Pictured at Yankee Stadium in 1959 the year he won the Cy Young Award at the age of 39, posting a record of 22–10, with 179 strikeouts and a 3.16 ERA to lead the Sox to the pennant.
Widely known as a pitcher with a mean disposition (or at least as a pitcher who cultivated that image), Wynn threw at batters frequently enough to be labeled a "headhunter." When asked if he would throw at his own grandmother, he said, "I'd have to. My grandma could really hit the curveball." According to Rod Carew, he learned when Wynn came to Minnesota as a coach, his competitiveness didn't end when his career did. "Early would knock you down in batting practice. If you hit a ball good off of him, he'd knock you down and then challenge you. He told you to expect it when you stepped in the cage against him.
Wynn was the pitcher who allowed the most home runs in Mickey Mantle's career (13).
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All time greatest baseball player named Early.
This SOB also won 23 games for the pennant-winning Indians in 1954. So he almost single-handedly kept us from finishing first in both '54 and '59. If free agency had been in effect, he'd have been a Yankee by '54 [his major league debut was in 1939], and we'd have won the AL pennant every year from 1949-1964.
If Cash was the GM in 1954 he would have blown his free agent budget on
Bob Kuzava.
Reese's piece triggers a great memory: After using Lopat, Reynolds, and Raschi, his 3 best pitchers, in game 7 of the 1952 World Series, Casey Stengel brought Bob Kuzava, who hadn't pitched previously in the Series, into a bases-loaded, one-out situation with the Yankees leading the Dodgers 4-2 in the
7th. Kuzava got out of the jam without a run scoring by retiring Duke Snider and Jackie Robinson on pop flies. [Robinson's was Billy Martin's famous catch.] He then got the next 6 outs [the only runner reached on an error] to get the save. He had only 3 of the team's 27 saves during the regular season. Casey was a genius, I tell you.
If you ever get a chance to watch that game on MLB Network during the off-season, don't miss it. The announcers are Red Barber and Mel Allen. Why doesn't YES ever show a real "classic" game like this instead of fluff like "watch A-Roid hit HR #600"?
Bob Kuzava couldn't hold Dave Pavlas' shoes.
We'd never have won the '96 World Series without Pavlas channeling positive thought waves from his living room couch.
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