The crafty Yankees pitcher who won six World Series

Whitey Ford was the greatest starting pitcher to ever put on the New York Yankees pinstripes. A standout member of the Bronx Bombers in the 1950s and ’60s—no mean feat considering the dynasty included such legends as Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, and Yogi Berra—the street-smart New Yorker helped turn the Yankees into perennial champions. Known as the “Chairman of the Board” for his steely resolve, the 10-time All-Star won 10 World Series games—still a Major League record—and once threw a record 33 ² ³ consecutive World Series innings of scoreless pitching. A swaggering southpaw who relied on craftiness, Ford believed three ingredients made a successful pitcher. “Arm and heart are assets,” he said, “head a necessity.”

Edward Charles Ford grew up in the New York City borough of Queens, where his father ran a bar, said The New York Times. As a high school senior, Ford attended a tryout at Yankee Stadium and was told he had a powerful pitching arm. After a summer throwing balls with “a Queens sandlot team,” he signed with the Yankees in 1946. Nicknamed “Whitey” for his light blond hair, Ford went 9-1 during his “stellar rookie season in 1950” and won the decisive Game 4 of the World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies, said The Washington Post. He was drafted into the Army in 1951 and spent his two years of service at Fort Monmouth, N.J., where he starred on the post’s baseball team. “Army life was rough,” he joked. “They actually wanted me to pitch three times a week.”

Ford had an average fastball, said the New York Post, and relied on curveballs, sliders, and—he later admitted—spitballs and other unsanctioned pitches. He’d use turpentine, resin, baby oil, and dirt to sharpen his breaking pitches, and cut the ball with a “specially designed ring.” A scientist on the diamond, he was often wild off it. Yankees manager Casey Stengel called Ford, Mantle, and Billy Martin the “Three Musketeers” for their late nights on the town, one of which went famously wrong in 1957. Celebrating Martin’s 29th birthday at Manhattan’s Copacabana club, Ford and his teammates got in a brawl that left a patron with a broken nose. The players were fined over the headline-making scrap, and Martin was traded to Kansas City.

“Ralph Houk replaced Stengel in 1961,” said The Wall Street Journal, and the new skipper didn’t bother trying to preserve his ace. Without innings restrictions, Ford posted a 25-4 record that year, winning the American League Cy Young Award. But in the 1964 World Series opener, Ford developed numbness in his left hand, the result of a blocked artery. Circulatory and elbow problems dogged him until 1967, when he walked off the mound midgame. Ford retired with six World Series rings and a career 2.75 earned run average, the best of any starter that century with 200plus wins. He remained one of the biggest draws at Old-Timers’ Day. “I’ve been a Yankee for 53 years,” he told fans in 2000, “and I’ll be a Yankee forever.”