As Rob Manfred and Tony Clark let this summer slip away, we lean on nostalgia for our baseball fix, and nothing sparks a sports debate like lists. We looked at the single best batting seasons in pinstripes already, so now we turn to five single best pitching seasons in Yankees lore.
As with the batters, this list has two rules: a hurler may only appear once on this list, and he must have spent over half of his career with the Yankees. This eliminates Catfish Hunter, Goose Gossage. David Cone, David Wells, Roger Clemens, and Mike Mussina, but still, quite a list.
Here goes:
5. Red Ruffing, 1938CC Sabathia, Andy Pettitte, and Ruffing all won 21 games in a season for the Yanks. Sabathia did it in 2010, when the team lost in the ALCS. Pettitte did it in the charmed season of 1996, when the Yanks won their first Fall Classic since 1978, but folks forget how wholly mediocre he was in the postseason because of the one gem he pitched in Game 6 of the World Series.
Ruffing, on the other hand, went 21-7 with 22 complete games during the 1938 regular season, and he was even more spectacular in the 1938 World Series, when he started twice against the Cubs and finished both games. He pitched to a 1.50 ERA in the Fall Classic, with 11 strikeouts against two walks and one home run in 18 innings, and got two of the four wins for the Bombers in a four-game sweep of the Cubbies.
4. Lefty Gomez, 1934Gomez put up an astounding 26-5 record in '34. He led the league in wins, winning percentage (.839), ERA (2.33), complete games (25), shutouts (6), innings pitched (281.2), strikeouts (158), WHIP (1.333), and hits per nine innings (7.1). All that and he still only finished third in MVP voting, two slots ahead of teammate Lou Gehrig. Gomez would pitch in pinstripes for eight more years and spend 13 of his 14 seasons with the Yankees, but would win at least 20 games just one more time (1937).
Though he retired in 1943, Gomez, a seven-time All-Star, wasn't inducted into the Hall of Fame until 1972. Remarkable, because if you toss away his final 4-inning season in Washington and his rookie season in the Bronx, Gomez never had a losing season.
3. Whitey Ford, 1961Ford, known as the “Chairman of the Board” for his clutch playoff pitching, joined the Mantle and Maris party in '61 on the other side of the ball. While the two sluggers pined for Babe Ruth's home run record, Ford had arguably his best year as a Yankee, finishing 25-4 and leading the majors in games started, innings pitched, and batters faced. That all led to Ford's first Cy Young Award, despite being on the club since 1951 (with a two-year break for military service). Ford also notched a career-high 209 strikeouts, and ended the season, like so many of his years in pinstripes, with a World Series ring.
Of all the World Series success, though, '61 was most special because Ford pitched one of his finest postseasons. He started two games against the Cincinnati Reds in the Fall Classic and didn’t allow an earned run over 14 innings – including one complete-game shutout – and he had a stellar 0.500 WHIP, with almost as many strikeouts (7) as baserunners allowed (8), en route to the World Series MVP nod. Ford was just as dominant in 1960, but the Yanks lost that World Series to the Pirates, and history is often penned by the champs.
2. Mariano Rivera, 1999A reliever on the list? Absolutely, because there are only four or five transcendent seasons like this one by the immortal Mariano Rivera. During the regular season, Mo posted a microscopic 1.83 ERA, led both leagues with 45 saves, surrendered just 43 hits in 69 innings pitched, and had a ridiculous 0.884 WHIP.
Now, the 13-time All-Star had several similar seasons, but what separates him is his postseason resume, especially this one: in eight appearances over the 12 games the Yankees played in October 1999, Mo notched two wins and six saves (two in every round), gave up zero runs over 12 1/3 innings, and was so dominant against the Braves (four baserunners allowed with three strikeouts in 4 2/3 innings over three games) that he won World Series MVP.
If character matters - and it should - Mariano Rivera is a winner there, too, as he was as nice to the janitor as he was to the general manager. You may never meet a more unaffected superstar in sports or film or anywhere else. Quite fitting that he was the final man to wear the iconic No. 42, and the only unanimous choice so far for the Baseball Hall of Fame.
1. Ron Guidry, 1978Most folks feel that Yankee Stadium was the birthplace of the two-strike ovation, starting with Guidry. During his surreal 1978 season, Guidry posted a 25-3 record and a 1.78 ERA, enough to earn him the AL Cy Young Award. So good with his quiver of pitches, Guidry became known as “Louisiana Lightning” in honor of his Cajun rearing.
In addition to that stellar top line, Guidry notched 16 complete games - more than the top four or five pitchers combined these days - and led the league with nine shutouts, a 0.946 WHIP, and a 6.1 hits per nine innings rate.
It was his 248 strikeouts, though, that had fans frothing after the second strike. It became a ritual to see the entire crowd rise to its feet to inspire strike three. If you watched his games on WPIX back in the day, when Phil Rizzuto was at his huckleberry best and rooting as hard for the Yanks as we were, you'd see Guidry scowl at the plate while fans jumped up and down like piano keys until he threw the potential third strike. Guidry was so good in '78 that he finished second in MVP voting, just behind Jim Rice.
And, in the nearly infinite history of the Yankees, Ron Guidry had the best single season for a pitcher, one that, like so many of his predecessors’, ended with a World Series title.