12 Oct Remembering Yankee Great, “The Chairman of the Board” Whitey Ford
FAST FACTS
Name: Edward Charles “Whitey” Ford
Nick Name: The Chairman of the Board
Position: Pitcher
Born: October 21, 1928 in New York City, New York
Died: October 8, 2020 (aged 91) in Lake Success, NY
Batted: Left
Threw: Left
MLB debut: July 1, 1950, for the New York Yankees
Last MLB appearance: May 21, 1967, for the New York Yankees
MLB STATISTICS
Win–loss record: 236–106
Earned run average: 2.75
Strikeouts: 1,956
Teams: New York Yankees (1950, 1953–1967)
Career highlights and awards:
10X All-Star (1954–1956, 1958, 1959, 1960–1961(x2), 1964)
6X World Series champion (1950, 1953, 1956, 1958, 1961, 1962)
CY Young Award (1961) World Series MVP (1961)
3X AL wins leader (1955, 1961, 1963)
2X MLB ERA leader (1956, 1958)
New York Yankees No. 16 retired
Whitey Ford, one of the most talented pitchers in baseball history, who helped lead the New York Yankees to a string of World Series wins in the 1950s and ‘60s, died last Thursday night. He was 91. Edward Charles Ford was born on the East Side of Manhattan, about 100 blocks south of Yankee Stadium. He grew up playing sandlot ball in Astoria, Queens, a section of the city that produced major leaguers Sam Mele and Tony Cuccinello and singer Tony Bennett. He earned the nickname “Whitey” while still in the minor leagues. Nicknamed “the Chairman of the Board” by teammate Elston Howard for his calm demeanor in pressure situations, Ford spent his entire 16-year career with the Yankees. for whom he went 236-106. The Yankees signed the left-hander out of high school in 1947 for $7,000, outbidding the crosstown Giants and the Boston Red Sox. In 1950, Ford would help nail down the 1950 World Series sweep of Philadelphia. After two years away for military service during the Korean War, Ford returned in 1953 and along with Mickey Mantle became the core of a team that won 10 American League pennants and five World Series in the next 12 years. Ford won 18 games in his first season back and never won fewer than 11 for 13 straight seasons. Ford held the best winning percentage of any pitcher in the 20th century at .690 (236 wins, 106 loses). The World Series record book is crowded with Ford’s accomplishments. His string of 33 consecutive scoreless innings from 1960- 62 broke a record of 29 2-3 innings set by Babe Ruth. He still holds records for World Series games and starts (22), innings pitched (146), wins (10) and strikeouts (94).But his best seasons came in 1961 and 1963 in the midst of a stretch of five straight AL pennants for the Yankees when new manager Ralph Houk began using a four-man rotation instead of five. Ford led the league in victories with 25 in 1961, won the Cy Young Award and was the World Series MVP after winning two more games against Cincinnati. In 1963, he went 24-7, again leading the league in wins. Eight of his victories that season came in June. Ford and Mickey Mantle were the icons for their edition of the Yankees dynasty and, fittingly, they went into the Hall of Fame together in 1974. Ford’s No. 16 was retired by the Yankees that year. Ford often called his Hall of Fame election the highlight of his career, made more meaningful because he was inducted with Mantle, who died in 1995. “It never was anything I imagined was possible or anything I dared dream about when I was a kid growing up on the sidewalks of New York,’’ he wrote in his autobiography. “I never really thought I would make it as a kid because I always was too small.’’ Ford’s death is the latest of a number of baseball greats in 2020. Al Kaline, Tom Seaver, Lou Brock and Bob Gibson also died this year.