Steve Carlton
Steve Carlton was a great pitcher for well over a decade with the Philadelphia Phillies, and a former holder of many of the most prestigious records for pitchers.
Carlton first pitched for the Saint Louis Cardinals in 1965, and he had a couple of pretty good seasons with the Cardinals, but it was after he left that he became a real superstar. He pitched in the World Series for Saint Louis in 1967 and 1968, being tagged with a loss in the 1967 Series after pitching 6 innings and giving up only one unearned run, but he did earn a championship ring with that team.
The first record that Carlton broke in his career was the single-game strikeout record, which he took in 1969 when he struck out 19 New York Mets in one game, though he lost that game 4-3. That record has been exceeded on a few occasions, but it is one of the big ones for pitchers.
After winning 20 games for the first time in 1971, he demanded a higher salary, and instead was traded to the Phillies. During his first season with the team, he had one of the greatest pitching seasons ever. He won the pitching Triple Crown with 27 wins, a 1.97 ERA, and 310 strikeouts, and was also given the Cy Young unanimously. He also pitched 30 complete games that season, and set a record for winning the largest percentage of his team's games in history, winning 27 of his teams 59 wins that season, good for 46% of their total wins.
His 1973 season was a complete reversal, as he led the league in runs allowed and losses. He won the Cy Young again in 1977 after leading the league with 23 wins, and another in 1980. That season he was on top again with 24 wins and 286 strikeouts, and he also pitched 304 innings, a number that has not been reached since.
In that year's postseason, he went 3-0 with 23 strikeouts and won the final game of the World Series to earn his second championship, achieving the rare feat of being the best pitcher in both the regular season and the postseason in the same year.
He won his 4th Cy Young award in 1982 after leading the league in wins, complete games, shutouts, innings pitched, and strikeouts, and he became the first pitcher ever to reach 4. That mark has since been tied by Greg Maddux and exceeded by Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson. He also held the all-time strikeout record on several occasions from 1983 to 1984, when he and Nolan Ryan both surpassed Walter Johnson's record within weeks of each other, then kept passing the record back and forth for about a year, with Ryan eventually pulling away from Carlton.
Carlton was once the record holder for single-game strikeouts, career strikeouts, and Cy Young awards, though he no longer holds any of them. He struck out 4136 batters in his career, which was the most by a lefty at the time, since surpassed by Randy Johnson. He was twice a World Series champion, and was the best pitcher on one of those teams, and definitely one of the greatest players of all time.
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