Jim Palmer is recognized as the greatest pitcher in the history of the Baltimore Orioles organization. Jim Palmer was a multi-sport phenom in high school who chose a baseball career over basketball and translated it into a ticket to the Hall of Fame. When his playing days were done, Jim Palmer stayed in the public eye in a variety of ways, each reaffirming the fact that he is one of the true gentlemen of the game.
Jim Palmer was born in New York City on October 15th, 1945. Palmer was adopted at birth, and when Jim was nine years old his adoptive father died. His mother moved her family from New York to California and remarried in 1960, once again relocating, this time to Scottsdale, Arizona. He attended high school in Scottsdale and became an All-State star in three different sports. He was a stand out pitcher who batted .483, once caught four touchdown passes in a single game, and as a senior, Palmer averaged 25 points a contest to lead all Arizona schoolboy basketball players. He was offered a scholarship to play basketball at UCLA, but decided to pursue baseball and signed as a free agent with the Orioles in 1963. He was only eighteen when they gave him a $50,000 bonus; he was not yet twenty when he made his big league debut in 1965. His first win came over the Yankees as he hit a two run homer off Jim Bouton, the future Ball Four author, and won 7-5.
Palmer became a member of the starting rotation in 1966 and won 15 games for the pennant winning Orioles. On October 6th, at the age of twenty, he became the youngest pitcher to hurl a complete game World Series shutout. He won Game Two over Sandy Koufax by a 6-0 count, allowing just four hits in the last game Koufax ever appeared in. The Orioles swept the Dodgers in the series, and Palmer’s future looked like the sky was the limit. However, arm, shoulder, and back ailments almost derailed his career. He made only 9 starts in 1967 and 1968 saw him in the minors. He underwent surgery in 1968 and after a stint in the Instructional League, winter ball, and a short time on the disabled list, he found his form once more.
He no-hit the A’s 8-0 in August of 1969 and went a remarkable 16-4 for the season. The Orioles recaptured the American League pennant, but were the victims of the Miracle Mets in the World Series. Palmer won twenty games for the first time in 1970; his 20-10 mark was complemented by Dave McNally’s 24-9 record and Mike Cuellar at 24-8. Baltimore easily won the AL pennant by fifteen games over New York and behind the brilliant fielding and clutch hitting of Brooks Robinson, they beat the Reds four games to one to win their second World Series title.
The Orioles boasted four twenty game winners in 1971, joining the 1920 White Sox as the only team to be able to make that claim. Pat Dobson joined the aforementioned pitchers to complete the quartet, with Palmer going 20-9. They lost a heartbreaking World Series to Roberto Clemente and the Pirates in October, with Jim winning Game Two and pitching well in relief in Game Six.
Palmer had a fluid delivery accented by an unusually high leg kick. Pitching coach Ray Miller once likened watching Palmer pitch to seeing a ballet, he was that graceful. In 1972 he won the first of three Cy Young Awards as he pitched to a 22-9 mark and an ERA of 2.40. He won 22 again the next year, but had elbow problems in 1974 that would cause a streak of eight twenty win seasons to be interrupted, as he struggled to a 7-12 record. Palmer was at his zenith in 1975 as he won 23 games, throwing 10 shutouts along the way. In those ten games he allowed a total of 44 hits! His ERA of 2.09 and 25 complete games assured him of his second Cy Young; he won his third in 1976 with a 22-13 record.
Jim Palmer was constantly at odds with manager Earl Weaver, the hot headed and stubborn manager of the Orioles since the late Sixties. However, they had a deep mutual respect for one another that they couldn’t deny. Palmer won 20 games in 1977 and another 21 in 1978, but then fell victim to more injuries. He did manage to win 16 contests in 1980 and went 15-5 in 1982. The Orioles won the pennant once more in 1983, and in the World Series, Palmer won Game Three in relief to become the only man to win World Series games in three different decades. He retired reluctantly in 1984 at the age of 38.
Over his fabulous nineteen year career, Jim Palmer compiled a 268-152 record with 2212 strikeouts, a 2.86 ERA, 521 games started, 211 complete games, and 53 shutouts. He had a postseason mark of 7-5, with an ERA of 2.61 and two shutouts in 17 games. He won four Gold Gloves for his fielding prowess and in the course of pitching over 3,900 innings, he never gave up a grand slam! He was overwhelmingly elected to the Hall of Fame on January 9th, 1990.
Toward the end of his playing days, Palmer became even more famous when he took a job as a spokesman and model for Jockey brand men’s briefs. He appeared in Jockey print and television advertisements as well as on billboards all over the world. He generously donated all proceeds from the sale of his underwear poster to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. He embarked on a career as a broadcaster providing commentary to ABC, the cable networks ESPN and HTS, as well as local Baltimore stations. He provided the color commentary for World Series Games, the All-Star Game, and the League Championship Games during the 1980s. His Hollywood good looks translated well onto television and he was able to land several commentator and expert analyst jobs. Jim was the ABC Wide World of Sports color analyst for the Little League World Series and he was awarded the 1990 William A. Shea Distinguished Little League Graduate Award. He was inducted into the Little League Baseball’s Hall of Excellence in 1994. In addition to a multitude of other television works he has served for over two decades as a national sports chairman for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. He received an Honorary Doctorate of Education for his dedication to the CF cause from Carthage College in May of 1993.
Palmer continues to be active in charities, has authored children’s books, and raised millions for children’s causes. He is arguably one of the ten greatest pitchers of all time, but as teammate Mike Flanagan once said, “Palmer has won two-hundred sixty eight games, but it took a picture of him standing in his underwear to get nationally known.”
