Sinker, Knuckleballer Gerry Staley Passes Away at 87
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Starter/reliever Gerry Staley, who won 88 games in 7 and a fraction seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals and later was a standout in the bullpen for the 1959 AL pennant winning Chicago White Sox, passed away this past Wednesday at age 87.
His son Brian told media on Friday that he died of natural causes at his home in Vancouver.
Baseball Library reports that Staley;
Won 19, 17, and 18 games for the Cardinals from 1951 to 1953. When he slipped to 7-13 in 1954, he was dealt to the Reds, then on to the Yankees, but he continued to be ineffective as a starter.
When he arrived with the White Sox in 1956, his old manager, Marty Marion [managed Staley on the Cards in 1951], converted him to relief and opened a second career for him. He and fellow reliever Turk Lown helped lead the Sox to the 1959 pennant. On September 22, he [Staley] made one pitch, a game-ending double play with the bases loaded, to nail down the flag. In 1960 he led the AL with 13 wins in relief.
The AP report for Yahoo sports notes;
The right-hander pitched for six teams during a 15-year career that lasted from 1947-61. He was 134-111 with a 3.70 ERA, appearing in the 1959 World Series with the Chicago White Sox.
Staley went 8-5 with 14 saves and a 2.24 ERA in 1959. He pitched in four Series games, tossing 8 1-3 innings with a 2.16 ERA as Chicago lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in six games.
During the pennant-winning season of 1959, Staley led the American League by pitching in 67 games. The following year, he went 13-8 with 10 saves and was named to the AL All-Star team.
Staley was born in Brush Prairie on Aug. 21, 1920. He played in the minors and served in World War II with an Army evacuation hospital unit in the South Pacific before reaching the majors with the St. Louis Cardinals. He was selected to the NL All-Star team in 1952 and 1953.
Staley’s career record is 134-111 over 15 seasons with 58 complete games, 9 shutouts, 58 saves and a 3.70 ERA.
After retiring from baseball, Staley served as superintendent of the Clark County Parks and Recreation department for 17 years, tended his garden and took up fishing and pitching horseshoes.
The AP report adds that Staley once talked about his career this way;
“I played in an era when there were a heck of a lot of good ballplayers,” he said in 2005. “You can’t single out one over all the rest.
“If you kept the ball in the park, you were doing a good deed.”
Staley is survived by his son and a daughter.
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