His 1972 season with Philly was one of the greatest years ever by a starting pitcher. To win 27 games with a team that bad, was just remarkable. I think he won close to half their games.
agree, it's one of the most amazing feats by any pitcher ever, carlton went 27-10 on a team that was 59-97. if they were just a bit better carlton would be the last 30 game winner, not denny mclain.
What's remarkable is how many wins he would've had if the Phillies had any type of offense in 1972. It's very possible that he would have had a 35 win season.
Pirate hall of famer Willie Stargell put it best about trying to hit Steve Carlton's slider when he said "Its like trying to drink coffee with a fork."
@@stepheng9746 Lefty pitched during a terrible era of baseball, put him in todays game and he would get bombed. I respect your opinion but it is wrong!
Carlton's delivery was so fluid that enabled him to release the Slider out in front so consistency. Right handed hitters swung over top of it, lefties took the day off.......Dave Parker
I tell ya, as a Mets fan, I used to hate it when we would face Lefty. Now, of course, I have nothing but mad respect for him. When he and Seaver would lock up, you knew you were in for a good one.
As a Phillies fan...that was a ticket to die for. We sold out when Tom Seaver came to town. What amazed me is that these 2 high powered pitchers would throw complete games
1972 Steve 27 and 10 with losing team 15 in a row you made my summer when I was 11 Steve, thanks, still remember the radio "Phillies are gonna win today, Carlton's pitching'--and they were right.
Thank God for youtube so I can look back and see these guys again. Now I'll look at Kent Tekulve Bob Gibson,Vida Tommy John Jim Palmer Sparky Lyle Catfish Goose Gaylord Tom Seaver The Neikros'and all the great pitchers of the 70s & early 80s cant forget the best, Nolan. Thanx uploader for this gem.
Born in 1967 and grew up in Los Angeles and NOTHING was as intense and enjoyable as the late 70s rivalry between the Phillies and Dodgers. Dodgers and Cincinnati was good too!! It was absolutely the most fun time to anticipate a game between LA and Philly and especially during the playoffs. I HATED Carlton and knew he was going to blow the Dodgers away with Luzinski and Schmidt and Bowa and Maddox…shall I go on? It was a fun fun time to be a kid back then. That slider was so wicked it was unbelievable. The only other two during that time that was may close to him as an effective pitch was Ron Guidry and Sparky Lyle. I haven’t followed baseball for over 20 years now and wouldn’t know a multi million dollar star today if he stepped on my foot. There were far fewer teams back then and 2 divisions which made the talent pool a lot more pure. Artificial turf made it a different game, but fun though. I think St. Louis, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia had fields like that. I don’t miss baseball and am fortunate that I can remember so vividly when baseball was so much better.
Nice post, Allen. I was born in Philly in ‘63. We played wiffleball in the ‘70’s, pretending to be the Phils, Dodgers, Reds, or Pirates up at bat. Phil’s fans booed Burt Hooten off the mound in ‘77 but the Dodgers still beat us. Great times.
"Talent pool was a lot more pure." That's because scouts back in the 70s were nowhere as near active scouting internationally. Unintentional xenophobia much?
I think to me the key is his balance and posture from start of his pitching motion of that "rocking" chair variety. Very consistent. When I saw him pitch in 82 from 1st inn. to ninth, his balance and posture never slumped. You couldn't tell if it was the 1inn or 9th, bad ump call or circumstances--good or bad. But in '83-84, I started to notice in the later innings, he started to veer off a bit which made his slider hitable. But had he had those relief pitchers of today, he would have won close to 20 games in ‘83 and ‘84. He was injured in '85 and tried to comeback in '86 by trying throwing breaking pitches first which made him really hittable. He said he needed "a journey" to develop that style. Maybe he could succeeded like Marco Estrada of throwing that high changeup.
I watched him many times. The angel of his arm and the break of his slider helped me with my slider. I had to almost visualize my break on my slider to creat that muscle memory when I was learning how to throw it. It took about 2 and half years before I threw it in a game and another year to command it. You know It's a good pitch when they know it's coming and they still cant do anything with it. Carlton was the best at it.
a couple things about that slider, notice how all the hitters whiffing are taking big cuts, which would prove mccarver's assessment that batters couldn't see the rotation and thought it was a fastball. and that would indicate how well carlton disguised his pitches, it's a hard thing to do, make your delivery the same no matter what you throw.
tomitstube The tell tale red dot on his slider developed very late. Very hard to pick up. And you are correct on the delivery. He would drop down a time or two. Thank you for the comment.
Indeeed...Pete Rose has said that Koufax was the toughest pitcher ever faced....that curveball was like Carlton's slider....one minute it's in the strike zone, the next it's nearly on top of the plate...would love to have seen those two in a duel...
He was also the all-time best at picking runners off first base. He throw the ball to the first baseman and the runner was so caught off guard that he wouldn't even try to run back to the base
@@scarlton3232 are you the man himself? If so, I just want to thank you for all the years of pitching artistry you gave us, especially for Phillies fans like myself.
Look at the great hitters he make look silly in this video. Andre Dawson, Dave Parker, Tommy Herr, Sadaharu Oh, absolutely amazing pitcher. Sad how his career ended.
I have an autographed baseball from Steve Carlton. It was his last pitch ever in the major leagues. He struck the guy out and he threw it up in the stands. My dad later met him and he signed it. Its worth $960,000
Sean DeMarco, no, he’s lying. His last pitch ever in MLB was hit for a double. Carlton handed the ball to his manager on the mound as the relief pitcher was called, trailing 6-0. Carlton never was the type to throw a ball into the stands anyway as he had a stoic demeanor.
Carlton also was not big on signing autographs. I visited Phillies spring training in 1986, his final season with the Phillies. I stood outside between the locker room and their parking lot. Every Phillie except Carlton signed an autograph for me. I had to settle for taking his picture as he walked to his car.
@@straycatttt He must have mellowed in his retirement. I got his autograph at a card show held in a big hotel in New York. He was very pleasant and chatty. I'm an immigrant from England with noticeable accent, also got hooked on baseball in my forties, so not your average autograph-seeking fan, and maybe amused some of the players! Anyway, the second day of the show, I was leaving, on escalator down from the ballroom where show was held, and was hailed from the up escalator. There was Steve Carlton, calling across to me, asking did i get X's autograph, and Y's? Recognized this stout little middle-aged Englishwoman in a Mets jersey from the day before ... Made my day, I can tell you. He really was one of the nicest players I got an autograph from. I read the Philly reporters gave him a hard time, and it made him rather retreat into a shell with the media and possibly also the public.
After watching this, I see similiarities of his slider with Randy Johnson. Johnson's low and in slider was unhittable to right handed hitters and now i see where this pitch originated from. I thought RJ was the greatest left handed pitcher of all time but after watching Carlton's highlight videos I would put Carlton first and RJ second.
That pitch at 1:19 I think was to Parker. He made a really good player look silly. Carlton's slider was really a slurve. It broke horizontally and vertically. That is what made it so devastating.
I'm a right handed pitcher.When you throw a slider,do you turn tour wrist at the last second when releasing the ball or do you just throw it like a fastball?An answer would be very very much appreciated!
No , hold baseball with index and middle fingers together with the seam and put pressure/hard snap on middle finger almost exactly like a cut fastball . No snapping wrist
The most dominating pitcher I have EVER seen. My Pirates would roll into Philly for a four-game weekend series. They had 6 or 8 guys in the NL top ten hitting for average. GREAT hitters and a hitting machine team...Then the Phils would trot out Lefty on Sunday game and make these future Hall of Farmers look stupid. Absolutely STUPID. When he has his stuff he was the best. EVER.
All i know is Johnny Bench owned steve carlton although hes the best left hander in my lifetime who i seen pitch and im 51 and saw seavers no hitter at riverfront.
Yes, the 12 homers and .305 average by Bench versus Carlton were very good. A smart catcher like Bench knew how to read his pitches. Speaking of Seaver, Phillies first baseman Tommy Hutton owned Seaver but couldn’t hit anybody else, lol.
1:45 The Cubs batter's reaction basically says everything about Carlton's slider!! Simply an unhittable pitch, you know it's coming, and you still can't hit it! I think the batter may have been Bill Buckner, who (aside from the infamous error in the World Series) was a pretty great hitter.
