The right-hander was given the ball for the Orioles first home game
on April 15, 1954. Opposing Turley that day was Virgil Trucks of the
Chicago White Sox, who also passed away earlier in the week. Turley pitched a complete game, striking out nine batters while
surrendering only one run.
"I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous
going out there,"
said Turley to the Baltimore Sun in 2009. "But I pitched the whole game. Had to. Back then, if you didn’t go nine, they sent you back to the minors."
In their inaugural season, Turley led the team in wins and innings
pitched, while his 185 strikeouts were enough to lead the American
League. He won the team’s Most Popular Oriole award, which was done by
fan voting. His prize was a brand new Cadillac. Author Gene Fehler told
the story of Turley’s teammate Cal Abrams in “
When Baseball Was Still King,” that the award wasn’t without some controversy.
“Halfway through the season, I was leading the popular by so many
that I thought I had the Cadillac,” Abrams said. “At the end of the
year, Bob Turley had doubled what I had, and I couldn’t figure out how
until a few years later. He had told all the kids in the park to go in
the stands and pull the coupon out of the booklet and put his name on it
and stick it into the barrel, and that’s how he won.”
Turley’s advocacy for his cause was not enough to keep him in
Baltimore past that first year. Baltimore’s most popular player was
involved in a 17 player trade that included Don Larsen going to the
Yankees, in return for a group of players that included Gus Triandos,
who died on Thursday. (After baseball, Turley went into business with Triandos.)
He spent the next eight years in pinstripes, winning two World Series
championships in 1956 and 1958. The latter championship season was
Turley’s marquee year. He won the Cy Young award in 1958, going 21-7 while
pitching a league leading 19 complete games. He capped off the season
with two victories in the World Series, earning the Most Valuable Player
award in the process. He attributed his success that season to his
endurance on the mound.
“When I left spring training, I had to pitch nine innings in a spring
training game before the season started," said Turley in a 2009 phone interview conducted by the author. "They take them out real early
now.”
Known for his fastball, Turley became more efficient as he matured as
a pitcher. He realized that he didn’t need to strike out every batter
he faced.
“I would throw the sinker, and they would hit the top of it and it
would get me out of innings pretty quickly," he said. "I developed a slider too.
The biggest thing was, they hit it. When I reached back and threw a
fastball, they'd tip it or swing and miss. You want them to hit it.”
Turley was sold to the Los Angeles Angels prior to the start of the
1963 season and split time with the Angels and the Boston Red Sox that
year before retiring.
In his post-baseball career, Turley made millions as the national sales director for Primerica Financial Services. He told
Sports Illustrated in 2001 that the currency of playing for the Yankees advanced him in his entrepreneurial pursuits.
"It helped me in the business world," he said, "Playing with the Yankees gave me
the credibility to make the money Roger Clemens makes, and in business,
credibility is your name.”
