Any fans out there of Lefty? No. Not Lefty Grove. Lefty Carlton.
Steve Carlton was my favorite pitcher of all time. He didn't blow guys out of the water like Nolan Ryan or even Walter Johnson. But when he was on, he dominated. I am not here to argue that he was a better strikeout pitcher than Nolan Ryan. But the man is a winner and was as fit as Ryan, just not in the lower body.
You can call me a bandwagoner because when I was ten, the Phils won the series. I began collecting baseball cards at that time and my favorite card was the special edition NL Cy Young Award Winner by Donruss which had Lefty on it.
He was 24-9 that year with a 2.34 era. He pitched 304 innings with 286 k's. Compared to Nolan or the Big Unit, his strikeouts per nine innings is not spectacular. But he did have dominating performances. He shared the record of 19 k's in a game with a couple others until the Rocket broke the record in 86, I think.
At that time, I was able to watch several of his starts on WTBS when the Phils played the Braves. Eventually, as cable expanded and I had access to more channels, I would watch Met and Cub games, especially when they played the Phillies.
Carlton was like 6'4, if I remember correctly, and he had this high, long leg kick. I would say his throwing angle was three-quarter but he might have gone a little side arm, at times. He had decent fastball velocity. I can't recall what he hit on the radar but I would guess 90 or so. Nothing too devastating unless you mix in his slider. That pitch had so much movement. I would say it was similar to Mariano Rivera's cut fastball, movement wise. His slider rolled off that proverbial table.
Carlton ended up with over 4,000 strikeouts and four Cy Young awards. I think if you are going to talk about the greatest of all time, Carlton has a good case.
Though, imo, Sandy Koufax was the greatest ever. Carlton was the type of pitcher I could picture myself being in a virtual world.
Nolan Ryan.
then Koufax.
Bob Gibson
then Whitey Ford,
and Carlton
Pitchers of Shiner @ the Dixie Chicken.
Steve Carlton, my uncle played golf with him and Carlton got a hole-in-one and won a Lexus. My uncle got his autograph for me
My favorite pitcher would probably have to be..... Nolan Ryan.
Randy Johnson in the mid-90's with Seattle. He scared the out of the hitters back then.
Nolan Ryan
Tom Glavine
Greg Maddux
I have his autograph too
I grew up watching Nolan Ryan... I'd love to have a more original answer, but that's just the way it is.
After him? Probably Billy Wagner.
Cheatum Street Warehouse
75 cent pitchers on Tuesday nights watching George Strait and the Ace in the Hole Band when I was at SWT my Freshman year.
Steve Howe.
Very cool...I have Sandy Koufax somewhere. It was on an insert with that night's lineup at a San Antonio Dodgers game. Sid Fernandez pitched for SA and Terry Pendleton played for Arkansas that night.I have his autograph too
I have a ball signed by Mark Mulder, Tim Hudson and Barry Zito. So I'm kind of rooting for all of them to be Hall of Famers some day.
I like coke heads too.
Awesome. I only have Steve Carlton, Greg Maddux and his brother Mike Maddux.
Didn't Howe win rookie of the year?
I really loved Orel Herscheiser. He's what made me a Dodgers fan.
Greatest Pitcher Ever.
Roger Clemens
Tom Seaver
Rocket
Greg Maddux
In math equation:
Greg Maddux (mechanics/accuracy) + Rocket (POWER) = Tom Terrific
Bob Gibson
Back then, a friend of my family (the father of one of my brother's best friends) was in the front office for the San Antonio Dodgers. He was so good to us -- giving us all kinds of access to the players and parts of the ballpark, not to mention free tickets almost every night. I ran the scoreboard one night and served as official scorer. My buddy broke his leg and got to sit on the Dodgers bench for a couple of games. When we got older, we were all allowed to go out early and shag balls during batting practice and hang around with the players. But of all of the great things that he did for us, the best was the night that he invited us down to the house on a weekend night during the 1981 strike and we sat around as our parents had a little party with Sandy Koufax and Tommy Lasorda. That was unbelievably cool, even to a young kid.
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