Wilbur Wood, who spent 17 seasons in the Majors from 1961-78, passed away Saturday at 84 years old, the White Sox announced.
Wood, a knuckleballer who developed into one of the best pitchers in baseball with the White Sox in the 1970s, truly embodied the meaning of chewing up innings. At his peak from 1971-75 with Chicago, Wood threw a whopping 1,681 2/3 innings, nearly 100 more than any other pitcher during that time and an average of 336 2/3 per season.
On July 20, 1973, Wood started both games of a doubleheader against the Yankees. He lost both games, not recording an out and exiting after facing his seventh batter in Game 1.
“I think Wilbur was a really nice guy, he was very funny. He was just one of those guys that was an unassuming star,” said White Sox television analyst Steve Stone, who was Wood’s teammate in 1973 and 1977-78. “He was one of those guys, just hand him the baseball. He kept on pitching -- whether it was a doubleheader or whether he had to pitch with a day’s rest or whatever the case may be.”
Stone was part of a three-man rotation with Wood and Stan Bahnsen that manager Chuck Tanner used for a portion of the ‘73 season. Stone got his first start on June 2, but he threw 176 1/3 innings in total, which was a good distance behind Wood's Major League-leading 359 1/3 innings and 48 starts.
Wood combined incredible durability with run prevention at the height of his career. In 1971, Wood broke out in a career-best season, posting a 1.91 ERA and 11.7 WAR (per Baseball Reference) in 334 innings. The left-hander finished third in American League Cy Young Award voting and ninth in MVP voting, and was selected to his first All-Star Game.
Wood followed that up with a 2.51 ERA in 1972 in 376 2/3 innings, the most innings thrown by a starter in a single season in the Live Ball Era (since 1920). For his efforts, Wood was selected to his second straight All-Star Game and finished second in Cy Young Award voting and seventh in MVP voting.
The lefty kept it up with a 3.46 ERA in 359 1/3 innings in 1973, a 3.60 ERA in 320 1/3 innings in ‘74 and a 4.11 ERA in 291 1/3 innings in ‘75. In the Live Ball Era, Wood is one of 10 pitchers who have thrown 300 innings in four seasons or more.
“As a teammate, it was amazing the years he had,” said Hall of Famer Jim Kaat, who pitched with Wood for part of ‘73 and then ‘74-75 with the White Sox. “In four years, he had from like ‘72-75, if he didn’t get hit in the kneecap, he might have compiled some stats that will never be reached. A lot of them as it stands, you talk about starting over 40 games four years in a row.”
Detroit’s Ron LeFlore hit Wood in the left kneecap with a line drive during a game on May 9, 1976, and as Kaat referenced, the big southpaw was never quite the same on the mound after that unfortunate shattering incident. In 2,684 career innings, Wood posted a 3.24 ERA with 164 wins and accumulated a 52.1 WAR. He was a three-time All-Star and finished top five in the Cy Young Award voting in three straight seasons from 1971-73.
“He was a terrific teammate. I really liked Wilbur. I thought he was a really good guy,” Stone said. “He could have very well been a mechanic brought in to fix your dishwasher or sink or something else.
“If you saw Wilbur with a little sack on his shoulders or something along those lines, maybe a toolbox, you would be like, ‘He’s coming over to fix something for me.’ Then you got him in a Major League ballpark and put him on the mound, he would stay out there as long as it took. I liked him. One of the more unassuming guys you’ve ever met in your life.”