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Jim Palmer

Baseball is an outdoor sport in which a pitcher pitches a hard, fist sized ball to the hitting area of a batter. The batter hits the hard ball with a tapered, smooth, cylindrical bat made up of wood or metal. The batsman scores by running counter-clockwise within the four markers called the bases arranged at the corners of a diamond. Baseball is sometimes called hardball to differentiate it from similar games such as softball.

Jim Palmer was born on Monday, October 15, 1945, in New York, New York. He was 19 years old when he broke into the big leagues on April 17, 1965, with the Baltimore Orioles. His height is 6 feet 3 inches with a weight of 196 pounds. He has spent his entire career with the Baltimore Orioles, becoming the greatest pitcher in their history. Signed in 1963, he replaced the departed Milt Pappas in Baltimore's rotation in 1966 and led the club with 15 wins. He had become the youngest pitcher to win a complete-game, World Series shutout, defeating Sandy Koufax and the Dodgers in Game Two.

He has led the AL, American League in 0.800 winning percentage by going 16-4. He won the deciding game of the first AL Championship Series but lost Game Three of the WS, World Series to the Mets. He has won his first ERA, Earned Run Average title in 1973, when he went 22-9 and his second in 1975 when he threw a league-high of 10 shutouts and tied for the lead with 23 wins. His 22 victories in 1976 and 20 in 1977 were again league highs. He started more games in 1976-1977, and threw more innings in 1976-1978 than any other AL pitcher. His picture-perfect delivery and all-around athleticism helped him to four Gold Gloves in 1976-1979. His clutch wins included the Orioles' pennant-clinchers in 1966, 1969, 1970, and 1971.

The elder statesman of the Orioles during the 1980s, Palmer added a 16-10 mark in 1980 and a 15-5 record in 1982, good for a league-best 0.750 winning percentage. Used sparingly in 1983, his last ML, Major Legume win came in relief of Mike Flanagan in the third game of the 1983 WS and he defeated Carlton to become the first pitcher in ML history with WS wins in three different decades. He went on to broadcast on both local and national television.

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