Wilbur Wood
| Wilbur Wood | |||
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| Pitcher | |||
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Born: October 22, 1941 Cambridge, Massachusetts |
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| MLB debut | |||
| June 30, 1961, for the Boston Red Sox | |||
| Last MLB appearance | |||
| August 28, 1978, for the Chicago White Sox | |||
| MLB statistics | |||
| Win–loss record | 164–156 | ||
| Earned run average | 3.24 | ||
| Strikeouts | 1,411 | ||
| Teams | |||
| Career highlights and awards | |||
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Wilbur Forrester Wood, Jr. (born October 22, 1941) is an American former professional baseball player. He was a pitcher in Major League Baseball for seventeen years, most notably with the Chicago White Sox where he earned 163 of his 164 wins. A knuckleball specialist, he threw left-handed, and batted right-handed.
In 1960, Wood was signed out of Belmont, Massachusetts high school by the Boston Red Sox. He pitched on-and-off for them for a few seasons before being traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates in late September 1964. After two seasons with Pittsburgh, he was traded to the White Sox after the 1966 season. When he arrived, knuckleball specialist Hoyt Wilhelm advised him to use his knuckleball exclusively. Taking Wilhelm's advice, Wood's career took off, first as a relief pitcher, and then as a starting pitcher. With the White Sox, Wood became well known as a durable workhorse, and one of the last pitchers to consistently throw well over 300 innings in a season.
As a relief pitcher in 1968, Wood set the major league record (since broken) of 88 games pitched in a season. He converted to starting pitcher in 1971, and continued to display unusual durability. During the years 1971-74, Wood averaged 45 games started and 347 innings pitched, winning a total of 90 games, while losing 69. He led the American League in games started in each year from 1972 through 1975, and he was the league leader in both wins and innings pitched in 1972 and 1973. Wood finished second in the 1972 voting for the American League Cy Young Award, losing a close vote to Gaylord Perry.
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