RIP Whitey Ford

https://t.co/2KDi4V9SeA

 

The epitome of a crafty lefty. If there's a Copa or Danny's Hideaway in heaven there will a helluva party there tonite.

There are not many players left from that 1950s-mid-60s Yankee dynasty. Kubek and Richardson, I think Ralph Terry, maybe a few others.

 

Recommend his autobiography "Slick," which is in large part composed of anecdotes of Yankee roistering with celebrities of that era. I made this one up, but they're like "then one night in the men's room at Toots Shor's Mickey threw up on the Duke of Windsor."
And of course the great story in "Ball Four" that on nights he was gonna pitch, Ford would set up a table with a checkered tablecloth and a wine bottle with a candle in it in the bullpen and have meatball subs sent out there.

 

Seaver, Gibson and Ford in a matter of weeks. Damn.

 

Add Brock a while back.

 

The only Hall of Famer I ever met. He did a signing at my local mall in the spring of 2001.

RIP.

 

If it's the same book from the 1980s, yeah, I recommend it too.

I always liked the story of how, when he was in the minors, there was an amusement park near the team hotel. It was getting near curfew, but Whitey decided to ride the Ferris Wheel one more time, figuring there's enough time for him to ride and get back before the curfew. Only the Ferris Wheel guy kept the wheel going and wouldn't let him off, and was ignoring Whitey yelling at him to stop the ride Finally, he gets off, runs back to the hotel, where Lefty O'Doul, his manager was waiting. O'Doul fines him $25 (or whatever the amount was) for missing curfew.

Many years later, O'Doul and Whitey are at a banquet, and O'Doul gets on the stage and tells the story of how he saw Whitey get on the ride, and paid the Ferris Wheel guy $5 to keep the wheel going past curfew and laughs his ass off. Whitey yells at him, and demands that O'Doul pay him back the $50 that he had been fined. Still laughing, O'Doul pays him back the $50. Whitey then says he got the last laugh, as he had only been fined $25.

RIP.

 

Al Kaline

 

Some of the best stories in Ball Four were about Whitey doctoring the ball

 

He'll be #cancelburied because of "Whitey" ...

 

One of my favorite lines in a column was by Jim Murray playing in some charity golf tournament in the '60s in a foursome of which Ford was also a member. "Whitey plays golf just the way he pitches. Keeps it low and away."

 

You'd go about 150-12 with that rotation.