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Whitey Ford's career stats:
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G | GS | CG | SH | IP | H | ER | BB | SO | W | L | SV | ERA | |
498 | 438 | 156 | 45 | 3170.1 | 2766 | 967 | 1086 | 1956 | 236 | 106 | 10 | 2.75
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- FULL NAME: Edward Charles (The Chairman of the Board) Ford
- BORN: October 21, 1928 New York, New York
- Height: 5'10" Weight: 178
- Threw: Left
- Position: Pitcher
- His rookie season with the Yankees (1950) he won 9 games and lost
only 1.
- He was known to be very confident in his own abilities.
- He led the American League in wins three times.
- He won 236 games in his career and lost 106 for a .690 winning percentage,
which ranks him third on the all time list.
- He broke Babe Ruth's record of 29 consecutive scoreless innings pitched
when he threw 32 shutout innings.
- He holds eight World Series pitching records: wins (10), losses (8),
games pitched (22), games started (22), innings pitched (146), hits
(132), walks (34), most series played by pitcher (11), and strikeouts
(94). He is also ranked second in shutouts with 3, and fourth in complete
games with 7.
- He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1974.
- Yankees retired his number (#16).
Edward "Whitey" Ford was born 10 days before Halloween in 1928. The best costume for him while growing up would have been that of a Hall of Fame pitcher, an outfit he eventually grew into quite well. As the backbone of the famed New York Yankees’ dynasty teams of the 1950s and 1960s, Whitey Ford set record after record with every pitch.
1946, after a bidding war surfaced between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Giants, the New York Yankees gladly snatched up the rights to Ford with a hefty $7,000 signing bonus. After four years of climbing the ladder in the Yankee farm system, Ford earned a spot in the big league bullpen in 1953 (Whitey missed the 1951 and 1952 seasons when he was drafted for military duty for the Korean War). It did not take him long to pitch his way into the starting rotation where he finished the season with an impressive 9-1 record and a 2.81 ERA. He ended his rookie season on a high note, winning the decisive fourth game of the World Series over the Philadelphia Phillies, becoming the youngest pitcher ever to win a World Series game.
Over the course of his 15-year career, Whitey Ford compiled a 236-106 record, the second best winning percentage in the history of the game at .690. In 1953, Ford’s career took a two-year hiatus when he was drafted for military duty to serve in the Korean War. When he returned in 1955, he was a model of consistency, posting large numbers of innings pitched and continuing to win a high percentage of his games. In 1961, Ford finished the season with a 25-4 mark, two World Series victories, and the Cy Young award. He holds numerous records, many of which came at the most crucial of times in World Series competition. He is the World Series leader with 94 strikeouts and holds the all-time record with 10 wins. Ironically, Ford is also the leader with 8 losses in World Series games.
In 1964, Whitey Ford was named the Yankees’ pitcher/coach, and after battling arm problems, he retired from playing in 1967. He remains the only Yankee pitcher in history to have his number retired by the organization. In 1974, Ford was given baseball’s greatest honor by being inducted into the Hall of Fame. Whitey Ford can currently be found on the spring training diamond coaching some of today’s Yankee pitching prospects.
Did You Know?
- Whitey Ford has the most wins for the Yankees (236), most strike outs for the Yankees (1,956), most shutouts for the Yankees (45), and most pitching appearances (498).
- Whitey Ford has appeared on more World Series teams as a pitcher than any other (11 Yankee teams). He also started 22 W.S. games which is a record. He won 10 and lost 8 which is the most by any pitcher.
- Ford has the best winning percentage of any pitcher in the modern era.
Quotes
I never threw the spitter, well maybe once or twice when I really needed to get a guy out real bad."
...Whitey Ford
"You would be amazed how many important outs you can get by working the count down to where the hitter is sure you're going to throw to his weakness, and then throw to his power instead."
...Whitey Ford
"I don’t care what the situation was, how high the stakes were - the bases could be loaded and the pennant riding on every pitch, it never bothered Whitey. He pitched his game. Cool. Crafty. Nerves of steel."
...Mickey Mantle
"If the World Series was on the line and I could pick one pitcher to pitch the game, I'd choose Whitey Ford every time."
...Mickey Mantle
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