Bob Turley

At 82 years old, Bob Turley has this physical status:

Turley made his professional debut that year in Minor League Baseball with the Belleville Stags of the Class D Illinois State League, pitching to a 9–3 win–loss record. He was promoted to the Aberdeen Pheasants of the Class C Northern League in 1949, and led the league in wins with 23, and strikeouts with 205. He split the 1950 season with the Wichita Indians of the Class A Western League and the San Antonio Missions of the Class AA Texas League. Turley led Wichita in the Western League playoffs. In 1951, he played for San Antonio. He appeared in the Texas League's All-Star Game, and was named the league's most valuable player at the end of the season. He struck out 22 batters in one game for San Antonio.

Turley played his first game in the major leagues on September 29, 1951. He lost to the Chicago White Sox. He did not pitch again in 1951, and after the season ended, he enlisted with the United States Army for two years. Turley returned to the Browns in August 1953, and caught attention for his high strikeout rate. Turley remained with the team after they moved to Baltimore, Maryland, to become the Baltimore Orioles in 1954. He earned $9,000 ($90,814 in current dollar terms) for the 1954 season. He pitched the first game at Memorial Stadium, striking out nine in a complete game. A power pitcher, Turley recorded many strikeouts, but did not have great control. For the 1954 season, he led the American League in strikeouts with 185, but also led the league with 181 walks. That year, he earned comparisons to fellow fireballer Bob Feller, and finished in third place in balloting for the Hickok Belt, given to the professional athlete of the year.

While playing for the Orioles, Turley obtained the nickname "Bullet Bob". The magazine Look wrote a story about Turley, and wanted to measure the velocity of his fastball. They used a bullet timer from the Aberdeen Proving Grounds, which recorded a speed of 98 miles per hour (158 km/h) by the time it reached home plate.

Casey Stengel, the manager of the New York Yankees, sought to acquire Turley. The Yankees needed younger starting pitchers, as their rotation fell off due to the ages of Allie Reynolds, Eddie Lopat, Johnny Sain, Tommy Byrne, and Jim Konstanty. In order to acquire the hitting the Orioles decided they needed to compete, they traded Turley to the Yankees after the 1954 season. The Yankees received Turley, Billy Hunter, Don Larsen, and players to be named later, while the Orioles acquired Harry Byrd, Jim McDonald, Willy Miranda, Hal Smith, Gus Triandos, Gene Woodling, and players to be named later. To complete the trade, the Yankees sent Bill Miller, Kal Segrist, Don Leppert, and Ted Del Guercio to the Orioles, and the Orioles sent Mike Blyzka, Darrell Johnson, Jim Fridley and Dick Kryhoski to the Yankees. Comprising 17 players, this trade remains the largest in MLB history.

Turley played for the Yankees from 1955 to 1962. In the 1955 season, Turley won 17 games for the Yankees, and recorded 210 strikeouts, second to Herb Score (245). But, he also led the league in walks with 177. The Yankees won the American League pennant, and advanced to the 1955 World Series, where they faced the Brooklyn Dodgers. He pitched in Game Three of the 1955 World Series, losing to Johnny Podres. He also made two relief appearances in the series, in Games Five and Seven, as the Dodgers defeated the Yankees four games to three.

Turley had a disappointing season in 1956, with an 8–4 win–loss record and a 5.05 earned run average (ERA). However, the Yankees again won the American League pennant. Turley appeared in Games One and Two of the 1956 World Series against the Dodgers as a relief pitcher. Facing Clem Labine in Game Six, Turley pitched a complete game, but the Yankees lost the game by a 1–0 score. The Yankees defeated the Dodgers in Game Seven to win the series four games to three.

In the 1957 season, Turley developed a curveball. He finished the season with a 2.71 ERA, good for fourth-best in the American League. The Yankees won the pennant again. In the 1957 World Series against the Milwaukee Braves, Turley started Game Three, but was relieved by Larsen in the second inning. He won his first World Series game in Game Six, a complete game. The Yankees lost the series to the Braves, four games to three.

Fellow pitcher Sal Maglie wrote during 1958 spring training that Turley "ha[d] started to step off the mound when things get a little shaky, take a couple of deep breaths and then go back to work." Maglie thought this helped with Turley's self-control, a characteristic Maglie considered one of the three most essential to a successful pitcher.

By the 1958 season, Turley changed his delivery in an effort to improve his control, by using a no-wind up pitching position. His best season came in 1958, when he won 21 games and lost seven, for an American League-leading .750 winning percentage. He also led the American League with 19 complete games, and finished with the sixth-best ERA (2.97). However, his 128 walks also led the league. Turley started Game Two of the 1958 World Series by allowing up a leadoff home run and lasting just one-third of an inning as the Yankees fell behind the Milwaukee Braves two games to none. With the Yankees one game away from elimination, Turley threw a complete game shutout in Game Five. He then recorded a 10th-inning save in Game Six. A day later, in Game Seven, he relieved Don Larsen in the third inning and won his second game in three days, with 6+2⁄3 innings of two-hit relief. The Yankees became just the second team to recover from a 3–1 World Series deficit, and Turley was voted the World Series Most Valuable Player Award. As a result of his 1958 season, Turley won the Hickok Belt as top professional athlete of the year, receiving twice as many votes as Jim Brown, the second-place finisher. He also won the Cy Young Award as the best pitcher in Major League Baseball, edging Warren Spahn of the Braves by one vote, and Lew Burdette of the Braves and Bob Friend of the Pittsburgh Pirates by two votes. Turley finished second in the American League Most Valuable Player Award voting, losing to Jackie Jensen of the Boston Red Sox. Additionally, he won The Sporting News' Player of the Year and Pitcher of the Year Awards.

Turley earned a $35,000 salary for the 1959 season, his highest as a baseball player. The Yankees chose Turley to be their Opening Day starting pitcher for the 1959 season, opposing Tom Brewer of the Red Sox. The Yankees won the game by a 3–2 score. However, Turley's fastball began to lose its effectiveness. He increased the usage of his curveball to compensate. Turley finished the year with an 8–11 win–loss record. In the 1960 season, Turley had a 9–3 win–loss record, and his 3.27 ERA was the seventh best in the American League. He started Game Two of the 1960 World Series against the Pirates, earning the win. He also started the deciding Game Seven, which the Pirates won, taking the series.

Turley suffered through discomfort in his right elbow during the 1961 season, which resulted in a 3–5 win–loss record and 5.75 ERA in only 15 games pitched. New manager Ralph Houk began to emphasize his younger pitchers, as he removed Turley from the starting rotation and used him as a relief pitcher. Though the Yankees reached the 1961 World Series, and defeated the Cincinnati Reds four games to one, Turley did not make an appearance. After seeking medical attention, Turley was diagnosed with bone chips in his elbow. He underwent surgery in the offseason to remove the bone chips, and returned to the Yankees confident his performance would improve in 1962. He agreed to a salary cut, from $28,000 to $25,000. However, the bone chips recurred during the 1962 season. As a result, his effectiveness was limited in 1962 as well. On June 25, Turley started a game that lasted 22 innings, and a record seven hours, but was removed after recording only one out. During the 1962 season, American League players elected Turley as their player representative, following Woodling's trade to the National League. Over the season, Turley pitched to a 4.57 ERA in only 69 innings. The Yankees defeated the San Francisco Giants four games to three in the 1962 World Series, but Turley was not an active participant.

After the 1962 season, the Yankees sold Turley to the Los Angeles Angels for cash, in the first move made by new Yankees' general manager Roy Hamey, who sought to rebuild the Yankees pitching staff. The move was conditional; the Angels could return Turley if they were not satisfied with him. The Angels chose to retain Turley at the start of the 1963 season. Turley struggled, winning two games while losing seven, and the Angels released him in July. A week later, he signed with the Boston Red Sox. Turley retired after the 1963 season, with a 101–85 win–loss record and a 3.64 ERA in 12 seasons.

After the 1963 season, Turley agreed to remain with the Red Sox as their pitching coach, succeeding Harry Dorish. Turley spent one season as the Red Sox' pitching coach, and was released at the end of the year. He attempted to make a comeback as a pitcher with the Houston Colt .45s in 1965, but did not make the team. He then agreed to become the pitching coach for the Richmond Braves of the International League, a minor league team in the Atlanta Braves organization, in 1966, but resigned before the start of the 1966 season.

Turley got into the habit while on the bench of stealing signs when he saw the opposing pitcher throw. Using a system of whistling where be whistled if the next pitch was different from the last, he would attempt to help any Yankee who wanted the advice, with Johnny Blanchard and Elston Howard being appreciative of the help while Moose Skowron and Yogi Berra did not care. In one instance, Jim Bunning of the Detroit Tigers noticed the system and pointed to Turley to stop or he would knock down the batter (which happened to be Mickey Mantle). When Turley whistled anyway, he threw a missile in the middle of the box that Mantle missed on, which led to the next batter in Berra pleading that he wasn't listening to whistles. In 1961, even when he was on the injured list, he remained on the bench to do his system, and Tony Kubek estimated that Mickey Mantle his fifty homeruns in part due to Turley, and Mantle once credited half of his home runs to Turley. Roger Maris and his historic 61st home run was hit after the sign for the pitch was decoded by the third base coach, an acolyte of Turley's system.

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