Remembering Whitey Ford: Chairman of the Board (1928-2020)

New York Yankees ace left-hander Whitey Ford, dubbed “the Chairman of the Board” by catcher Elston Howard, has passed away at the age of 91, less than two weeks shy of his 92nd birthday. In what has been a tough year of death for the entire world, the Hall of Fame family has been hit especially hard, with the losses of Al Kaline in April along with Tom Seaver, Lou Brock, and Bob Gibson in just the last six weeks.

“The Yankees are incredibly saddened to learn of the passing of Hall of Famer Whitey Ford. Whitey spent his entire 16-year career as a Yankee. A 6x WS Champion and 10x All-Star, The Chairman of the Board was one of the best lefties to ever toe the rubber. He will be deeply missed.”

— Official statement from New York Yankees (October 9, 2020)

Ford, who was born on October 21, 1928, was the 2nd oldest living Hall of Famer, behind only Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda. Ford was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in 1974, along with his longtime friend and teammate Mickey Mantle. Ford helped lead the Bronx Bombers to 11 pennants in his 16-year MLB career.

This piece was originally posted on October 21, 2018, on Ford’s 90th birthday.

Cooperstown Cred: Whitey Ford (1950-1967, all with the New York Yankees)

• Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1974 (2nd year on the ballot, 77.8% of the vote)
• Career: 236-106 (.690 WL%), 2.75 ERA
• .690 career won-loss% is the best for any pitcher with at least 150 wins since 1877
• Career: 133 ERA+, 53.6 WAR (Wins Above Replacement)
• 8 seasons on All-Star team
• Won 1961 Cy Young Award (25-4, 3.21 ERA)
• Twice in Top 5 of A.L. MVP Voting
• Won 6 World Series Championships with the N.Y. Yankees (1950, ’53, ’56, ’58, ’61, ’62)
• MVP of 1961 World Series (2-0, 14 innings of scoreless ball)
• Career post-season: 10-8, 2.71 ERA

(cover photo: Associated Press)

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Whitey Ford: Career Highlights

Edward Charles “Whitey” Ford was born in New York City in the borough of Manhattan. When Ford was 5 years old, his family moved to Astoria, Queens, not far from the current site of Citi Field (home to the New York Mets).

Ford grew up a New York Yankees fan and realized a boyhood dream when he signed with the Yanks at the age of 18, shortly before the 1947 season. He spent 3 1/2 years in the minor leagues before joining the big club in July 1950, when he was just 21 years old.

Ford pitched in 20 games in 1950 (starting 12 of them); he went 9-1 with 2,81 ERA. The performance was good enough for 2nd place in the A.L. Rookie of the Year voting (behind Boston first baseman Walt Dropo, who hit 34 HR with 144 RBI).

From his SABR bio, Dropo likened Ford to a “master chess player who used his brain to take the bat out of a hitter’s hands. He never started a hitter off with the same pitch and threw four pitches at different speeds with varying arm angles to every part of the plate. To Dropo it was like Ford had 104 pitches.”

1950 World Series

The 1950 Yankees won the pennant and faced the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series. The Yanks had a rotation of veteran starters (Vic Raschi, Allie Reynolds, Eddie Lopat and Tommy Byrne). All but Lopat were All-Stars that year but Byrne struggled down the stretch.

Because of Byrne’s late-season struggles, manager Casey Stengel gave young Ford the start in Game 4 of the World Series. The Yankees had already won the first three games so Game 4 was the potential clincher.

Just two weeks shy of his 22nd birthday, Whitey pitched 8.2 innings, giving up 2 runs (both unearned) before Stengel summoned Reynolds to get the final out, preserving a 5-2 win and clinching the World Championship for the Bronx Bombers.

After the season, Ford was drafted into the Army. Although he never left U.S. soil, Ford’s military service forced him to miss the 1951 and ’52 campaigns.

1953-1960: Whitey Ford’s Light Workload

While Ford was serving in the Army, his teammates won the World Series again in 1951 and ’52, giving them four straight titles overall. Ford posted another stellar campaign, going 18-6 with a 3.00 ERA.

In 1954 Ford, now 25 years old, made the first of his 10 All-Star squads. What’s fascinating about these 8 early seasons in Ford’s career is how he was used. Casey Stengel used his starting pitchers in a fashion very similar to the way starters have been used in the 21st century.

If you take a look at Whitey’s stats from 1953-60, they look very much like what you might expect from a starter in the 2010’s.

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Notice that Ford only once started more than 30 games and only once passed 225.2 innings pitched. These are the won-loss records and innings workloads that you would expect from a pitcher in today’s game who was hurling for a quality team.

From 1953-1960, Ford started only 42 games on 3 days of rest; 166 of his starts were on 4 days of rest or greater. It’s for this reason that Ford never won 20 games during the Stengel years and ultimately why his career total of 236 wins is relatively paltry for a pitcher of his quality during the ’50’s and ’60’s.

World Series starts 1953-1960

In 8 seasons between 1953-60, Whitey Ford and the Yankees won 6 pennants and 3 World Series titles. In ’53, Stengel again deferred to his veteran starters so Ford didn’t get the ball until Game 4. It was an unmemorable start as Whitey gave up 3 runs in just one inning of work as the Yankees lost.

With the light workload in Game 4, Ford came back on a day of rest to toss 7 innings of one-run ball in the decisive Game 6. Ford received a no-decision but the Yankees won the game and the Fall Classic.

1955 was the year that Stengel finally treated Ford like the ace that he had become. Whitey tossed a career-high 253.2 innings while leading the A.L. with 18 complete games. Unlike previous years, Ford took the ball for Game 1 of the 1955 World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers. He won that game as well as Game 6 but the Yankees fell in 7 games to Brooklyn.

The Yankees won the World Series in 1956 and ’58, losing in ’57 (to the Milwaukee Braves) and ’60 (to the Pittsburgh Pirates). In 1960, Ford tossed two shutouts but the Yankees still fell in 7 games, thanks to the walk-off home run by Bill Mazeroski in the bottom of the 9th of Game 7.

The turbulent season of 1957

Amidst the brilliance, Whitey Ford had one tough year in 1957. Shoulder woes limited the Yankees’ ace to just 129.1 innings.

1957 was also the season of the infamous Copacabana incident. A group of Yankees (including Ford, Mantle, and Yogi Berra) went to the famous nightclub to celebrate Billy Martin‘s 29th birthday. The teammates wound up in an argument that resulted in a Yankees fan (Edward Jones) on the floor with a brain concussion and fractured jaw. It was right fielder Hank Bauer who had allegedly struck the below that put Jones on the floor.

Ford, Mantle and Martin were fast friends who enjoyed the nightlife. Ford picked up the nickname “Slick” for being part of the “city slick” triumvirate with Mantle and Martin. In that trio, Mantle and Ford were the stars. Martin was deemed expendable; he was traded to Kansas City a month after the Copa incident.

“It was righteous living, you know. Don’t drink everything in the bottle; leave some for the next guy.”

— Whitey Ford (as told in “The Miracle” New York Yankees, by Phil Rizzuto and Al Silverman)

Despite the tough regular season, Ford pitched brilliantly in October. He tossed a complete game 5-hitter (giving up 1 run) to win Game 1 against the Milwaukee Braves.

In Game 5, Ford tossed 7 innings of 1-run ball but lost the game 1-0, having been out-pitched by Lew Burdette. The Braves would win the Fall Classic in 7 games.

A New Manager Turns Whitey Ford into a Workhorse

As we’ve seen, Ford tossed two shutouts in the 1960 World Series against Pittsburgh. Those shutouts occurred in Games 3 and 6, which was the cause of considerable controversy. The Chairman of the Board had been tabbed to start Game 1 of the ’55, ’56, ’57 and ’58 Fall Classics but was held back by Stengel until Game 3 in 1960 in favor of Art Ditmar and Bob Turley.

Because Ford had pitched in Game 6, he was unavailable to help out in Game 7, in which five Yankees hurlers gave up 10 runs to the Bucs. According to Ford’s autobiography Slick: My Life in and Around Baseball, it was the only time he was ever mad at Stengel. As a pitcher, Ford was always quick to forgive his teammates after crucial errors. In this case, though, he wouldn’t even speak to Stengel on the plane ride home.

Five days after the World Series ended, Stengel was fired and replaced by Ralph Houk, a former third-string catcher with the Yankees who rarely played.

One of Houk’s earliest decisions as the Yankees’ skipper was to pitch Ford every fourth day. Whitey, now 32 years old, responded to his new workhorse role by leading the majors with 39 starts and 283 innings. In the first year of the 162-game regular season, Ford went 25-4 with a 3.21 ERA and won his first and only Cy Young award.

In that Cy Young campaign in ’61, three of Ford’s four losses were by scores of 2-1, 2-1 and 1-0. Overall, the Yankees won 34 of Ford’s 39 starts.

Here are Whitey Ford’s numbers from 1960-1965 under Houk and his successors (Berra and Johnny Keane):

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Four more Pennants, 2 more Rings

After his 283-inning regular-season workload, Whitey Ford toed the rubber for Game 1 of the ’61 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds. Ford responded with a complete game, two-hit shutout.

Pitching on 3 days rest, Ford pitched 5 scoreless innings in Game 4. Unfortunately, Ford had to leave the game early after fouling a ball off his foot in the top of the 6th inning.

Still, with the two shutouts Ford had authored in 1960, the 14 scoreless innings extended his World Series shutout streak to 32 consecutive, which broke a record previously held by Babe Ruth. The Sultan of Swat set that record early in his career as a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox in the 1916 and ’18 World Series.

The Yankees won the 1961 World Series in 5 games with Ford being named the series MVP.

In the 1962 Fall Classic, the Bronx Bombers took on the San Francisco Giants. Ford got the nod for Game 1. His scoreless innings streak ended at 33.2 in the 2nd inning but Ford still tossed a complete game, giving up 2 runs in a 6-2 victory.

Ford was back on the bump for Game 4, matched up against future Hall of Famer Juan Marichal. Ford tossed 6 innings of 2-run ball before being lifted for a pinch-hitter in a 2-2 tie. The Yankees would go on to lose 7-3.

Pitching Game 6 (on six days rest thanks to some rainouts), Ford laid his first October egg since 1956, giving up 5 runs in 4.2 innings, leading to another loss. The Yankees as a team would prevail in the 7th game. This would be Ford’s sixth and final World Series ring.

In 1963, The Chairman of the Board met the Left Arm of God. Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers out-pitched Ford in both Games 1 and 4 of the World Series, giving L.A. a four-game sweep.

Whitey Ford’s last World Series start was not a memorable one. In Game 1 of the ’64 Series (against the St. Louis Cardinals), he gave up 5 runs in 5.1 innings in a losing effort. In that start, Ford began losing feeling in his arm as the game progressed. Finally, in the 6th inning, his left hand felt so numb that he couldn’t grip the baseball.

Ford was unable to pitch again in the series and, thanks to wins in Game 5 and 7 by Bob Gibson (who also passed away just weeks ago), the Redbirds prevailed to win the title.

Whitey Ford’s Final Years on the Diamond

Ford’s World Series start was a scare. The numbness in his arm was a heart attack sign but it turned out that the wasn’t the issue. He did, however, have a clogged artery in his golden left arm. A procedure called a sympathectomy allowed him to pitch, and pitch well, in 1965.

The circulatory problems in Ford’s left arm got worse in 1966 and he was limited to just 73 innings.

Another operation put feeling back in Ford’s left hand and he was optimistic about the 1967 campaign. However, elbow pain revealed bone spurs. Rather than undergo another operation, Ford decided to retire. The Chairman of the Board officially retired in a ceremony at Yankee Stadium on May 30, 1967.

Seven years later, Ford was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Whitey Ford’s Pitching Legacy

How good, really, was Whitey Ford? By legend, he is an all-time great. After all, Ford has the highest winning percentage for any pitcher with at least 150 wins since 1877, which was 90 years before his retirement.

Ford’s career ERA of 2.75 is the 2nd best for a starting pitcher (minimum 2,000 IP) in the last 100 years, behind only the still-active Clayton Kershaw.

The 5’10” left-hander struggled with his control early in his career, walking over 100 batters per season from 1953-55. Even so, Ford was so hard to hit that he was 2nd in the A.L. in WHIP (walks + hits per inning) in ’55 despite walking 113 batters.

Ford is also an October legend. As the ace starting pitcher on a team that won 11 pennants in his 16 MLB seasons, Ford owns several World Series records, and some by a country mile, even for a city kid.

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The next three segments are for the sabermetrically inclined among you. If you are not a fan of WAR, I invite you to skip to “final thoughts.” If you are a fan, you’ll find this fascinating.

Why WAR has no love for Whitey Ford

If you’re a mathematically minded young student of the game of baseball, you might think that Whitey Ford is inherently overrated. His career WAR (Wins Above Replacement) is 53.5, which is just the 86th best in baseball history.

That number puts Ford behind 29 retired pitchers who are not in the Hall of Fame, including luminaries such as Mark Buehrle, Chuck Finley, Frank Tanana, Jerry Koosman, Tim Hudson, Kevin Appier and David Wells.

Andy Pettitte, another Yankees post-season hero, will be on the BBWAA ballot for the third time this year. Pettitte has more wins (256) and a higher WAR (60.7) than Ford but I’ve never heard a soul try to argue that Pettitte was better.

So why the lack of love from WAR? There are two reasons. The first is that Ford’s career was curtailed by two years of military service early in his career and by injury late in his career, his last full campaign being at the age of 36.

In addition, Stengel didn’t pitch Ford nearly as much as other managers would later. Ford probably lost about 5-6 starts per season from 1953-60, costing him anywhere from 40 to 50 starts. The military service and limited usage pattern could have cost Ford as many as 65 wins in a 236-win career.

The second reason can be explained partly by how WAR is calculated for pitchers. One of the components is the quality of the defense the pitcher has playing behind him. The New York Yankees from 1950-64 had superb defensive players. So, the formula behind WAR seems to have given more “points” to the Yankee defenders than to the Yankee pitchers.

How WAR has no love for the pitchers on the Yankee dynasty

Fascinating stat: follow the logic here.

• From 1949-64, there were 270 team seasons (16 teams per season from 1949-60, 18 teams in 1961, and 20 teams from 1962-64).
• So, there were 16 to 20 MLB teams each season, an average of 16.875 teams per season.
• 129 pitchers achieved a WAR of 5.0 or above.
• Only 3 Yankees pitchers managed a WAR of 5.0 or better (Ford all three times).

What’s the point of this drivel? The Yankees won 14 pennants in the 16 seasons between 1949-64, winning 103 games in one of the non-pennant campaigns. So, suffice it to say, this was a really good team for a long time.

In the 16 seasons of this Yankees dynasty, only 3 pitchers had seasons that were worth 5 Wins Above Replacement. 126 hurlers on lesser squads achieved this. Since there were an average of 16.875 teams per season, the Yankees should have had 7 or 8 pitchers achieve this by accident.

How do we explain this? Part of it is explained by Stengel’s conscious decision to not let his best pitchers toe the rubber as often as some of the other aces in the league. But that’s only part of the story.

The 1961-64 Yankees (under new managers) only had two 5.0-Win seasons (again, both by Ford). The rest of baseball had 41. Those Yankee teams averaged 102 wins per season. They could pitch. But they could also field and the WAR hasn’t quite figured out yet how to give credit to both the defenders and the pitchers at the same time.

The 1961 Cy Young Campaign

Case in point: in Whitey Ford’s Cy Young campaign in 1961, he had a 3.21 ERA. He won the award for sure because of 25 wins against 4 losses. Still, his ERA was good enough for 10th in the A.L.

What was better was his FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching). FIP is a metric that removes the team’s defense from the equation. FIP measures effectiveness at preventing home runs, walks and hit batsman and at getting strikeouts. These are game events that have nothing to do with the defenders on the field.

Ford’s 3.15 FIP in 1961 was the best in the league but his WAR was just 3.7.

Yankee third baseman Clete Boyer led the league in assists and blew away the league with 30 “Zone Runs as a 3B.” Those 30 “Zone Runs” were double those of Brooks Robinson and 21 more than the 3rd best.

In the meantime, Boyer hit .224 for the season, driving in just 55 runs in 579 plate appearances. His OPS+ was a woeful 79. Despite the pathetic season offensively, the 30 “Zone Runs” gave Boyer a WAR of 3.8, better than Whitey Ford’s!

I have no doubt that Boyer had a great defensive campaign but I will never believe he was a more valuable player (or even as close to as valuable) as Ford in 1961.

The point to all of this is that, in my humble opinion, WAR sometimes understates or overstates a pitcher’s worth because of the way the defensive metrics are calculated. I believe that Whitey Ford was significantly better than his WAR indicates.

Final Thoughts on Hall of Famer Whitey Ford

For those of you not sabermetrically inclined, welcome back to our originally scheduled programming. Whitey Ford was an all-time great pitcher.

Ford put runners on base, especially early in his career, but he kept a disproportionate number of them from scoring. He gave up 228 home runs in his career but only one of them with the bases loaded and only 18 others with 2 runners on.

The Chairman of the Board was one of the greatest hurlers ever at shutting down the running game. Ford featured a devastating pick-off move. He allowed only 30 stolen bases in his entire career. In the meantime, 54 runners were caught stealing while Ford picked off another 51.

Ford was also the consummate teammate, beloved by his fellow players. From his SABR Bio, Ford was known to invite a batboy to join Mantle and him for dinner. He always credited his catchers for helping him with his success. When a teammate made a crucial error, Ford never made a fuss.

As an opponent, Ford never made a point never to exult in victory. As a gentleman, he never questioned an umpire’s call.

Whitey Ford didn’t make the Hall of Fame on his first year on the ballot (1973) but the baseball writers were notoriously curmudgeonly to first-timers in those days. Yogi Berra, Ford’s longtime catcher, had to wait until his 2nd year. Years later Juan Marichal didn’t get the call until his 3rd try.

Whitey Ford, a Yankee fan since childhood, is easily the greatest pitcher that ever toed the rubber in the Bronx.

Rest in Peace, Whitey.

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Whitey Ford Links

• SABR Bio (by C. Paul Rogers III)
• Baseball Hall of Fame Page
• Whitey Ford inducted into the Hall of Fame (video)