By the time I watched him pitch in the early 1980s, Gaylord Perry looked like an old man and was largely considered less-than-ethical pitcher.
But Perry put together a fascinating career on his way to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Perry won Cy Young awards as the league’s best pitcher in 1972 and 1978. He threw a no-hitter in 1968.
And he won 314 games and recorded 3,534 strikeouts in 22 seasons with nine teams.
But Perry also developed quite a reputation for illegally “doctoring” baseballs – in other words, throwing the spitball.
He taunted batters – and league officials – in 1974, authoring an autobiography called “Me and the Spitter.” But he wasn’t ejected from a game for the illegal practice until 1982, his 21st season in the league.
Like most pitchers, Perry wasn’t much of a hitting threat, and Alvin Dark, his manager in 1963 joked that “there would be a man on the moon before Gaylord Perry would hit a home run.”
But sure enough, on July 20, 1969 – just an hour after the Apollo 11 spacecraft landed on the moon – Perry hit the first home run of his career.
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