Baseball legend Gaylord Perry dead

Now he’s flown away, too. Gaylord Perry has passed away, he was 84 years old. He left us a wonderful sentence: “The only problem with baseball is that it doesn’t play all year round.” Him aphorism that adds a sigh to the fact that he is gone on such a gloomy winter day. Perry pitched in MLB for 22 seasons. Twenty-two years as a pitcher, you understand, is a monstrous longevity. To be clearer he is someone who has 314 games won, 3.11 PGL average, with 3,534 strike outs. I mean he is at the top of all charts of all time. He won 2 Cy Youngs. Translated: in two seasons, in 1972 and 1978, he was the best pitcher in the league, the first time in American (Cleveland), the second in National (San Diego). To be honest, he was also someone who cheated a lot, put rubbish on the ball, especially vaseline. But they are details. And in any case they forgave him, they put him in the Hall of Fame, and in San Francisco no one will be able to wear the number 36 that will remain with him forever.

Patience

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Rather, Gaylord had another big problem: he was bad at bat. Considering that he made his MLB debut in 1962 and that the designated hitter was introduced in the American League in 1973, a big problem. Solved only in the second part of his career, in which he actually often played in American, with Cleveland, Texas, Yankees. So without the mishap of having to make appearances in the box. But for the whole first half he had been with the San Francisco Giants. Where therefore, as is done with pitchers – especially when they are great pitchers – they have been patient with his flaws in the box. The two episodes of this story date back to that period. The first is from 1964. One day, during batting practice, Gaylord doesn’t even look like him. He crashes out two or three. And then a journalist, Harry Jupiter, of the San Francisco Examiner, approaches the manager of the Giants, who is Alvin “Blackie” Dark and says: “I see it well today, Gaylord, he seems to have improved. Who knows if he doesn’t hit a home run ”. Because there is this, to say: that 1964 was already his third year in MLB, and no home runs, zero, not even one. Oh well, it’s not that pitchers were required home runs, either then or now, but anyway. So: “I see it well, today. He who knows, ”hopes Jupiter. Blackie Dark’s answer is memorable: “Listen to me, and remember my words well: we will send a man to the moon, before Gaylord Perry hits a home run”.

Everyone standing

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The second episode of the story has an exact date: July 20, 1969. The Los Angeles Dodgers arrive at Candlestick Park, at the time the (very windy) stadium of the San Francisco Giants. The starter for the Giants is Gaylord Perry, who, in his eighth season in the MLB, as per Blackie Dark’s prediction, has not yet hit a home run in his life. It is 1.17 pm in California when the fateful words arrive: “Houston, here Base of Tranquility, the Eagle has landed”. And then the first steps of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, ordinary for two men, gigantic for humanity. Between the top and bottom of the third inning, the announcer of Candlestick invites spectators to stand up, and to honor the astronauts, American heroes who are walking on the moon. Then comes Gaylord’s batting turn. The number 485 of his career, 485 without ever pulling it out once. About 35 minutes have passed since the moon landing, Claude Osteen shoots him a tip. And Gaylord, boom: home run. Wherever you are now, Gaylord, even on the moon, you will find a diamond.