"The man they call the Chairman of the Board, Whitey Ford, racked up another strong season to add to his superlative career. He was a 17-6 winner in '64, with team highs in complete games (12), shutouts (eight) and ERA (2.13). Then his arm became lame during the Series, and Whitey had postseason surgery on it to unblock the flow of blood in the arm. If all is normal again this season, he should resume his assault on the record books. His 216-84 record for 13 seasons represents the best percentage among active hurlers."
-Jack Zanger, Major League Baseball 1965
"Despite a series of ailments that would have sidetracked a lesser man, Edward Charles (Whitey) Ford of the New York Yankees finished the 1964 season with a 17-6 record, including eight shutouts and a 2.13 earned run average. Whitey was sailing along with a ten-game winning streak when a hip injury sidelined him in mid-July. Back in action a month later, the Yankees' ace left-hander suffered a bruised heel in mid-September but continued to take his usual turn on the mound.
Ford started the first game of the World Series but it was obvious he didn't have his usual stuff. The Cardinals knocked him out of the box in the sixth stanza and went on to win the game, 9-5. The 36-year-old southpaw sat out the rest of the Series, his inactivity blamed on his injured heel. Actually, Whitey was suffering from a circulation blockage in his pitching arm, a condition that a post-season operation in Houston may have cured.
The full return won't be in until later this spring but the Yankee front office is betting Ford will be as effective as ever in 1965. Said Whitey before the operation, 'I think I can pitch two or three more years, maybe even some relief.'
In 1960 Ford won only 12 games and lost nine - although he added another pair of victories in the World Series. Faced with something of a career crisis, the southpaw developed a slider. 'I really needed that slider,' he recalls. 'The slider definitely has added years to my career.'
That career has seen he native New Yorker win 216 games and lose only 84 - the best winning percentage in history for a pitcher with 100 or more wins. 'I always try to make every pitch count,' says Ford.
A keen student of pitching, Whitey also served as Yankee pitching coach in 1964, a post he has since relinquished. Good-natured off the field, Ford is all business on the mound. 'On the day I pitch, it's me against the other guys. Nothing is funny to me then,' he admits."
-1965 Official Baseball Almanac
"Yankee fans have joined with club management in hoping that there will be a Ford in the Yanks' future as well as in the past. The great dean of the New York pitching staff underwent surgery early last winter to correct a circulatory blockage. His valued left arm was not cut, but the nerves under the arm have been cut to allow for increased circulation. In spring training Whitey seemed sure the sudden injury last fall had been corrected.
The popular blond left-hander holds more pitching records than any Yankee hurler in history. His 216 wins against only 84 career losses at the start of the 1965 season gave Whitey a .720 percentage, the highest won-lost mark in baseball history since 1900, for pitchers with 100 or more wins. He has recorded more shutouts (42) and strikeouts (1730) than any Yankee pitcher ever and his whitewash total currently is more than that of any other active American Leaguer. His 33.2 consecutive shutout innings in World Series play is probably his most remarkable record.
Edward Charles Ford came up to the Yankees in 1950 and posted a 9-1 record. Eight times he has recorded an earned run average under the 3.00 standard of excellence and has a career 2.73 ERA going into the season.
Last season Whitey doubled as pitching coach, but he relinquished the post to concentrate on pitching. What a career it has been ... and still will be!"
-The New York Yankees Official 1965 Yearbook
"A workmanlike artist of the stellar category of a Whitey Ford is always watched closely, but the veteran southpaw will be scrutinized even more closely this season due to the surgery he underwent this past winter.
Bothered by poor blood circulation in his salary wing, Ford had an operation in order to cut some shoulder nerves to allow the blood to circulate more freely to his left arm. According to the surgeon who performed the operation in a Houston hospital, Ford came through successfully and should be his normal self on the mound during 1965.
In recent years, though Whitey has compiled some extremely enviable mound marks, he has been almost continuously troubled by some sort of arm or shoulder woes. Therefore, it could well be that the arm operation will see a vastly improved Ford in a physical sense, which would, of course, make him an even more effective pitcher despite the fact that he is 36 years of age.
Whitey began the 1964 training season as a pitcher-coach under fledgling pilot Yogi Berra. Ford hurled the regular season opener against the Boston Red Sox, bowing in a 10-inning affair, but late in the game, the ace lefty felt some pain in his hip but shrugged off as one of those things, especially when he reeled off 10 straight victories (six of them shutouts) over the next two months. However, the hip began to bother Whitey more and more, finally incapacitating him by the middle of July.
After deep X-ray treatment of what was finally diagnosed as a calcium deposit in the hip joint, the condition cleared up and Ford was able to resume his mound role in the latter part of August. Then on September 13, Whitey bruised his right heel while beating out an infield hit. He was forced from the game after the fourth inning and was bothered by the injury although it did not sideline him for the remainder of the regular season.
Ford started the opening game of the World Series against the Cards and was knocked out in the sixth inning. He failed to make any more appearances in the seven-game set. The Yankees said his heel had been re-injured. The true cause of Ford's being shelved was numbness in his pitching arm, which Whitey began to feel after the first game.
Ford compiled a 17-6 record with a fine 2.13 earned run mark during 1964, best marks on the Bomber staff. Whitey now has a career record of 216 triumphs and 84 losses, a percentage of .720, which just happens to be the all-time record for any major league pitcher with 100 or more wins.
Whitey has been a member of the 20-win club twice during his Yankee career, finishing with 25-4 in 1961 and 24-7 in 1963. He also has led the A.L. in earned run average twice, with 2.47 in 1956 and 2.01 in 1958.
Ford has accomplished many feats during his fine career in the majors since he was called up by the Bombers from Kansas City in the middle of the 1950 campaign, but nothing would please him, or his many followers, more than a continuation of them via a renewed vigor in a strong left arm in '65."
-Jay Publishing 1965 New York Yankees Yearbook
Played sandlot ball in New York with Police Athletic League.
Attended Manhattan Aviation High School.
Signed by Yankee organization, October 4, 1946.
Pitched two consecutive 1-hitters, September 2 and September 7, 1955.
Tied American League record, most consecutive strikeouts (6) vs. 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, most consecutive scoreless innings (33.2), 1960-1961-1962, 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, 1955, 1961, 1963.
Led Yankees and was third in American League in ERA (2.13), 1964.
Tied Yankee record, most shutouts, season (8), 1964, also held by Russ Ford, 1910.
Underwent surgery for a circulatory blockage in his left shoulder, October 1964.
Has winning percentage of .720 (216-84), lifetime, highest among all pitchers with 100 or more wins since 1900.
Has most shutouts (42) by any Yankee pitcher, lifetime.
Has most shutouts by any active American League pitcher, lifetime.
Has most strikeouts (1,730) by any Yankee pitcher, lifetime.
Has most World Series wins (10), lifetime.
Has most World Series games started (22), lifetime.
Has most World Series strikeouts (94), lifetime.
-1965 New York Yankees Press-TV-Radio Guide
DRY HUMOR
"Whitey Ford has discovered an unexpected dividend from his shoulder surgery, which resulted in the loss of the sweat glands under his expensive left arm. 'I can now get ten days,' he brags, 'out of a five-day deodorant pad.' "
-Mickey Herskowitz in the Houston Post (Baseball Digest, July 1965)
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