Monday, May 12, 2008

Whitey Ford

Whitey Ford was one of the well-known baseball players for New York Yankees. He was born as Edward Charles Ford on October 21, 2008 and he grew up in Astoria, in New York. He got the name Whitey in the minor league because of his hair.

He played for four years in the minor league before the New York Yankees recruited him. His first game in the MLB for the Yankees on July 1, 1950, and he stayed with them in his whole life as a baseball player. The biography on Yankee Hall of Famer Whitey Ford shows that he played actively with his team from 1950-1967.

At some point, he had a two-year stint in the army during the Korean War in 1952-1953. Then he reunited with the Yankees and became one of the “Big Four” pitchers with Eddie Lopat, Allie Reynolds, and Vic Raschi.

His name is synonymous to a high winning percentage because of his high winning percentage in his career. According to the Baseball Almanac, Whitey Ford is one of the top four all-time Major League Pitchers. He batted left and threw left, and he still ranks close to the top of the list when it comes comparing left-handed pitchers in the history of Major League Baseball. He has a win-loss record of 236-106, an earned run average of 2.75 and 1,956 strikeouts.

You can see in the biography on Yankee Hall of Famer Whitey Ford that he had recorded 14 continuous winning seasons and was ranked first in World Series history with 10 wins and 94 strikeouts. He took his leave in 1967 to due a sore arm and later on served as the Yankees pitching coach and spring-training instructor. He was chosen to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974.