"The leader of all active pitchers in earned run average and won-lost percentage is Whitey Ford, who hit a personal high of 25 triumphs in '61. He has a 158-63 record for an incredible .715 figure. Intelligent and alert on the mound, he has a well-controlled repertoire of all the bread-and-butter pitches. Whitey set the Series mark for consecutive scoreless innings (32) and has more Series triumphs than all others. He worked the most innings (283), started the most games (39) and was second-best in strikeouts (209) last year
Whitey was born in New York City."
-Don Schiffer, The 1962 Major League Baseball Handbook
"The season of 1961 was a great and dramatic one for the New York Yankees. Not the least of the many notable accomplishments of last season was the performance of the dean of the pitching staff, Ed 'Whitey' Ford. Sometimes statistics are dry, but no biography of Whitey Ford could possibly tell his story without recounting these remarkable 1961 feats.
He won 14 consecutive games to tie the Yankee mark set by the late Jack Chesbro in 1904. He pitched the most innings, won the most games and had the highest won-lost percentage of any pitcher in either major league. He won the coveted Cy Young Award as baseball's foremost pitcher of the year. In addition, he won the Corvette as the Most Valuable Player in the World Series, awarded by SPORT Magazine [Babe Ruth Award] for his record-breaking feat of running his consecutive shutout innings streak to a still-unbroken 32 (embracing the 1960 and '61 Series).
That was just his 1961 record. The blond left-hander from the sidewalks of New York was the recipient of a rare 'day' in his honor last September 9 for his accomplishments in prior years. Ford has the best won-lost percentage and lowest earned run average of any pitcher in baseball and ranks at or near the top among all pitchers in history. Going into the 1962 season, Ford had won 158 games and lost only 63 for a .715 percentage with a remarkable 2.76 ERA.
He has won more World Series games (9) than any other pitcher, has made more starts (16) and has the most strikeouts (70).
With all these records, Whitey is still the same popular ball player with a keen sense of humor he was when he came up to the Yankees as a 21-year-old rookie in 1950. Today he is the Yankee player representative."
-The New York Yankees Official 1962 Yearbook
Pitched two consecutive 1-hitters, September 2 and September 7, 1955.
Named No. 1 American League Pitcher by The Sporting News, 1955.
Tied American League record by fanning six men in a row against Kansas City, July 20, 1956.
Struck out 15 men in 14 innings in 1-0 win over Washington, April 22, 1959.
Tied Yankee record for most consecutive wins (14), 1961, also held by Jack Chesbro, 1904.
Winner of Cy Young Award, 1961.
Named World Series Most Valuable Player [Babe Ruth Award] by Sport Magazine, 1961.
Holds World Series record [still active], most consecutive scoreless innings (32.0), 1960-1961, including three shutouts: 10-0 and 12-0 against Pirates in 1960 and 2-0 against Reds in 1961.
Named No. 1 American League Pitcher by The Sporting News, 1961.
Has most World Series wins (9), lifetime.
Has most World Series games started (16), lifetime.
Has most World Series strikeouts (70), lifetime.
-1962 New York Yankees Press-TV-Radio Guide
"The Yankees' veteran lefty made a clean sweep of pitching honors last season and was the recipient of the Cy Young Memorial Award as the Major Leagues' outstanding hurler.
Now 33 years old and in his eleventh campaign with the World's Champs, Ford was picked on nine of the 17 ballots cast by the special committee of the Baseball Writers' Association of America for the Young Award.
During the 1961 season, Ford topped the majors in wins with 25 and now owns a fantastic 158-63 lifetime record. His .715 lifetime percentage is tops in the majors as was his .862 (25-4) for last season.
The 5'10" New Yorker started 39 contests for the Bombers and worked a total of 283 innings. During this time he allowed 242 hits, walked 92, struck out 209 and permitted 101 earned runs for a 3.21 ERA.
The 209 "Ks" was the second-highest total in the American League and marked a personal high for the stylish southpaw. Whitey's previous high had been 145 in 1958 (and his minor league high was 171 with Norfolk back in 1948).
Ford was signed by the Bombers after having missed as a first baseman. They sent him to Butler in 1947, Norfolk in '48, Binghamton in '49 and Kansas City in '50. He had a 6-3 mark with the American Association Blues when he was recalled by New York during the summer of '50. All Whitey did after joining the Yanks was reel off nine straight wins, before dropping a relief assignment, and pick up credit for the final game in the Bombers' sweep during the World Series against the Philadelphia Whiz Kids.
Uncle Sam interrupted and Ford spent the next two seasons in the Army.
In his first full season following his discharge, Whitey posted an 18-6 record. He duplicated his win total in 1955 (when he tied for most victories in the AL) and hurled a pair of back-to-back one-hitters in September. The Sporting News selected him as the top pitcher for the Junior Circuit for the '55 campaign.
Whitey reached 19 wins (and led the league with a .760 won and lost percentage) in 1956. His 2.47 earned run average was the lowest in the loop and his six consecutive strikeouts in a game against Kansas City tied an AL record.
Ford repeated as the AL's ERA champ by posting a 2.01 mark in 1958, and in 1959 he fanned 15 Senators while hurling a 14-inning shutout.
Whitey climaxed his fantastic '61 campaign, after a disappointing 1960 season when he was only 12-9, with a record-shattering performance in the World Series.
During the Fall Classic, Ford shut out the Cincinnati Reds in the first game and added five more zeroes in the fourth game (before leaving the contest) to run his string of shutout innings to 32. The old mark, 29 2/3 innings, was held by the late Babe Ruth when he was hurling for the Boston Red Sox.
In 16 post season contests, Ford has worked a total of 109 innings and has won nine games while dropping four. He posted a pair of shutouts against Pittsburgh in the '60 Series and has a lifetime Series ERA of less than two earned runs per game.
The nine triumphs in Series play are the greatest number ever recorded by a hurler. A pair of former Yankee right-handers, Red Ruffing and Allie Reynolds, had shared the old mark with seven each.
Whitey is a fine glove man and his pick-off motion is one of the finest in the game. He also is a better-than-average batter for a pitcher and came through with 17 hits last season, good for 10 runs batted in.
During the off-season, Ford is a broker. He makes his home, along with his attractive wife and three youngsters, in Lake Success, N.Y.
Yankee fans honored their top hurler by giving him a day last season. Among the gifts was a large pack of Lifesavers and in the pack was Luis Arroyo, certainly a lifesaver in his short term with the Bombers.
The lefty signed for a reported $50,000 this season, thus making him the highest paid Yankee moundsman of all time.
If Whitey can repeat or come close to his '61 performance in 1962, there will be another pennant flying over Yankee Stadium next season."
-The 1962 Jay Publishing New York Yankees Yearbook
FORD NEARS WON-LOST, ERA PITCHING RECORDS
"Whitey Ford's remarkable 1961 record of 25 victories and only four losses brought his lifetime won-lost mark to 158 wins and 63 losses for a .715 percentage, only two points the record .717 set by former Yankee Spud Chandler. But Ford's figure already is tops among all-time pitchers winning 150 or more games.
Ford's lifetime earned run average of 2.76 also approaches the best mark by a pitcher for his career. Among active hurlers, the ace Yankee lefty is tops in both categories.
Whitey, in gaining his first 20-game-plus season in 1961, also won the coveted Cy Young Award as the top pitcher in the majors. Bob Turley took the honor in 1958. The veteran southpaw from the sidewalks of New York, and now a resident of Lake Success, also won the Babe Ruth Award as the outstanding performer in the 1961 World Series. In that classic, he extended his still intact consecutive scoreless innings streak to 32, breaking Babe Ruth's longstanding record of 29.2."
-1962 New York Yankees Official Program and Scorecard
"In the din of the Year of Homers, there was a tendency to overlook the fact that Mr. Ford won 25 games and lost but four, extended his World Series string of scoreless innings to 32 (breaking Babe Ruth's mark) and otherwise had the most fabulous year in his decade as the outstanding left-hander of the New York Yankee mound staff."
-Tom Gallery (Director of Sports for NBC), NBC Complete Baseball 1962
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