Athletes - Wilbur Wood

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	Athletes - Wilbur Wood

Wilbur Forrester Wood, Jr. (born October 22, 1941 in Cambridge, Massachusetts) is a former knuckleball pitcher in Major League Baseball for the Boston Red Sox, Pittsburgh Pirates, and most notably the Chicago White Sox, where he got 163 of his 164 wins. He threw left-handed, but batted right-handed.

Career overview

Wood was signed out of a Massachusetts high school by the Red Sox, before throwing on-and-off with them for a few seasons and being traded to the Pirates, and then finally to the White Sox in 1967. When there, knuckleball master Hoyt Wilhelm advised him to go with his knuckleball only, which he did. From there, his career took off, first as a reliever, and then as a starter.

Wood almost won the Cy Young Award in 1972, but lost in an incredibly tight vote to Gaylord Perry. He had a record of 24-17 on the year, with a 2.51 ERA and 193 strikeouts in 376 2/3 innings pitched. Both his ERA and strikeout numbers were not career highs, however. The year before, Wood had compiled 210 strikeouts and a 1.91 ERA in 334 innings.

In a 17-season career, Wood compiled a 164-156 record with a 3.24 ERA. He had 1411 strikeouts in 2684 innings pitched. He also compiled 24 shutouts and 114 complete games in 297 games started. He pitched in 651 games.

Wood is best known for being one of the last pitchers to continually start over 45 games a season, and consistently throw over 300 innings in a season, doing this deep into the 1970s. He was also one of the last to win and lose 20 games in a season (24-20 in 1973). He led the league in wins twice in the '70s (1972, '73). In 1973, Wood started both ends of a doubleheader, and is one of the last pitchers to do so. He lost both ends. Each year from 1972 through 1975, he started more games than any American League pitcher, and he led the league in innings pitched in 1972 and 1973. Most said his ties to old time baseball were because his arm never got tired after throwing the knuckleball.

Fact

In a 6-1 loss to the California Angels, on September 10, 1977, Wood hit three batters in one inning (1st) consecutively tying a record set by Dock Ellis
. C.J. Nitkowski later accomplished that as well, in 1998.

Highlights

3-time All-Star (1971, '72, '74)
American League The Sporting News Pitcher of the Year Award winner in 1972
American League The Sporting News Reliever of the Year Award winner in 1968
Led the league in wins twice (1972, '73)
Led the league in games started four times (1972, '73, '74, '75), with his career high coming in 1972 (49)
2nd in the league in shutouts twice (1971, '72), tied with Mel Stottlemyre
in 1971
Set the single-season record for games pitched in 1968 (88), which has been surpassed by 12 people through 2004, and tied by 2 others

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