FOX Sports presents "The Boys in the Hall," a series featuring
interviews with legendary members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Check your local listings on May 20 for showings of "The Boys In The
Hall" featuring Whitey Ford.
It was a hot, muggy day in 1963 at old Al Lopez Field in Tampa, Fla, the spring training home of the Cincinnati Reds, and rookie Pete Rose was batting while New York Yankees Whitey Ford and Mickey Mantle were sitting in the sun deepening their tans.
"The way to make coaches think you are in shape in the spring is to get a tan," Ford once said.
Rose drew a walk and sprinted full-bore to first base. Sensing that the kid was displaying false enthusiasm, Ford turned to Mantle and said, "Who does that kid think he is, Charlie Hustle?"
And the name stuck on Rose, who hustled the same way for the 23 years of his playing career and was forever known as Charlie Hustle.
That's what made Hall of Fame pitcher Whitey Ford unique. In addition to being one of baseball's all-time best left-handed pitchers, Ford was deadly honest.
He never hesitated to smile and admit he, uh, did a few over-the-top things on the mound to gain an edge, an edge he probably didn't really need.
Ford went 264-106 during his 16-year career, all with the Yankees, and his .690 winning percentage is the third best all-time for pitchers with more than 1,000 innings.
Ford admitted that at times he sharpened the diamond on his wedding ring to scuff the baseball. When umpires caught on, he sharpened his belt buckle to nick the ball. When that was detected, his catcher, Elston Howard, sharpened the buckles on his shin guards and did the dirty deed for Ford.
And Ford came up with a concoction to apply to the baseballs he called gunk -- baby oil, turpentine and resin.
Ford also admitted he scuffed one baseball in the 1962 All-Star Game in San Francisco's Candlestick Park.
As the story goes, Ford and Mantle ran up a $1,200 bill at a country club of which San Francisco Giants owner Horace Stoneham was a member. Stoneham told Ford, "If you strike out Willie Mays in the All-Star Game, I'll take care of the bill."
So Ford did some doctoring of the baseball and whiffed Mays. Debt paid.
"I didn't cheat until later in my career when I needed something extra to survive," he said. "I didn't cheat when I won the 25 games in 1961. I don't want anybody to get any ideas about taking away my Cy Young Award. And I didn't cheat in 1963 when I won 24 games. Well, maybe a little."
The 1961 season was magical for Ford and the Yankees. The attention was paid to Mantle and Roger Maris, who were neck-and-neck in a chase for Babe Ruth's record of 60 home runs in a season. Maris broke the record with 61 and Mantle hit 54.
Meanwhile, Ford was nearly unbeatable. He went 25-4 and won his only Cy Young. The '61 Yankees, considered one of baseball's all-time best teams, won 109 games, then took out the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series in five games.
Ford won two of the four games, didn't give up an earned run in 14 innings and was the World Series MVP.
It was in World Series games that Ford was at his best. Over his 16 seasons, the Yankees were in the World Series 11 times and he pitched in them all.
"You kind of took it for granted around the Yankees that there would always going to be baseball in October," Ford said.
But he didn't take anything for granted on the mound. He started 22 World Series games, he won 10, he lost 8 -- all World Series records. In the eight games he lost, the Yankees scored 18 total runs and were shut out twice.
Amazingly, during his time with the Yankees, they played in seven World Series that went to a seventh game, but Ford never pitched in any seventh game.
His rookie year was 1950 and he won his first nine decisions, making him 9-0 before he lost a game, and that was in relief. Then Uncle Sam came calling and he was shipped to Korea for two years. Despite pitching less than a half a season in 1950, he received several MVP votes and he was Rookie of the Year.
"The Army was hard," Ford said after he came out. "They expected me to pitch three times a week."
Ford's off-the-field shenanigans with Mantle and Billy Martin were legendary and manager Casey Stengel dubbed the threesome "The Whiskey Slicks."
Of his extra-curricular activities, Ford once said, "Hell, if I didn't drink or smoke, I'd win 20 games every year. It's easier when you don't drink or smoke or horse around."
He finally gave up smoking late in his career and a doctor told him, "When you feel like a cigarette, stand behind a bus when it pulls away and breathe in the diesel fumes and you'll feel like you're smoking."
Ford's nickname was Chairman of the Board and it was common for Stengel to hold back Ford from his regular turn to face the toughest teams. He never started more than 30 games from 1953 to 1960 under Stengel, and never won 20 games, winning 19 once and 18 twice.
When Ralph Houk took over the Yankees in 1961, he told Ford, "I won't hold you back. You'll be in the regular rotation, no matter what."
So Ford started 39 games and went 25-4. In 1953, he started 37 games and was 24-7 with a 2.74 ERA.
Ford, who never threw hard and relied on guile that consisted of location and changing speeds, was not afraid to challenge hitters.
"You'd be amazed how many outs you can get by working the count to where the hitter is sure you are going to throw to his weakness," said Ford. "And then you throw to his power instead and he is so surprised you get him out."
Ford never pitched a no-hitter, but pitched back-to-back one-hitters and twice struck out six batters in a row, although he wasn't known as a strikeout pitcher.
And of his illegal pitches, he smiles and says, "I never threw the spitter. Well, maybe once or twice when I really needed to get an out real bad."
Mantle, Ford's running mate as well as a loyal teammate, once said of Ford, "I don't care what the situation was, how high the stakes were -- the bases could be loaded and the pennant riding on the next pitch -- it never bothered Whitey Ford. He pitched his game. He was cool. He was crafty. Nerves of steel."
