Tuesday, May 8, 2018

Top 106 Baseball Players: #83 - Lefty Gomez


Lefty Gomez

Lefty Gomez was a great pitcher for the New York Yankees in the 1930's, and was a big part of the reason that they were constantly in the World Series, so he has a spot on this list despite his short career.

Gomez joined the Yankees in 1930, and by the middle of his second season had established himself as a starter for New York, surpassing 20 wins in both 1931 and 1932. He made his first World Series appearance in 1932, and was the best hurler in the Series, pitching a complete game in Game 2 as the Yankees beat the Cubs 5-2.

In 1933 he led the league in strikeouts for the first time while his other numbers all dropped, but he was just beginning to put it all together. In 1934 he led the league in strikeouts again, but this time he was also #1 in wins (26), ERA (2.33), complete games (25), and shutouts (6), earning the pitching Triple Crown, and he would have easily won the Cy Young if it existed at that time.

He had a couple more down years after his dominant season ended, but he was able to pull it all together again in 1937, when he won the pitching Triple Crown for the second time, with the exact same ERA and number of complete games and shutouts, along with league-leading 21 wins and 194 strikeouts. He is one of only 7 pitchers in history to win the Triple Crown twice.

In addition, he had another dominant postseason that year, pitching 2 complete games in the World Series, and only giving up 3 total runs as the Yankees won the World Series over the New York Giants for the second straight year. After one more really good year, his talents started to slip, and though he kept pitching until 1943, he was pretty much done by the end of 1939.

Overall, Gomez pitched in the World Series in 5 different seasons, with 7 total starts, finishing with a 6-0 record in those games and a handful of championship rings, and he was by far the best pitcher in the Series twice, in addition to his two seasons of absolute domination in the regular season. His career was shorter than that of most players on this list, but he was so good for those few years that he cannot be left off this list.


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