on the weekend. Then my weekend became a three-day weekend, then it became four, then it became five.”--Kirstie Alley

Kinda young for her, but that will take years off your life and apparently it did. She was funny and a great actress. Sad for her kids. R.I.P.

(12-06-2022 03:50 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  

(12-06-2022 01:26 AM)GoodOwl Wrote:  Wow. She lived a very hard life medically, some of which was drugs from what I have read. She said she "did a lot of cocaine," and she "was crazy." There was about a year’s span that she "did cocaine that (she) was doing it -– you could say –- more occasionally, on the weekend. Then my weekend became a three-day weekend, then it became four, then it became five.”--Kirstie Alley

Kinda young for her, but that will take years off your life and apparently it did. She was funny and a great actress. Sad for her kids. R.I.P.

She was also in Match Game as a contestant and on Look Who's Talking movies.

(12-06-2022 06:54 PM)Redbanksdog Wrote:  

(12-06-2022 03:50 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  

(12-06-2022 01:26 AM)GoodOwl Wrote:  Wow. She lived a very hard life medically, some of which was drugs from what I have read. She said she "did a lot of cocaine," and she "was crazy." There was about a year’s span that she "did cocaine that (she) was doing it -– you could say –- more occasionally, on the weekend. Then my weekend became a three-day weekend, then it became four, then it became five.”--Kirstie Alley

Kinda young for her, but that will take years off your life and apparently it did. She was funny and a great actress. Sad for her kids. R.I.P.

She was also in Match Game as a contestant and on Look Who's Talking movies.

The crazy sister in North and South.

(12-06-2022 07:11 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(12-06-2022 06:54 PM)Redbanksdog Wrote:  

(12-06-2022 03:50 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  

(12-06-2022 01:26 AM)GoodOwl Wrote:  Wow. She lived a very hard life medically, some of which was drugs from what I have read. She said she "did a lot of cocaine," and she "was crazy." There was about a year’s span that she "did cocaine that (she) was doing it -– you could say –- more occasionally, on the weekend. Then my weekend became a three-day weekend, then it became four, then it became five.”--Kirstie Alley

Kinda young for her, but that will take years off your life and apparently it did. She was funny and a great actress. Sad for her kids. R.I.P.

She was also in Match Game as a contestant and on Look Who's Talking movies.

The crazy sister in North and South.

Aptly named if I recall, Fragilia or some such name. It was truly a cheesy made for TV mini series and you had to be old enough already in the 70's to realize that. We must be reasonably close in age Redbanksdog!

(12-08-2022 10:34 AM)GoodOwl Wrote:  Wow. Mills Lane died: Beloved Reno boxing icon Mills Lane dies at age 85

(12-13-2022 09:06 AM)loki_the_bubba Wrote:  Mike Leach has passed.

https://hailstate.com/news/2022/12/13/football-msu-bulldog-family-college-football-community-mourns-the-death-of-coach-mike-leach.aspx