Clue: Years in
Service 1943
1944
1945
5,832 Total
8X All-Star, 2X ERA Title, and played in MLB until 5 days before his 50th birthday doing what he loved to do.
Hoyt was born July 26, 1922 in Huntersville, Carolina (population then 800, now about 64.000). He was one of eleven children. His father and mother were poor tenant farmers. He attended Cornelius High School about five miles from his home and pitched for their high school baseball team. After seeing a picture of how Dutch Leonard (Dutch pitched for the Washington Senators, the closest MLB team to North Carolina) gripped a knuckleball, Hoyt taught himself how to throw that pitch. At the time, the pitch was used mostly by MLB pitchers who were nearing the end of their career, losing their velocity, and wanted to add a new pitch to their arsenal. Hoyt learned how to throw it as a teenager. He also began perfecting it – throwing it often, and learning to throw it straight down the middle, knowing it would move and end up elsewhere, but learning that throwing it down the middle gave it its best chance to end up in the strike zone. Following high school in 1942, Hoyt signed with the Class-D Mooresville Moors in the North Carolina State League and went 10-3. He was then drafted into the Army and spent the next three years in service. He earned a Purple Heart for his actions. He spent the rest of his career with a piece of shrapnel lodged in his back from wounds he received in battle. After his release from the military, he returned to the Mooresville Moors for the 1946 and 1947 seasons and had two more successful seasons going 21-8 in 1946 and 20-7 in 1947. The Boston Braves then purchased his contract from Mooresville. On November 20, 1947, he was drafted by the New York Giants from the Braves in the 1947 minor league draft. The Giants assigned him to their Class-B Knoxville Smokies team for the 1948 season, and he went 13-9 before being promoted to the Class-A Jacksonville Tars of the South Atlantic League near the end of the season. He returned to the Jacksonville team for the 1949 season and went 17-12. He was promoted again in 1950 to the Class-AAA Minneapolis Millers of the American Association League. He spent 1950 and 1951 with the Minneapolis team going 15-11 and 11-14. He spent the winters of 1950-51 and 1951-52 playing winter ball in Cuba. In 1952, he made the New York Giants major league team coming out of spring training. The Giants, however, whose strong starting pitching had led them to the National League pennant the year before did not need more starting pitchers. The Giants manager, Leo Durocher, decided to use Wilhelm in relief. Pitching exclusively in relief, Hoyt pitched 71 games his rookie year, going 15-3 with 11 saves and a 2.43 ERA. He finished 4th in NL MVP Award voting and 2nd in the Rookie of the Year Award.
In his first MLB at-bat, in the third game of his MLB
career, on April 23, 1952, Hoyt hit the first and only home run of his MLB
career. Using timeanddate.com, from his
birthdate to his home run was:
10,865 days, or
29 years, 8 months, 29 days,
356 months, 29 days.
Summing:
10,865+29+8+29+356+29 = 11,316.
In 1953, Hoyt pitched in 68 games all in relief, going 7-8
with 15 saves and a 3.04 ERA. In 1954,
Hoyt helped lead the New York Giants to their fifth World Series Championship. He pitched 111.1 innings in 57 games all in relief,
going 12-4 with 7 saves and a 2.10 ERA.
In the World Series, he pitched 2 and 1/3 innings in 2 games and saved
the third game in the Giants 4-0 win over the Cleveland Indians (who had won 111
games in regular season).
In 1967, he helped resurrect Wilbur Wood’s MLB career working
with him and teaching him how to throw a knuckleball. In 1968, Wood would set a MLB record for appearances
(with 88) in a season and was named The Sporting News Fireman of the Year. In 1971, with the Spokane Indians, he tutored
Charlie Hough, a young knuckleballer who would go on to have a 25-year career,
winning 216 games and saving 61 games.
Hoyt’s MLB accolades over his 21 year MLB career (began at
29 years old) included 8X All-Star, 2X ERA Title, and World Series Champion. He was the first modern player to win ERA
titles in both leagues (1952 and 1959).
In 1968, he broke Cy Young’s record for innings pitched and in 1970, he became
the first pitcher to pitch 1,000 innings.
He was the first pitcher to reach 200 saves and he holds the MLB record with
124 wins in relief. In 1958, in a rare
starting appearance, on September 20, he pitched a no-hitter with the Baltimore
Orioles over the New York Yankees. He
was the first relief pitcher elected to the Hall of Fame.
Following his playing career, Hoyt managed in the Atlanta Braves
organization for a couple of years and then was a minor league pitching coach
for the New York Yankees for 22 years.
He managed Dale Murphy and coached Ron Guidrey and Dave Righetti. He was Mariano Rivera’s first professional
pitching coach.
In 1948, during his time in the South Atlantic League, Hoyt
spotted his future wife, Peggy, sitting in the stands at a game in Columbus,
Georgia He asked an usher or vendor to
get her phone number and asked her for a date.
For the next three years, they corresponded faithfully and saw each
other whenever Hoyt got back to Columbus.
In September 1951, they were married and settled in Columbus where they
raised their three children, 2 girls and a boy.
Later, in 1975, they moved to Sarasota, Florida.
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