RIP Whitey Ford, 1928-2020

[G-Fafif]

Whitey Ford https://nypost.com/2020/10/09/whitey-ford-yankees-hall-of-famer-dead-at-91/amp/https://nypost.com/2020/10/09/whitey-ford-yankees-hall-of-famer-dead-at-91/amp/

I think they've run out of certified MFY legends who predate my baseball consciousness and I therefore hold no instinctive animus toward (save for the affiliation). I'd watch MFY OTD ceremonies for the sight of the immortals I never saw, except as immortals. It was sad to realize after a while Ford was the last of them.



I've maintained a soft spot for Whitey Ford ever since my father, born three months later, told me he watched Ford in high school pitch against his high school. Ford's Queens accent was a lot thicker than my dad's, though. Or as we say around here, what accent?

Edited October 9, 2020 by Guest

[Edgy MD]

I was glad he survived being brutally pelted with pretzels at the Springfield Isotopes game.



[YOUTUBE]PwO26G_ktrk[/YOUTUBE]

[Benjamin Grimm]

He had a restaurant near where I lived when I was a kid. Whitey Ford's Colonie Hill in Hauppauge. I never ate there, but we used to go sledding at Colonie Hilll (I think it was a golf course) and I'd see the signs for the restaurant.

[Edgy MD]

Whitey at Shea:



[fimg=600]https://metsrostercentral.files.wordpress.com/2020/10/whitey.jpg[/fimg]



[FIMG=720]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EeggsPEXsAE2RfI?format=png&name=medium[/FIMG]



[FIMG=600]https://cdn.nexternal.com/collectics/images/otd74.jpg[/FIMG]



Standing behind Whitey in the first shot, obscured by the jersey in his arm, could that be Claire Ruth?

[MFS62]

My two memories of him:

1) On Saturdays, my friend and I would go bowling at the alleys on Northern Boulevard (around 256th Street) and saw Whitey bowling there many times. We were National League fans (Me - Post Brooklyn, rooting for the Reds, my friend - Pirates) so we didn't fawn all over him like the other kids did. But I remember he bowled right handed because he didn't want to take a chance injuring his pitching arm. He was a pretty good bowler, too.

2) My friend and I went to the 1960 All-Star Game (it was the second one that year) in New York at YS I. Whitey was the losing pitcher for the AL and Pirate great Roberto Clemente hit a home run off him and Pirate pitcher Vern Law was the winner.



Later

[Frayed Knot]

It seems like those mid-century Yanqui legends and all-stars either died young [Mantle, Maris, Mercer, Ellie Howard] or lived real long [DiMag, Rizzuto, Ford, Berra].

And if you want to stretch the time out you can throw Ruth & Gehrig into that first group. Or Don Larsen who died at 90 back on New Years Day and whose perfecto was 64 years ago yesterday.

I'm sure there are a bunch of in between guys too but of course those don't stand out.

[Frayed Knot]

So Whitey had been the oldest living H-o-F'er

Might that designation now fall to Willie?

[Frayed Knot]

Frayed Knot wrote: So Whitey had been the oldest living H-o-F'er Might that designation now fall to Willie?

Answer: Lasorda is older but Willie appears to be the oldest living player in Cooperstown.

[Edgy MD]

Hey, Lasorda played.



I mean, he Lasorda played.

[Edgy MD]

Among Seaver, Gibson, and Ford, that's the winning pitcher in 798 games that has died since August 31.



In fact, add in Ron Perranoski and others, I think it comes to 883 winners.



It's also 31 All-Star Games.