RIP Whitey Ford

RIP to one of the greats and a larger than life personality.

He was one of my favorite interviews ever. He was already in his 70s at the time, and I was warned that he was losing it a little and he sometimes got cranky, and I should try to get him on the phone and get what I needed quickly because it might go downhill fast.

I called, and it was the exact opposite of the warning I had gotten. He was funny, told me a story about Don Larsen's perfect game that I had never heard (and had nothing to do with why I called him), and I couldn't get the guy off the phone.

The Larsen story -- and you had to hear it in his voice, being told the way he told a story. ... was something like this (and I am going to screw it up):

In those days, Don didn't finish many games, and Casey was a little nervous about him . So they told me to get down to the bullpen and be ready, just in case.

So first inning, I was already down in the bullpen, and I got up to throw a few pitches. Same thing, second inning, third inning and so on.

In the old Yankee Stadium, you couldn't see the infield from the bullpen, especially when you were warming up.

Greatest game ever pitched, and I didn't get to see any of it!

 

Three speeds. Slow, slower and reverse.

But he was amazingly effective.

The whole "crafty lefty" thing is a cliche, but it was him.

Also, as great as his record and his winning percentage looks, keep in mind that Stengel held him back. He'd spend the whole season rearranging the rotation so that Ford only faced the better teams, which kept Ford from pitching as much as he could have. It wasn't until Ralph Houk took over relatively later in Ford's career that he got a chance to pitch every fourth day against whatever team was up next.