Catfish Hunter

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James Augustus "Catfish" Hunter (April 8, 1946 – September 9, 1999) was a prolific Major League Baseball right-handed starting pitcher between 1965 and 1979. Hunter died in Hertford, North Carolina more specifically Bear Swamp, in Perquimans County, NC, where he was born, after falling and hitting his head. He had been suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease) at the time. He was 53 years old. In 1975, he was the subject of the Bob Dylan song, "Catfish." In 1976 he was the subject of the Bobby Hollowell song "The Catfish Kid (Ballad of Jim Hunter)," that was performed by Big Tom White, released on a 45 RPM single.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Career statistics 3 Notable Achievements 4 Quotes 5 See also 6 Trivia 7 External links

[edit] Biography

Hunter was known as a skilled control pitcher, one of the best big game pitchers during the early 1970s. He won 21 or more games five years in a row (1971-1975) and tied for the major league lead in wins in 1974 (25) and 1975 (23). Hunter also led the major leagues in Earned Run Average in 1974 while winning the American League Cy Young Award. Hunter earned five World Series championship rings, and threw a perfect game in 1968 (the first regular season perfect game in the American League in 46 years). Hunter was an 8-time All-Star.

He began his major league career playing for the Kansas City and Oakland Athletics, whose owner Charles O. Finley gave him the nickname "Catfish" when he made up a story about Hunter catching fish in the backwoods creeks of his home state of North Carolina. By 1974 Hunter and Finley had fallen out. Finley refused to make statutory payments to Hunter's life insurance, an annuity clause in Hunter's contract [1]. The contractual wrangle was eventually referred to arbitrator Peter Seitz, who declared the contract breached, thus nullifying the standard reserve clause and making Hunter a free agent. As one of the first free agents of the modern era, he signed with the New York Yankees for the then-unprecedented sum of $3.75 million, where his success continued, appearing in 3 further World Series, and winning 2. Hunter retired from baseball in 1979, at the age of 33. He was selected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1987. When asked to choose which team to go into the Hall of Fame as, Hunter notably refused to choose between the Athletics and Yankees, loving both franchises equally. His plaque is one of the few with no insignia on the cap. The Athletics retired his number 27 jersey.

Preceded by: Sandy Koufax	Perfect game pitcher May 8, 1968	Succeeded by: Len Barker
Preceded by: Jim Palmer	American League Cy Young Award 1974	Succeeded by: Jim Palmer

[edit] Career statistics

[edit] Notable Achievements

• 8-time AL All-Star (1966, 1967, 1970 & 1972-1976)
• AL Cy Young Award Winner (1974)
• AL ERA Leader (1974)
• 2-time AL Wins Leader (1974 & 1975)
• AL Innings Pitched Leader (1975)
• AL Complete Games Leader (1975)
• 15 Wins Seasons: 7 (1970-1976)
• 20 Wins Seasons: 5 (1971-1975)
• 25 Wins Seasons: 1 (1974)
• 200 Innings Pitched Seasons: 10 (1967-1976)
• 300 innings Pitched Seasons: 2 (1974 & 1975)
• Member of five World Series Championship teams: Oakland Athletics (1972, 1973 & 1974) and New York Yankees (1977 & 1978)
• Baseball Hall of Fame: Class of 1987

[edit] Quotes

• "The sun don't shine on the same dog's ass all the time."
• "My brothers taught me to throw strikes, and thanks to that I gave up 400 home runs in the big leagues."
• (About teammate Reggie Jackson): "He'd give you the shirt off his back. Then he'd call a press conference to announce it." (and about the Reggie candy bar) "You open it up and it tells you how good it is."

[edit] See also

• Players Never to Play Minor League Baseball

[edit] Trivia

• Hunter's six major league home runs were hit against Barry Moore, Frank Bertaina, Dave McNally, Mike Cuellar, Sam McDowell, and Mickey Lolich.
• Hit a combined .429 (24-for-56) against All-Stars Mike Cuellar, Mickey Lolich, Sam McDowell, Denny McLain, Camilo Pascual, Gary Peters, and Mel Stottlemyre
• Held All-Stars Tommie Agee, Sal Bando, Bert Campaneris, Chris Chambliss, Doug DeCinces, Dwight Evans, George Hendrick, Frank Howard, and Bobby Richardson to a .129 collective batting average (40-for-310)
• Held Thurman Munson plus Hall of Famers Hank Aaron, Orlando Cepeda, Harmon Killebrew, Mickey Mantle, Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson, and Carl Yastrzemski to a .211 collective batting average (107-for-506)

[edit] External links

• Baseball Hall of Fame
• Baseball-Reference.com - career statistics and analysis
• Retrosheet
• The Deadball Era

Catfish Hunter is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame