Most undervalued HOFers

[jchcollins]

Gaylord Perry has a better ERA than Nolan Ryan, a better winning percentage, a LOT better BB percentage, a higher career WAR in 5 fewer seasons played, (2) more Cy Young awards, a lower career WHIP, more 20-win seasons, and a LOT more lube under his belt buckle.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by jchcollins

Gaylord Perry has a better ERA than Nolan Ryan, a better winning percentage, a LOT better BB percentage, a higher career WAR in 5 fewer seasons played, (2) more Cy Young awards, a lower career WHIP, more 20-win seasons, and a LOT more lube under his belt buckle.

Trivia: how many games did Perry get thrown out of for doctoring pitches?

[Kutcher55]

From Baseball Prospectus - Author: Derek Zumsteg:

Without any doubt, though, the greatest cheater of all was Gaylord Perry.

Perry spent two years bouncing between the minors and the Giants before he started cheating. He then carved out a 22-year career that put him in Cooperstown. Perry wasn't only a great cheater, though, he was a great pitcher with enormous talent: he won two Cy Young Awards, becoming the first pitcher to receive the honor in both leagues, finished in the top 10 in ERA 11 times and strikeouts 12 times, and went to the All-Star Game five times. He was a better-than average pitcher as late as 1980, when he was 40 and had been pitching for 18 seasons.

Though he's known as a spitball artist, Gaylord Perry didn't throw a spitter when he cheated, for the most part. He threw greaseballs. Vaseline was his mainstay, but as a great cheating mind, Perry was open to experimentation. "Man, I tried everything," Perry once said. "When my wife was having babies the doctor would send over all kinds of stuff and I'd try that, too. Once I even used fishing line oil."

Perry cheated as much for the psychological effect as for the movement on the ball. Opposing hitters knew he threw greaseballs, and Perry loved it. Perry's success drove rule changes in 1973 about what pitchers could do while on the mound. Section 8.02 is made much more clear if you imagine exactly what Gaylord Perry would have done had those specific instances not been spelled out: 8.02 (a) 3: "expectorate on the ball, either hand or his glove ... "

Even with baseball making rules changes to catch up to him, the next year Perry published an autobiography titled "Me and the Spitter." In his book he talked about his career doctoring balls, and wrote that from that point afterwards he would be a clean and law-abiding citizen of the game ... and then went on to throw the greaseball for another nine seasons.

He loved playing with the minds of batters -- he would fidget on the mound, touching his cap, his glove, his uniform, his face. Umpires frequently went over his person and his uniform with a thoroughness that presaged modern forensic investigation.

"The day before I'd pitch, I'd put grease on my hands and go shake their hands just to get them thinking," he said. "Sometimes I'd roll a ball covered with grease into their dugout."

Perry was so adept at his craft that he wasn't ejected for throwing a doctored ball until August of 1982, some 20 years into his craft. His Dukes of Hazzard ability to elude the law for so long owed much to his foresight, planning, and what must have been a rabbinical understanding of the rules.

He concealed Brylcreem in his hair, Vaseline on a locket he'd wear around his neck, his hat, anywhere he could manage: "I hid it mainly on my face. The umpires never noticed because I sweat a lot."

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Trivia: how many games did Perry get thrown out of for doctoring pitches?

Only one!


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[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by jchcollins

Only one!


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Yeah.

[Peter_Spaeth]

See Table 1.
https://sabr.org/journal/article/the...s-long-career/