Gaylord Perry

Gaylord Perry was a Hall of Fame right-hander famous for his longevity and the (alleged) spitball, becoming the first pitcher to win the Cy Young in both leagues.

Gaylord Perry spent two decades daring umpires to catch him doctoring a baseball, and for most of that time, they couldn't. He wrote an autobiography titled *Me and the Spitter* openly discussing the illegal pitch while still active, essentially admitting it in print to a sport that could never quite prove it on the field. It wasn't until 1982, four years from retirement, that an umpire finally ejected and suspended him for it -- a single sanction closing out a career built partly on a reputation he'd cultivated himself. The psychological effect on hitters may have mattered as much as the pitch itself: batters facing Perry spent as much energy watching his hands and cap as they did tracking the ball, an edge he happily let the mystery provide. Whatever the actual physics, the results were undeniable -- 314 career wins and two Cy Young awards won a decade apart, in different leagues, an unusual spread that reflects a pitcher who kept adapting long after hitters thought they'd figured him out. Perry's 1991 Hall of Fame induction came with the irony fully intact: a pitcher partly enshrined for a pitch he was never definitively proven to have thrown until the very end of his career.

Right-handed pitcher with exceptional control and durability

Hall of Fame pitcher known for longevity and alleged spitball

• HOF 1991
• 2x Cy Young (1972 AL, 1978 NL)
• 5x All-Star