Steve Carlton

Steven Norman Carlton threw a slider so devastating that Willie Stargell said, "Sometimes I hit him like I used to hit Koufax, and that's like drinking coffee with a fork." Carlton won 329 games and four Cy Young Awards, struck out 4,136 batters, threw 254 complete games, and in 1972 won 27 games for a Philadelphia Phillies team that finished 59-97, meaning that one man accounted for 45.8 percent of a last-place club's victories, a ratio no pitcher in the modern game approached before or since. He stopped talking to the media for nearly two decades because he decided the distraction was costing him concentration. When asked by ESPN's Roy Firestone why he was put on earth, Carlton answered, "To teach the world how to throw a slider." Richie Ashburn called him "a craftsman, an artist. He was a perfectionist. He painted a ballgame." The BBWAA elected Carlton to the Hall of Fame in 1994 on 95.8 percent of the ballot, and at his induction press conference he spoke for 45 minutes, breaking the silence at last.

Miami

Carlton was born on December 22, 1944, in Miami, Florida. His father Joe worked in airline maintenance, and the young Carlton grew up hunting in the Everglades with an arm strong enough to knock a rabbit from 90 feet with a rock. He attended North Miami High School, pitched at Miami Dade Community College, and signed with the St. Louis Cardinals in October 1963 for a $5,000 bonus. On September 15, 1969, pitching against the Mets, Carlton struck out 19 batters in a nine-inning game, setting the modern major league record at the time, and lost 4-3.

Carlton pitched for two Cardinals World Series teams (winning the 1967 championship and losing the 1968 Series) before a salary dispute ended his time in St. Louis. He wanted $65,000 and Busch would not meet his price. Busch ordered the trade, and on February 25, 1972, the Cardinals sent Carlton to the Phillies for pitcher Rick Wise. Wise won 188 career games. Carlton won 329.

1972

Carlton's first Phillies season was the most dominant individual performance in the history of a team sport. He went 27-10 with a 1.97 ERA, 346 innings pitched, 310 strikeouts, 30 complete games, and eight shutouts for a club that won 59 games total. His wins represented 45.8 percent of the team's victories. During one stretch from July 23 through August 13, he pitched five consecutive complete game wins and allowed one unearned run in 45 innings, with four shutouts. He won the Pitching Triple Crown (leading the league in wins, ERA, and strikeouts) and a unanimous Cy Young Award. "Auggie Busch traded me to the last-place Phillies over a salary dispute," Carlton said. "I was mentally committed to winning 25 games with the Cardinals and now I had to re-think my goals. I decided to stay with the 25-win goal and won 27."

Carlton discovered the slider that made him unhittable during a 1968 postseason exhibition tour in Japan, after Sadaharu Oh hit two home runs off him. "I threw Oh, a left-handed hitter, the slider," Carlton said. "When he backed away and the ball was a strike, I knew I had something." He won his second Cy Young in 1977, his third in 1980 (going 24-9 and leading the Phillies to their first World Series championship in franchise history, pitching seven innings in the Game 6 clinch), and his fourth in 1982, becoming the first pitcher to win four Cy Young Awards.

The Silence

Carlton stopped speaking to reporters in the mid-1970s and maintained the silence for the rest of his Phillies career. His reasoning was straightforward. "It was perfect for me at the time," he said. "After that they wrote better and more interesting stuff." Larry Bowa, his longtime teammate, said, "One thing I regret is that Philadelphia fans didn't see the same Steve Carlton we saw in our clubhouse. He put up a mask when the writers came in." Ernie Johnson described the dynamic from the outside. "The two best pitchers in the National League don't speak English, Fernando Valenzuela and Steve Carlton."

Carlton trained with Gus Hoefling beginning in 1976, incorporating martial arts, meditation, and the famous practice of twisting his fist to the bottom of a large drum filled with rice to build forearm and wrist strength. The Phillies built him a $15,000 soundproof room where he stared at a painting for hours. His personal catcher was Tim McCarver, who first played with Carlton in St. Louis and followed him to Philadelphia. McCarver's description of the partnership doubled as an epitaph. "When Steve and I die, we are going to be buried in the same cemetery, sixty feet, six inches apart."

Carlton reached his 3,000th strikeout on April 29, 1981, fanning three Expos in the first inning, and his 300th win on September 23, 1983, beating his former Cardinals club 6-2 with 12 strikeouts. The Phillies released him in June 1986, and he pitched for the Giants, White Sox, Indians, and Twins before retiring in April 1988 with 329 wins, the second most by a left-hander in history behind Warren Spahn. He never threw a no-hitter, despite pitching six one-hitters, and he holds the career record for pickoffs (144) and balks (90). When the Minnesota Twins visited the White House after winning the 1987 World Series, the official photograph identified every player by name except Carlton, who was listed as "unidentified Secret Service agent."