Happy Birthday Jim Perry

[mikelink45]

October 30 - Jim Perry turned 86.  He was a Twin for 10 years with a 128 - 90 record and a 3:15 era.  In his career he had 41 WAR and won 215 games.   He was in three post season series including the World Series.  He won the Cy Young in 1970 when he won 24 games.  He also made 3 all star teams.  

Among similarity pitchers on BR is Catfish Hunter.  Jim was not HOF, but he was really good and came through for the Twins in whatever role that they requested. 

In Bleacher Report they rank him the Twins third best pitcher in history with the following description: 

"Jim Perry spent 10 of his 17 seasons pitching for the Minnesota Twins. 

He would appear in 376 games and start 249 of them. Perry would pitch 61 complete games and throw 17 shutouts.

In 1970 his 24 wins and 40 starts would lead the American League and earn him the Cy Young Award.

Two years later, his younger brother Gaylord, would also lead the league with 24 wins and be named the AL Cy Young Award winner pitching for the Cleveland Indians.

The Perrys are the only two brothers to ever win the award.

Perry would finish with a 128-90 record for the Twins. His 3.15 ERA is the lowest in the ranking and his 1.19 WHIP is third best.

Before the 1973 season the Twins would trade Perry to the Detroit Tigers."

Of course his brother got in the HOF, despite his use of a spitball (perhaps the best argument for letting in the PED users). 

In 1970 Blyleven, Kaat and Tiant were SP along with Perry.  I would take that rotation! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR PERRY

1. 
    

[h2oface]

2 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

In 1970 Blyleven, Kaat and Tiant were SP along with Perry.  I would take that rotation! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR PERRY
 

The 4 man rotation, and a damn good one.

[glunn]

Wishing him all the best.

[Seth Stohs]

A very underrated player in Twins history. I know he's in their Hall of fame, but I don't think he's talked about enough. 

[TopGunn#22]

The Twins had a very good team in 1970 and their goal was to set up a rotation that could compete with the Orioles (who had a loaded rotation).  They traded Craig Nettles and Ted Uhlaender to Cleveland for Luis Tiant and I was over the moon.  Tiant was a favorite pitcher of mine.  The staff was supposed to be:  Perry, Tiant, Kaat, Boswell (who won 20 games in 1969).

Unfortunately, Boswell's career flamed out after having been a solid pitcher for 5 years.  Tiant developed a sore arm and Kaat slipped a bit.  Still, with the Boswell flame out and Tiant arm injury the Twins turned to young arms Bert Blyleven and Bill Zepp (who went 9-4).  They still won 97-98 games despite half the rotation coming up short.  Tiant would miss the 1971 season, the Twins would let him go and then he landed with the Red Sox and had a stellar 1972, eventually pitching for the Sox in the 1975 World Series.