Who is your favorite MLB pitcher of all time?

Mine is Nolan Ryan, since I got to see him several times when he was on the Angels.

but I must...as a Mariners fan, its gotta be Randy Johnson...

I idolized the guy when I was a kid, and had a prime chance to meet him as an adult, but I couldn't do it. :blush:

Damn. To have the chance to meet him...just...

Damn.

Altar boy and the Pope, remember?

I'd have remembered that one. C'mon...don't make me beat it out of ya....


Well...on second thought....

:evilgrin:


C'mon...spill...

But maybe not... :shrug:

It was '86, I think, and Koufax was a roving pitching instructor in the Dodgers' minor-league system. (There's a great example of how he taught pitching in "Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy," btw.) He was with Bakersfield when they were in town, and I was up in the press box about an hour before the game and he was alone in the visitor's dugout. My friend Buddy, who knew everybody in the league, said, "Go on, go talk to him. He's a nice guy."

But all I could think of was all the stuff I'd read about him being protective of his privacy (he wouldn't even grant the author of the above book an interview) and how I thought of him as a demigod when I was a kid.

I mentioned it later in a column and wrote, "It would've been like an altar boy being granted an audience with the Pope."

And, yeah — I still regret it. :banghead:

I can understand that. And you shouldn't regret it. He might not have realized it but you gave him the ultimate compliment. You respected him and his privacy. You put him first.

I think that's pretty incredible.

He was right there, aLONE. And I didn't wanna bug him — didn't even want an autograph. Just wanted to say hello and thanks for all the great times.

But I was chicken. :banghead:

You're confusing 'chicken' with respect. You said that all you could think of was how he wanted his privacy. You respected that.

That's not 'chicken'.

Yup. I was chicken.

He wasn't a "great" pitcher.

He never played for a team that I liked.

He threw the occasional spitball....

BUT JESUS H CHRIST! LOOK AT THAT 'STACHE!


That takes balls. (pun unintended)

but I always liked reading stories about him, so I guess he might be my pick. Of those I've been a live for, I'd probably pick Maddux or Glavine.

1. Mariano Rivera... greatest closer of all time.
2. Whitey Ford.... The ultimate "crafty lefthander"
3. Bob Gibson... if I had to win one game, he's my starter.
4. Babe Ruth... might have been the greatest pitcher of all time if he was not such a great hitter.

What a class act!

I have an autographed Twins jersey from Mudcat...

The guy is a class act!!!

The first pitcher to give up a Grand Slam (to Fred Lynn) at the 1983 All Star Game.
I loved him as a pitcher, felt bad he ended up with that little tag.

OF course he didn't do as bad as Chan Ho Park who while playing for the Dodgers
gave up TWO GRAND SLAMS IN THE SAME INNING to the same Cardinals hitter. (Wanta name the hitter?)
Yes it was Fernando Tatis...There is some trivia for ya.

But I won't deny anyone their favorites. :toast:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turk_Wendell

I got to meet him as he moved his way up through the minor leagues. After a game I saw him pitch he came out of the locker room dressed like a hybrid of Crocodile Dundee and the Marboro Man.

I used to love watching him pitch when he played for the Mets. He used to wear this crazy cave man necklace made of some animal's bones and teeth. I also remember hearing that when he restructured his contract he made sure it was all 9's. But he played on the 2000 team and had quite a year so I will always have a fondness for him as well.

He Koufax & Drysdale were contemporaries. Koufax was amasing 18-20 strike outs a game.
The man worked like a Trojan.

Drysdale was solid, gifted, and mean.

But Bob Gibson...damn he was great and he had the best attitude.

(This is the only time in
his life Bob Gibson smiled)

He was offended when people got hits and also when they came to the place trying to get a hit.
He'd blow it right past you,brush you back, fake you out. He held grudges forever. He's still mad
at some hitters for getting hits off of him.

Gibson and Drysdale had the same attitude that you see in big brothers in large families - obey me damn it! or you'll be sorry. All three DOMINATED!!!

Still holds the American League record for career strikeouts by a lefthander and is third all-time on the MLB lefthanders list (behind Randy Johnson and Steve Carlton). He belongs in the Hall of Fame (Bob Gibson, his '68 World Series nemesis, is one of his biggest boosters) and would have been in there years ago had he played most of his career in New York, Chicago or Los Angeles.
John
Lolich also pitched 376 innings in 1971 (IIRC). You won't see pitchers with 300 in a season nowadays.

Never got to see him pitch, though. I also like Roger Clemens and Dennis Eckersley (who'll both always be Bosox to me).

7 no-hitters

"Nobody throws harder than Nolan Ryan. Not even God."-George Scott

:loveya:

RL

Saw him near the end of his string, when he'd been traded to the Orioles...and got to meet him briefly years later....

I got to see him pitch six times at Memorial Stadium in the 70's and early 80's. Was fortune enough to meet him in '96 when he was calling games for HTS. Very nice, took ten minutes to talk with me outside broadcast booth. A true gentleman.