Bob Turley, who spent eight seasons pitching for the Yankees and won the Cy Young Award in 1958, died yesterday in Atlanta. He was 82 and suffered from liver cancer.
Ironically, Turley died two days after the death of longtime major league catcher Gus Triandos. The two were part of a 17-player trade — still the largest trade in professional sports history — between the Yankees and the Orioles in November 1954.
Turley had pitched one season for the Orioles in 1954, their first in Baltimore after the franchise relocated from St. Louis, while Triandos began his career with the Yankees before spending the next eight seasons in Baltimore.
“I’d have crawled to New York,” Turley, who went 14-15 for an awful Orioles team, told the Baltimore Sun years later. “What did I learn from that ’54 season? That I never wanted to be on a loser for the rest of my life.”
He did his best to make sure that didn’t happen.
Joining a staff that already included Whitey Ford, Turley — the hard-throwing right-hander known as Bullet Bob — was with the Yankees from 1955 to 1962, compiling an 82-52 record and a 3.64 ERA and helping the team win three World Series.
His finest season came in 1958 when he went 21-7, throwing 19 complete games and six shutouts. Turley followed that up by helping the Yankees battle their way back from a 3 games to 1 deficit against the Milwaukee Braves in the World Series. He threw a shutout in Game 5, recorded a save in Game 6 and won his second game in three days pitching in relief in Game 7. In the clincher he allowed two hits in 6 2/3 scoreless innings.
Turley, who also pitched for the St. Louis Browns, Los Angeles Angels, and Red Sox, had a 101-85 record in 12 major league seasons.