Yankee Pride: Remembering Bill Stafford

In the early 1960s, as the New York Yankees were chalking up 1 American League pennant after another, the leader of the Yankees' pitching staff was clearly Whitey Ford. But in 1961 and 1962, the Yankees' starting rotation followed up with 2 right-handers who piled up a bunch of innings and wins to complement Ford's Hall of Fame ability. Those 2 pitchers were Ralph Terry and Bill Stafford.

Stafford was signed by the Yankees out of high school in 1957. He spent three seasons in the Yankees' minor league system, and was called up to play in New York at the end of the 1960 season. He went 3-1 in eight  starts, registering a pair of complete games, one of them a shutout, and a 2.25 earned-run average. In 1961, Stafford was thrust into the Yankees' starting rotation, going 14-9 with 3 shutouts. His 2.68 ERA was second best in the American League (the ERA leader for 1961 was Washington's Dick Donovan's at 2.40).

Stafford followed up in 1962 with another 14-9 record on a 3.67 ERA. He had career highs in starts (33), innings pitched (213.1) and strikeouts (109). He was also the starting pitcher in the third game of the 1962 World Series. in that contest, Stafford out-dueled the Giants' veteran left-hander Billy Pierce 3-2, tossing a four-hit, complete game performance. It would behis only appearance in the 1962 Series, and  the last World Series appearance of Stafford's career.

Stafford had won 31 games over his first 2+ seasons with the Yankees. He would win only 12 more games in the balance of his career. His record slipped to 4-8 in 1963, with half of his appearances coming out of the bullpen. In 1964 he was 5-0 with a 2.48 ERA, but made only 1 start. As a reliever that season, he finished 12 games with 4 saves.

Stafford returned to a starter's role in 1965, the first year in the decade that the Yankees wouldn't win the American League pennant. He finished the year 3-8 with a 3.56 ERA. In the off-season, Stafford was traded with Gil Blanco and Roger Repoz to the Kansas City Athletics for Billy Bryan and Fred Talbot. Over the next two seasons with the A's, Stafford would appear in only 23 games, going 0-5 with a 4.04 ERA. He retired in 1967 at age 27 with a career record of 43-40.