Gaylord Jackson Perry, a lanky 6’4″ right-handed pitcher from North Carolina, was well-known for using the spitball (as well as the Vaseline ball and the KY Jelly ball) clandestinely and occasionally not so clandestinely decades after baseball had outlawed it.
In a 22-year big league career that spanned the years from 1962 to 1983, Perry with his “hard slider” amassed 314 victories and 3,534 strikeouts.
Perry also pitched a no-hitter in 1968, won the Cy Young award in both leagues for the first time, and five times won 20 or more games in a season.
Gaylord Perry was inducted into baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1991 as a result of his pitching prowess.
BREAKING! Did Gaylord Perry ever hit a homerun?
Yes, there are other versions of the story, but in any case, Perry hit his first career home run on July 20, 1969, just one “There would be a man on the moon before Gaylord Perry would hit a home run” hour after the Apollo 11 spacecraft carrying Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin touched down on the Moon.
Like most pitchers, Perry was not known for his hitting ability, and in his sophomore season of 1963, his manager Alvin Dark is said to have joked, Perry was not known for his hitting ability.
