‘Wild’ Tommy Byrne; Pivotal in Yanks’ 1955 AL Pennant Passes Away at 87
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Former Yankees lefthanded pitcher Tommy Byrne, known for his slow-working on the mound and walking tons of hitters early in his career and for his anchoring the pennant winning Yankees pitching staff in 1955, passed away at age 87.
Byrne, who after his retirement from major league baseball served two terms as mayor of Wake Forest, died Thursday. According to an AP report for Yahoo sports, Byrne had congestive heart failure and was in declining health the last six weeks.
Byrne pitched in both the 1949 and 1955 World Series winning and completing the 2nd game in 1955 series. He was awarded a World Series ring in 1950 (although he didn’t pitch in the Series against the Phillies) and was an All Star that season as well, although he didn’t pitch in the game.
But his slow mound work and walking slews of hitters during hte 1948-1951 season drove Yankees ownership bonkers. Byrne walked 179 batters in 196 innings 1949 and 160 in 203 1/3 innings in 1950 after walking 101 hitters in 133 1/3 innings in 1948, his first full season with the Yanks.
New York Daily News sports writer Bill Madden reports that Byrne himself admitted;
“I drove (Yankees co-owner) Dan Topping crazy. He hated the way I pitched because my games took too long and he always had a date waiting for him afterward.”
As a result, he ended up being discarded by the Yanks to the then-St. Louis Browns, the Chicago White Sox and the then-Washington Senators during the span of the 1951 through 1954 seasons.
Madden outlines how returned to the Yankees and his critical role in the Yankees’ 1955 Pennant;
At the end of ‘54, the Yankees, at the urging of Casey Stengel, purchased Byrne’s contract from Seattle [in the minors], and the next season he rewarded the manager’s faith in him by leading AL pitchers in winning percentage with a 16-5 record. In the ‘55 World Series, Byrne pitched a 4-2 complete-game victory in Game 2 against the Dodgers, then lost the seventh game, 2-0, to Johnny Podres.
“Tommy had a great curveball and after he came back from the minors, he had a slider,” Yogi Berra said Friday. “He was a great guy, one of my first roommates, and loved to have fun. He used to yell at the hitters, telling them what pitch was coming and they never believed him. I remember the time he came into the game and was warming up when all of a sudden he hit Mickey Vernon in the on-deck circle with a pitch because he thought Mickey was watching his pitches.”
Byrne was on the 1955 Yankees staff which included Whitey Ford (18-7) and Bob Turley (17-13).
Byrne was pretty handy with the stick as a pitcher. Baseball Library recounts that when Byrne first came to the big leagues;
Manager Joe McCarthy tried to talk him into converting to first base, Byrne amassed 14 homers and pinch hit 80 times.
Daily News writer Madden recounts Yogi Berra’s comments on Byrne’s hitting;
Berra noted, Stengel often used the lefthanded-hitting Byrne as a pinch-hitter, and in many interviews, Byrne cited May 16, 1953 as one of his most satisfying days in baseball, when with the White Sox, he was called in from the bullpen to pinch-hit against Yankee sidearmer Ewell Blackwell and hit line-drive a grand slam [the 2nd of his career], 20 rows back in Yankee Stadium’s right-field stands.
Byrne retired after the 1957 season, finishing with a career mark 85-69 and a lifetime 4.11 ERA.
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