Jim Palmer

For the American basketball player, see Jim Palmer (basketball).
Not to be confused with Jim Parmer.

Jim Palmer
Palmer with the Baltimore Orioles in 1972
Pitcher
Born: (1945-10-15) October 15, 1945 (age 79)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Batted: Right
Threw: Right
MLB debut
April 17, 1965, for the Baltimore Orioles
Last MLB appearance
May 12, 1984, for the Baltimore Orioles
MLB statistics
Win–loss record268–152
Earned run average2.86
Strikeouts2,212
Teams
Career highlights and awards
Member of the National
Baseball Hall of Fame
Induction1990
Vote92.6% (first ballot)

James Alvin Palmer (born October 15, 1945) is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played 19 years in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Baltimore Orioles (1965–1967, 1969–1984). Palmer was the winningest MLB pitcher in the 1970s, totaling 186 wins.[1] He also won at least 20 games in eight different seasons and won three Cy Young Awards and four Gold Gloves during the decade. His 268 Orioles victories are the most in team history. A six-time American League (AL) All-Star,[2] he was also one of the rare pitchers who never allowed a grand slam in any major league contest.[3]

Palmer appeared in the postseason eight times and was a vital member of three World Series Champions, six AL pennant winners and seven Eastern Division titleholders. He is the only pitcher in history to earn a win in a World Series game in three different decades. He is also the youngest to pitch a complete-game shutout in a World Series, doing so nine days before his 21st birthday in 1966, in which he defeated Sandy Koufax in Koufax's last appearance.[4] He was one of the starters on the last rotation to feature four 20-game winners in a single season in 1971.[5] He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1990.[6]

Since his retirement as an active player in 1984, Palmer has worked as a color commentator on telecasts of MLB games for ABC and ESPN and for the Orioles on Home Team Sports (HTS), Comcast SportsNet (CSN) Mid-Atlantic and the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN).[7] He has also been a popular spokesman, most famously for Jockey International for almost 20 years.[8] He was nicknamed "Cakes" in the 1960s because of his habit of eating pancakes for breakfast on the days he pitched.[9]

  1. ^ Mueller, Bobby "Jack Morris: the winningest pitcher of the 1980s", The Hardball Times, Thursday, January 26, 2012
  2. ^ Jim Palmer (broadcaster biography) Archived 2011-08-11 at the Wayback Machine. Baltimore Orioles (2018-05-24). Retrieved on 2018-06-30.
  3. ^ Kurkjian, Tim. "The grand slam...unusual, yet fun" ESPN The Magazine, August 17, 2006
  4. ^ World Series Records: Feats & Streaks – Major League Baseball (MLB). Mlb.mlb.com. Retrieved on 2018-06-30.
  5. ^ Goldstein, Richard "Mike Cuellar, Star Pitcher for Orioles, Dies at 72" The New York Times, Monday, April 5, 2010
  6. ^ Jim Palmer (biography) National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
  7. ^ Jim Palmer (biography). Premiere Speakers Bureau.
  8. ^ Jim Palmer (biography). CMG Worldwide.
  9. ^ Eisenberg, John (February 2002). From 33rd Street to the Camden Yards: An Oral History of the Baltimore Orioles. McGraw Hill Professional. pp. 269–. ISBN 978-0-07-138425-4.