MLB: Whitey Ford, Hall of Fame ace for mighty Yankees, dies at 91,
Pitcher won 236 games for New York
NEWYORK » During an era when the Yankees won the World Series so routinely it was joked that rooting for them was like rooting for General Motors, their ace pitcher owned the most fitting nickname: “The Chairman of the Board.”
Whitey Ford, the streetsmart New Yorker who had the best winning percentage of any pitcher in the 20th century and helped the Yankees become baseball’s perennial champions in the 1950s and ’60s, died Thursday night. He was 91.
The teamsaid Friday the Hall of Famer died at his Long Island home in Lake Success, New York, while watching the Yankees in a playoff game. His wife of 69 years, Joan, and family members were with him.
Ford had suffered from the effects of Alzheimer’s disease in recent years. His death was the latest this year of a number of baseball greats — Al Kaline, Tom Seaver, Lou Brock and Bob Gibson.
On a franchise long defined by power hitters, Ford was considered its greatest starting pitcher. Not big and not overpowering, the wily left-hander played in the majors from 1950- 67, all with the Yankees, and teamed with the likes of MickeyMantle, Joe DiMaggio and Yogi Berra to win six championships.
Fordwon 236 games and lost just 106, a winning percentage of .690. He would help symbolize the almost machinelike efficiency of the Yankees in the mid20th century, when only twice between Ford’s rookie year and 1964 did they fail to make the World Series.
The blond-haired Ford was nicknamed “Whitey” while still in the minor
leagues, and quickly reached themound at Yankee Stadium.
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. Ford still holds records for World Series games and starts (22), innings pitched (146), wins (10) and strikeouts (94).
Ford was in his mid-20s when he became the go-to guy inmanagerCasey Stengel’s rotation, the pitcher Stengel said he would always turn to if he absolutely needed to win one game. Ford was Stengel’s choice to pitch World Series openers eight times, another record.
Ford’s 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 YoungAwardand starredin theWorld Series. In 1963, he went 24-7, again leading the league in wins. Eight of his victories that season came in June.
Ford was 10- 8 with a
2.71 ERA overall in the
World Series. His final appearance there came in the 1964 opener when he lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, who went on take the title behind Gibson.
The Yankees signed Ford in 1947 and three years later he was called up in midseason. At just 5-foot10 and 180 pounds, Ford was viewed as a marginal prospect. But he won nine straight games and nailed down the 1950World Series sweep of Philadelphia by winning the fourth game, coming within one out of a complete game.
After two years away for military service during the KoreanWar— he remained stateside in the Army — Ford returned to the Yankees in 1953 and, alongwith Mantle became the core of a team that won 10 American League pennants and fiveWorld Series in the next 12 years. Fordwon 18 games in his first season back and never won fewer than 11 for 13 straight seasons.