Whitey Ford

Baseball Player

• Born: October 21, 1928
• Birthplace: New York, New York
• Died: October 8, 2020
• Birthplace: Lake Success, New York

Sport: Baseball

Early Life

Edward Charles “Whitey” Ford was born on October 21, 1928, in New York’s Manhattan district. When he was only a year old, his parents, James and Edith Ford, moved to Long Island City, a section of the borough of Queens, where Whitey grew up. Long Island City had plenty of factories and working-class neighborhoods but little open land or recreational areas for children. Like many urban boys, young Whitey spent much of his leisure time at the Astoria Boys’ Club. In the 1930s, New York City supported three Major League Baseball teams. Whitey’s grandmother rooted for the Brooklyn Dodgers, but Whitey preferred the New York Yankees, a team that missed winning the American League (AL) pennant only once from 1936 to 1943.

The Road to Excellence

Whitey first played baseball at the Astoria Boys’ Club as a left-handed first baseman. Because the local high school had no baseball team, Whitey commuted to the Manhattan High School of Aviation Trades, where he continued playing first base until his senior year, when he began pitching. A 1945 tryout with the Dodgers lasted only one day, but after Whitey pitched his team to the New York Journal-American sandlot tournament championship the following summer, New York Yankees scout Paul Krichell told him he was a pitcher, not a first baseman. Signed to a Yankees minor-league contract in October of 1946, Whitey progressed steadily. He spent a year each at Butler, Pennsylvania; Norfolk, Massachusetts; and Binghamton, New York in the Yankees’ farm system, and began the 1950 season at Kansas City, then the Yankees’ top farm club.

In June, Whitey was called up to the Yankees. By this time, his total professional record was 51 wins, 20 losses. When he arrived at Yankee Stadium—a place he had idolized a previous generation of Yankee stars—he pitched like a veteran instead of a twenty-one-year-old rookie. Whitey posted a 9-1 record; then, with the Yankees leading the Philadelphia Phillies three games to none in the World Series, manager Casey Stengel started Whitey in the fourth game. He shut out the Phillies until the ninth inning, when a teammate’s error led to two runs, but Whitey won 5-2, and the Yankees captured the championship.

The Emerging Champion

The Yankees had to wait two years for more victories from Whitey. He, like a number of other athletes in the Korean War era, was called to military service and spent the 1951 and 1952 seasons at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. However, the Yankees had enough stars to win two more World Series in his absence.

In 1953, Whitey moved back into the Yankees’ starting rotation and resumed pitching as though he had never been away. In his first full season in the American League, he won 18 and lost 6 and followed with 16-8 and 18-7 records the next two seasons. Whitey was short for a major-league pitcher—only 5 feet 10 inches—but stocky and strong with a great curveball. Even more important, he seemed to possess an instinctive poise and confidence. He strode onto the baseball field as if he owned it.

Nevertheless, Whitey needed to improve his control; he had walked more than 100 batters in each of his first three seasons with the Yankees. He worked hard on his control and later remarked, “I never once felt I could afford to leave anything to chance. I always tr[ied] to make every pitch count.” Thereafter, he never walked 100 men again. The 1956 season was his best to that point. His .760 winning percentage led the league, his 19 wins were a personal high, and his 2.47 earned run average topped all other major-league pitchers.

Continuing the Story

The Yankees kept winning championships, and Whitey’s winning percentage, which dipped below .600 only once until late in his career, remained at or near the top of the league. He pitched in eleven World Series, the most of any pitcher in major-league history, and his ten series wins also set a record.

Despite all of Whitey’s success, he still had not won twenty games in a season. In 1961, he made up for that by compiling a record of 25-4. For his stellar performance, he was given the Cy Young Award. The previous fall, Whitey had hurled two straight shutouts over the Pittsburgh Pirates in the World Series. In 1961, against the Cincinnati Reds, he pitched his third and fourth consecutive World Series starts without yielding a run, although he had to retire after 6 innings in the final game with a sore ankle. By the time his scoreless streak ended after 33 straight innings in the 1962 series against the Giants, he had broken a forty-four-year-old record set by Babe Ruth.

In addition to his pitching, Whitey was also a good hitter and fielder. If he had a weakness, it was off the field. As one of his teammates once noted, Whitey “never ran away from a party.” At times, his carousing with Mickey Mantle and other Yankees teammates embarrassed the Yankees front office, but on the baseball diamond, Whitey never embarrassed anyone except opposing hitters.

During his last few seasons, circulatory problems in his arm forced him to pitch in pain. He retired in May 1967, when a large bone spur developed in his left elbow. Despite the pain, his earned run average for seven starts was a brilliant 1.64. He had won 236 games and lost only 106 in sixteen seasons. Whitey coached for the Yankees through 1968 and later became a Yankees scout. Along with his Yankees friend Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974. After Yogi Berra died in 2015, he became the oldest living Yankee in the hall of fame.

Summary

Whitey Ford’s winning percentage of .690 was among the best of all major-league pitchers who have completed substantial careers. He was fortunate to perform for a team that won the AL pennant eleven times, however, the Yankees as a team never matched Whitey’s .690 pace. Whitey was good and he knew it, but despite his cockiness, he never rested on his reputation. Every game was a new challenge for which he stood ready. He personified the success of the proud Yankees teams of the 1950s and early 1960s.

Bibliography

Cohen, Robert W. The Fifty Greatest Players in New York Yankees History. Lanham: Scarecrow, 2012. Print.

Coverdale, Miles. Whitey Ford: A Biography. Jefferson: McFarland, 2006. Print.

Ford, Whitey, and Phil Pepe. Few and Chosen: Defining Yankee Greatness across the Eras. Chicago: Triumph, 2001. Print.

Hickey, David, and Kerry Keene. The Proudest Yankees of All: From the Bronx to Cooperstown. Lanham: Taylor, 2003. Print.

Madden, Bill. Pride of October: What It Was to Be Young and a Yankee. New York: Warner, 2004. Print.

Staples, Billy, and Rich Herschlag. Before the Glory: Twenty Baseball Heroes Talk about Growing Up and How to Turn Hard Times into Home Runs. Deerfield Beach: Health, 2007. Print.