Gaylord Perry Charity Autograph page

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Contact Information (where autograph requests should be mailed to):

Contact Person and/or Name of Organization _____________________________________________

Address: __________________________________________________________________________

Charity Information:

Name of charity or charities the donations go to __________________________________________

Signing Habits:

1) If you sign items for free, what are the maximum number of items you will sign for free? ___________

4) What can fans do to make it easier for you to sign their items? __________________________________________________________________

Donation Charges:

Item	Price	Item	Price
Cards		Flats up to 8x10
Flats up to 16x20		Baseballs/small footballs
Magazines		Flats larger than 16x20
Mini Helmets		Football/Basketball
Large Helmet		Bats
Jerseys		Inscriptions
Other _________		Other _________

Who should the check/money order be made out to: __________________________________________

Gaylord Perry's Message to the Fans

Biography

Gaylord Jackson Perry (born September 15, 1938 in Williamston, North Carolina) is a former right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball and a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Notorious for doctoring baseballs (throwing a spitball), Perry won 314 games over a 22-year career starting in 1962. A five-time All-Star, he was the first pitcher to win the Cy Young Award in each league, winning it in 1972 with the Cleveland Indians and in 1978 with the San Diego Padres. He is also distinguished, along with his brother Jim, for being the second-winningest brother combination in baseball history--second only to the knuckleballing Niekro brothers, Phil and Joe. While pitching for the Seattle Mariners, Perry defeated the New York Yankees on May 6, 1982 to become the fifteenth member of the 300 win club for pitchers, but the first since Early Wynn did it in 1963. In 1983, he became the third pitcher in the same year to surpass longtime strikeout king Walter Johnson's record of 3,509 strikeouts. Steve Carlton and Nolan Ryan were the others.

Despite Perry's notoriety for doctoring baseballs, and perhaps even more for making batters think he was throwing them on a regular basis--he even went so far as to title his 1974 autobiography Me and the Spitter--(co-authored by Cleveland baseball newspaper writer Bob Sudyk, ISBN 0841502994) he wouldn't be ejected for the illegal practice until August 23, 1982, in his 21st season in the majors. Perry also reportedly approached the makers of Vaseline about endorsing the product and was allegedly rebuffed with a one-line postcard reading, "We soothe babies' backsides, not baseballs." Former Manager Gene Mauch famously quipped "He should be in the Hall of Fame with a tube of KY Jelly attached to his plaque."

Like most pitchers, Perry was not renowned for his hitting ability, and in his sophomore season of 1963, he is said to have joked, "They'll put a man on the moon before I hit a home run." Other variants on the story say that someone else said it about him, but either way, on July 20, 1969, just minutes after the Apollo 11 spacecraft carrying Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon, Perry hit the first home run of his career.[1]

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Starting Pitcher

Born: September 15, 1938 (1938-09-15) (age 69)
Batted: Right Threw: Right
MLB debut
April 14, 1962
for the San Francisco Giants
Final game
October 2, 1983
for the Kansas City Royals
Career statistics
Win-Loss 314-265
ERA 3.11
Strikeouts 3534
Teams
San Francisco Giants (1962-1971)
Cleveland Indians (1972-1975)
Texas Rangers (1975-1977, 1980)
San Diego Padres (1978-1979)
New York Yankees (1980)
Atlanta Braves (1981)
Seattle Mariners (1982-1983)
Kansas City Royals (1983)

Career highlights and awards
All-Star (5): 1966, 1970, 1972, 1974, 1979
American League Cy Young Award 1972
National League Cy Young Award 1978

Member of the National
Baseball Hall of Fame
Elected 1991
Vote 77.2%

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Early life

Pitching style

Professional career

Minor leagues
Perry was signed by the San Francisco Giants on June 3, 1958 for $90,000, which was a big contract at the time. He spent 1958 with the St. Cloud, Minnesota team in Class A Northern League, compiling a 9-5 record and a 2.39 ERA. In 1959 he was promoted to the Class AA Corpus Christi Giants, where he posted a less impressive 10-11 record and 4.05 ERA. He remained with the team as they became the Rio Grande Valley Giants in 1960, and an improved ERA of 2.82 earned him a promotion to the Class AAA Tacoma Rainiers for the 1961 season. At Tacoma, he lead the Pacific Coast League in wins and inning pitched in 1961.[2]

He had a brief call-up to the Major Leagues in 1962, making his debut on April 14 against the Cincinnati Reds. He appeared in 13 games in 1962, but had a high 5.23 ERA and was sent back down to Tacoma for the remainder of the year.[2]

San Francisco Giants (1962-71)
After his brief call-up in 1962, Perry joined the Giants in 1963 to work mostly as a relief pitcher that year, posting a mediocre 4.03 ERA in 31 appearances. Nevertheless, in 1964 he was given the opportunity to join the starting rotation, finishing with a 2.75 ERA and a 12-11 record, both second best for the Giants that year behind Juan Marichal. In 1965 his record was 8-12, and with two full seasons as a starter, his 24-30 record attracted little national attention.[2]

Perry's breakout season came in 1966 with a tremendous start, going 20-2 into August. Perry and Marichal became known as a "1-2 punch" to rival the famous Koufax/Drysdale combination of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Perry played in his first All-Star game, but after August, he slumped the rest of the season, finishing 21-8, and the Giants finished second to the Dodgers. Marichal missed much of the 1967 season with a leg injury, and Perry was thrust into the role of team ace. While he finished the season with a disappointing 15-17 record, but had a low ERA and allowed only 7 hits per 9 innings pitched.[3]

At Candlestick Park on September 17, 1968, two days after his 30th birthday, Perry, pitched a 1-0 no-hitter over the St. Louis Cardinals and Bob Gibson. The lone run was on a home run by light-hitting Ron Hunt—the second of the only two he would hit the entire season. The very next day, the Cardinals returned the favor on the Giants on a 2-0 no-hitter by Ray Washburn—the first time in Major League history that back-to-back no-hitters had been pitched in the same series.[3]

In 1969, Perry led the league in innings, The Giants finished second in the pennant race for the fifth straight season. He took over as the Giants' ace in 1970, and lead the league both in wins (23) and innings pitched (328). Perry's strong 1970 performance salvaged the Giants season, helping them finish above .500 but in third place. In 1971, the Giants finally won their division, with Perry posting a 2.76 ERA. In what would be his only two postseason appearances, Perry won one game and lost the other against the Pittsburgh Pirates.[4]

Cleveland Indians (1972-75)
Before the 1972 season, the Giants traded the then 32-year-old Perry and shortstop Frank Duffy for 28-year-old flamethrower Sam McDowell. After that trade Perry went on to win 180 more games in his career while McDowell won only 24 more.

Perry went 24-16 in 1972 with a 1.92 ERA and 1 save, winning his first Cy Young award. He stood as the only Cy Young winner for Cleveland until 2007 (C. C. Sabathia). Perry continued as Cleveland's staff ace until 1975. He went 70-57 during his time in Cleveland, but the team never finished above 4th place. Perry accounted for 39% of all Cleveland wins during his tenure. Tensions between him and player-manager Frank Robinson led to Perry's trade to Texas in June 1975. Gaylord Perry remains as Cleveland's last 20-game winner (21 wins in 1974).

Texas Rangers (1975-77)

San Diego Padres (1978-79)
Before the 1978 season San Diego acquired Perry from Texas in exchange for middle reliever Dave Tomlin and $125,000. The 39-year old Perry wound up winning the Cy Young Award going 21-6 for San Diego while the 29-year-old Tomlin never pitched for Texas and pitched barely 150 innings the rest of his career.

New York Yankees (1980)

Atlanta Braves (1981)
While at the Atlanta Braves, Perry started 23 games (150.7 innings) and had a 8-9 record. [5]

Seattle Mariners/Kansas City Royals (1982-83)
Gaylord won his 300th game as a Seattle Mariner on May 6, 1982.

Post-playing career
Perry retired in 1983 after pitching for eight teams (the San Francisco Giants, Cleveland Indians, Texas Rangers, San Diego Padres, New York Yankees, Atlanta Braves, Seattle Mariners and Kansas City Royals). It was during his time with Seattle that he kicked noted Second City actor Jim Zulevic out of a late night party in a Chicago hotel.

In 1986, Gaylord Perry was chosen by Limestone College in Gaffney, SC to be the College’s first baseball coach. Perry was there until 1991 when he retired.[6]

Despite his admission of illegal pitches he was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1991 and was nominated as a finalist for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. In 1999 The Sporting News ranked him 97th on their list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players.

On July 23 2005 the San Francisco Giants retired his uniform number 36.

Pitching statistics
Perry is one of four pitchers to win the Cy Young for both the American and National League (Pedro Martínez, Roger Clemens, & Randy Johnson being the others). He held the record for most consecutive 15-win season since 1900 with 13 (1966-1978) and was 2nd all-time to Cy Young, who had 15 (1891-1905). Greg Maddux surpassed both men, with 17 in a row (1988-2004).

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References
1^ On the validity of the man on the moon comment
2^ a b c MacKay, Joe (2003). The Great Shutout Pitchers: Twenty Profiles of a Vanishing Breed. McFarland & Company, 177-178.
3^ a b MacKay, 179
4^ MacKay, 180
5^ Gaylord Perry Statistics - Baseball-Reference.com
6^ Limestone College | Template

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Source: Wikipedia.org at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaylord_Perry

Gaylord Perry

Contact Information (where autograph requests should be mailed to):

Charity Information:

Signing Habits:

Donation Charges:

Gaylord Perry's Message to the Fans

Biography

Send mail to thedigitalauthor@aol.com with questions or comments about this web site. Last modified: 05/09/08

Send mail to thedigitalauthor@aol.com with questions or comments about this web site.
Last modified: 05/09/08