1978 AMERICAN LEAGUE ALL-STAR
"After a horrible spring training (an ERA over 10), he emerged as the Yankees' most consistent starter. Guidry could be the next pitching superstar in the American League. He has a super arm, his fastball is timed at 96 MPH and he has remarkable strength for his size.
Born in Lafayette, Louisiana, Ron is a great all-around athlete who helps himself in the field and is used as a pinch runner.
'We always knew he had a great arm,' says Billy Martin. 'It was just a matter of him gaining the confidence. A lot of people thought he was a seven-inning pitcher and maybe he began believing it, too. He had to learn he could finish games.' He completed nine and tied for second in the league with five shutouts."
-Phil Pepe, The Complete Handbook of Baseball, 1978 Edition
"It was a year of firsts for Ron Guidry, who became the most pleasant surprise on the Yankees' pitching staff last season.
Ron picked up his first major league win in April ... he got his first complete game and shutout in June ... he was the first starting pitching named in the MVP balloting ... and he was the first left-handed starter named in the Cy Young voting.
All of this occurred in Guidry's first full big league season; which led, naturally, to his pitching on his first World Championship team. And pitch he did! Ron tied for the staff lead in wins and led the Yankee pitchers down the stretch when he won 10 of his final 12 decisions. He followed that with two wins in as many decisions in postseason play.
Despite being only 5-11, 161 pounds, Guidry is an extremely hard thrower and had the second best strikeout per game ratio in the league in 1977. He runs fast as well and was called upon as a pinch runner many times during the season.
It took the 27-year-old Louisiana native a while to make it to the majors full time, but Guidry, the Yankees, and the Stadium fans agree it was all worth the wait."
-The New York Yankees Official 1978 Yearbook
"It was a year of firsts for Ron Guidry, who became the most pleasant surprise on the Yankees' pitching staff last season. Ron picked up his first major league win in relief on April 13 against Kansas City. He got his first complete game and his first shutout in a 7-0 blanking of the Royals on June 16.
Ron, who had his problems in spring training, basically held the Yankee pitching together when injuries and ineffectiveness hit the staff. 1977 was his first full season with the Yankees; he was back and forth between the Yankees and Syracuse for the 1975 and the 1976 seasons.
Ron was used in relief in six of his first seven appearances last season, picking up a win and a save. He started his first game of the year, only his second lifetime start, on April 29 against Seattle, then, when he started on May 17 at Oakland, it was the first of 24 straight starts the rest of the year. Ron went 8.1 innings in four starts before he finally picked up his first complete game.
He led Yankee pitchers with five shutouts, second in the league, and he shared two others with Sparky Lyle. Two of the shutouts were back-to-back, a 2-hitter vs. Texas on August 28, and a 6-hitter vs. Minnesota on September 2. He gave up only one run in 26 innings in three starts from August 16 to September 2.
Ron went 10-2 after the All-Star break, including eight in a row down the stretch, and had wins in the playoffs and World Series.
An extremely hard thrower despite his size, Ron had the second best strikeout per game ratio in the league, fanning 7.5 for every nine innings, with Nolan Ryan at 10.2 and Frank Tanana also at 7.5. Ron also possesses great running speed, scoring two runs as a pinch runner last season.
A starter his first three years in pro ball, Guidry became a relief pitcher in 1974 at West Haven. The following year at Syracuse, he struck out 79 in 63 innings.
Ron finished 18th in the '77 MVP voting, but he was the first starting pitcher named. He finished seventh in the Cy Young voting, highest among left-handed starters. Very popular in his hometown of Lafayette, Louisiana, Ron signed a three-year extension to his contract at a press conference there this winter.
Guidry was an avid Yankee fan as a youngster. Although there was no baseball team at his high school, Ron hurled a no-hitter at the University of Southwestern Louisiana.
Ron is an avid chess player. He is of French ancestry."
-1978 New York Yankees Media Guide
GUIDRY ... WHAT A START!
"With the Yankee pitching staff riddled by injuries this year, the only relief Billy Martin had occurred once every five days when he was able to write Ron Guidry's name on the lineup card, and be assured of a win. Ron proved to be the only reliable Yankee starter in the early going, setting Yankee and American League records in the process. Ron won his first 13 decisions on the season, breaking the Yankee record for consecutive wins at the start of a season, which were 12-0 starts by Tom Zachary in 1929 and Atley Donald in 1939 (Donald, by the way, is the scout who signed Ron to a Yankee contract in 1971).
In winning his first 13 games, Ron was leading the major leagues in wins and ERA, and was the American League's new strikeout king, replacing Nolan Ryan at the top. The highlight of the early going was Ron's 18-strikeout performance against the Angels on June 17, breaking the Yankee strikeout record, which had been set by Bob Shawkey way back in 1919, and setting a new record for American League left-handers.
Ron was named the American League Player of the Month for June, a month in which he went 5-0, including back-to-back shutouts over the A's and Angels, and had put together a string of 21 straight scoreless innings over three games. He also had consecutive strikeout games of 11, 10, 11 and 18. Ron proved to be a genuine stopper for the Yanks as 11 of his first wins followed Yankee defeats.
So it was not too hard to figure out that during the early months of the season, the Yankee pitching staff was spelled G-U-I-D-R-Y."
-New York Yankees 1978 Scorebook and Official Magazine
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