Kornheiser said today he admitted to at times using spit, baby oil, terpentine, and rosin to doctor pitches. He would also cut the ball. That's a crafty lefty!
What a career.
I wanted to save this for the long form biographical post I’m going to give to personify him a more later today but there’s absolutely a wonderful story behind this regarding the (first) 1961 All Star Game in San Francisco, Whitey’s publicly earliest known instance of doctoring the ball, in this case a spitball.
So Whitey is out in the the Bay Area, golfing a bit at a country club with Mickey Mantle and Pete Stoneham, son of Giants owner Horace Stoneham. All of them come to realize that they have no funds. Pete comes up with the idea to just put everything on his father’s tab, and go to the pro shop to spend hundreds on shirts, balls, and shoes.
As Whitey’s conscience got the better of him, he goes out to Horace and offers to repay the cost of all the goods. Ever the wise better, Stoneham tells Ford that if he can strike out Willie Mays, the cost is covered; should Mays get a base hit, double the cost would be owed.
You should recall that to that point Mays popped two singles off Ford in two trips in the 1955 All Star Game, then took Ford deep in the following All Star Game at Griffith Stadium, added a triple for good measure in 1959, and finally a home run and single off of Ford in the second All Star Game of 1960, for a beefy 1.000/1.000/2.333 to that point. Eventually, the Say Hey Kid would smash three straight singles to begin the next season’s World Series, ultimately going 4/9 with a walk.
Whitey Ford, confident as ever, took the offer. It can’t be stated enough about his swagger. Just look at the 1963 World Series two years after this story, at a time when many pitchers cowered in fear of the imposing, intimidating Frank ‘Hondo’ Howard’s 6’7” height, Ford simply marveled: Look at the size of that strike zone!
So, back to Mays and Ford for this anecdote. The first two pitches, it felt as if it would be more of the same, Ford could not retire Mays. Two zippers tattooed down the left field line, hard and just foul. Ford knew he only needed one pitch to escape his debt. He properly wets, rocks back, winds, and fires—strike three called! If you’ve ever seen Mickey Mantle act overtly excited in this moment out in centerfield like he had won the lottery out there? Well, that’s the reason why, since that whiff absolved him as well.