Pitchers That Excelled After Joining the Yankees: Bob Turley and Don Larsen

After winning a record five consecutive World Series from 1949-53, the New York Yankees won 103 games in 1954, only to finish a distant second to the Cleveland Indians.

That was unacceptable to Yankees’ owners Dan Topping and Del Webb.

On Nov. 17, 1954, general manager George Weiss and Paul Richards of the Baltimore Orioles made the biggest trade in history.

Right-handed pitchers Bob Turley and Don Larsen were the Yankees’ key acquisitions.

Bob Turley

Turley had a "cup of coffee” with the St. Louis Browns in 1951. Known as “Bullet Bob” because he threw aspirin tablets,Turley was 14-15 with a 3.46 ERA, a 104 ERA+ and a 1.451 WHIP.

He led the league in strikeouts with 185, but amazingly, Turley walked an incomprehensible 181 batters. He faced 1,092 batters.

As a comparison, CC Sabathia led the league in 2011 when he faced 985 hitters.

After decent seasons in 1955-57, Turley won the Cy Young Award in 1958, winning 21 games. He still had control problems, giving up 128 walks.

After the Milwaukee Braves belted Turley around in the second game of the 1958 World Series, Turley shut out the Braves in the fifth game to extend the Series to a sixth game. He then saved the sixth game and won the seventh game.

The strain on his arm from making so many pitches and pitching in three consecutive World Series games in four days resulted in Turley’s career ending in 1963 at the age of 32.

Don Larsen

In 1954, Don Larsen won three games and lost 21. Two of his three wins were against the Yankees.

Larsen will always be remembered for his perfect game against the hard-hitting Brooklyn Dodgers in the fifth game of the 1956 World Series. He was a decent pitcher with the Yankees and had his best years with them, but he was no more than average.

In 1955, his first season with the Yankees, Larsen was 9-2 with a 123 ERA+. In his perfect game season of 1956, he went 11-5 with a 119 ERA+. Those were his best Yankees seasons.

Larsen appeared in the World Series every season from 1955-58. In addition to his perfect game, he won a World Series game against the Milwaukee Braves in 1957 and another against them in 1958.

After finishing third, 15 games behind the pennant-winning Chicago White Sox in 1959, the Yankees traded Larsen and others to their friends in Kansas City for Roger Maris.

Larsen appeared in the 1962 World Series with the San Francisco Giants. He was the winning pitcher in the fourth game at Yankee Stadium in relief of an injured Juan Marichal.

The big right-hander finished his career with 81 wins and 91 losses.