Guidry, Ron

[AirBill]

True story. Here's the official press release:

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/p...=.jsp&c_id=nyy

Ron Guidry rejoins Yankees as pitching coach; Joe Kerrigan named bullpen coach

The New York Yankees announced today that Ron Guidry, a three-time 20-game winner who compiled 170 wins in a 14-year career in pinstripes, will join Joe Torre's 2006 coaching staff as Pitching Coach.

The Yankees also named Joe Kerrigan, who has spent 14 seasons as a major- and minor-league pitching coach, their Bullpen Coach.

Guidry, 55, was the Yankees' co-captain-with Willie Randolph-from 1986 through 1989. A four-time American-League All-Star, he remains in the Top Ten on the Yankees' all-time list in games pitched (368), innings pitched (2,392.0), wins (170), winning percentage (.651), strikeouts (1,778) and shutouts (26).

He compiled one of the most dominating seasons in baseball history in 1978 and became known as "Louisiana Lightning." Guidry went 25-3 with a 1.74 earned run average in leading the Yankees to a dramatic comeback-from 14.0 games behind the Boston Red Sox-to capture their second straight World Championship. From the All-Star break in 1977 through 1978, he was an incredible 35-5. In 1978, he compiled a franchise-record 248 strikeouts en route to a unanimous selection as the American League's Cy-Young-award recipient. On June 17, 1978 vs. the California Angels at Yankee Stadium, Guidry shattered the club record for strikeouts in a single game with 18.

A spring-training instructor with the Yankees since 1990, Guidry had his number 49 retired by the club on August 23, 2003 and a plaque in his honor was unveiled in Yankee Stadium's famed Monument Park.

[NewsCopy]

Ron Guidry won 170 games, the 1978 Cy Young Award and a pair of World Series titles with the New York Yankees, and his No. 49 is immortalized in Monument Park at Yankee Stadium. Now, the Northside High product and former University of Louisiana star will try to help New York's return to prominence as the team's new pitching coach. "What intrigues me is the chance to be there and maybe lend some insight and some help," said Guidry, who has helped Yankees pitchers in spring training since 1990. "I've spoken to my family, and they're thrilled about it. It's an honor. I said maybe I should go give it a shot before I get too old. You need to do that kind of stuff when you're young. I've felt if the time was right, maybe it was something I should look at in the future. "Fortunately for me, it came to pass." The rest of the story Bruce Brown bbrown@theadvertiser.com

[NewsCopy]

Ron Guidry hopes he is good fit as Yanks' pitching coach, even if starters don't go as deep into games as he did. The Yankees' bullpen problems might best be solved by getting their starting pitchers to go deeper into games. And their new pitching coach certainly knows all about that. The team announced yesterday that Ron Guidry will replace Mel Stottlemyre at that position in 2006, bringing another Yankee legend back into the fold to join Don Mattingly on Joe Torre's coaching staff. Joe Kerrigan, who had been working as a film scout for the Yanks, was named bullpen coach. Guidry, who was a four-time All-Star and won the 1978 Cy Young Award during his 14-year career with the Yanks, has mostly stayed out of the spotlight since retiring in 1988; his only coaching experience was as one of the Yanks' spring-training instructors. Now, however, he says he's ready to help guide a staff that was riddled with injury and inconsistency last season. "Having to pitch your whole career in New York and be successful, that has to amount to something," Guidry said on a conference call. "I can't go back and play, but to go back in a capacity as a pitching coach and become part of the organization again, it's a great honor and a great challenge. I think it's going to be fun." Guidry admitted the game is much different now than when he was a player. The year he won the Cy Young, he went 25-3 and pitched 273-2/3 innings; Washington's Livan Hernandez led the majors with 246-1/3 innings this past season. The rest of the story BY SAM BORDEN DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER

[NewsCopy]

New York – When the Yankees' new pitching coach goes out to the bullpen next year, he'll be able to look at his own plaque in Monument Park. Ron Guidry rejoined the Yankees as Joe Torre's pitching coach yesterday, when former Boston manager Joe Kerrigan also joined the staff as bullpen coach. "Joe spoke to me about it the last couple of years, if I would ever entertain it," Guidry said, "and I spoke to my family about it and they were saying, 'Maybe you should go give it a shot before you get too old.' " The 55-year-old left-hander was a three-time 20-game winner who played for the Yankees from 1975-88 and won the 1978 AL Cy Young Award. He has been a spring training instructor for the team since 1990, and his number (49) was retired by the Yankees in 2003. His plaque, which refers to him as "Gator" and Louisiana Lightning," calls him "a dominating pitcher," "a respected leader" and "a true Yankee." He said the best pitching coach he worked under was Art Fowler, Billy Martin's buddy. "He kept saying, 'If you can't throw the ball over the plate, Ron, you can't pitch here in the big leagues,' " Guidry recalled, remembering Fowler's mound visits vividly. "Every time he'd come out there, I'd say, 'Art what am I doing wrong?' and he'd always tell me, 'I don't know, Ron, but you're (getting) Billy (angry).' "It always lifted me up – even when you're in a tight situation, that there's room for humor. That's how he always got my mind to reflect on what's going on, what I need to do." A four-time All-Star, Guidry said outgoing pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre spoke with him during spring training about becoming pitching coach someday. Guidry said he thought recognizing pitcher's mechanical problems was a strength and admitted the game has changed since he retired. "You rely on a lot of computerized stats to tell you what guys are doing, what they're not doing," Guidry said. "We didn't have that, so it's going to just be another step just to learn how to do all of that and put all of that together." Guidry went to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, also attended by free-agent reliever B.J. Ryan. "He'd be a great addition to the pitching staff here," Guidry said, adding that he would offer Ryan "a couple of bowls of gumbo." The rest of the story

[NewsCopy]

NEW YORK YANKEES: Ron Guidry, pitching coach, Larry Bowa, third-base coach Tony Pena, first-base coach, and Joe Kerrigan, bullpen coach, agreed to one-year contracts. The source of the story

[Turner]

It will be interesting to see what Ron does with the Astro's pitcher.

[NewsCopy]

  Talk to Ron Guidry 30 years after that fact and he'll spend some time trying to downplay the accomplishment of his 1978 Cy Young campaign for the New York Yankees.

Spend any amount of time looking at the numbers from that season, however, and it won't take very long to understand how futile an attempt it really is.

Guidry's 1978 season was far more than just a Cy Young Award season. It was one of the best seasons ever pitched in the Major Leagues.

The former Northside High and USL standout who was a third-round selection in the 1971 draft by the Yankees was 25-3 that season with a 1.74 ERA.

In case those numbers aren't enough to floor you, consider the fact that only two pitchers have won as many as 25 games since 1978.

The rest of the story

Kevin Foote • kfoote@theadvertiser.com • July 15, 2008

[NewsCopy]

 The feature column in today’s paper was over 50 inches long and I still couldn’t get in so many of the great stories that Ron Guidry revealed in our lengthy interview.

So I figured I’d touch on a few of them online in this blog.

The first one that sticks out in my mind is the morning of the infamous 1978 special playoff game at Fenway Park against Boston for the right to play the Kansas City Royals in the ALCS that year.

The story sort of begins the night before in Cleveland. After losing that game to create a playoff game in Fenway, crazy Yankees owner George Steinbrenner was in the team parking lot after the game ranting and raving about being one loss from the season being over.

The rest of the blog

[Zeebart21]

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Kevins Blog was great.

Check out the photos

http://www.theadvertiser.com/apps/pb...arams=Itemnr=1

[NewsCopy]

 The Yankees great says he had his greatest success while pitching in Syracuse.

Ron Guidry, the former New York Yankee great, returned to Syracuse where he played for the Chiefs in 1975 and 1976 for Tuesday night's game between Syracuse and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre at Alliance Bank Stadium.

Guidry spent 14 seasons in the major leagues, all with the New York Yankees. He compiled a 170-91 career record with a 3.29 earned run average and 1,778 strikeouts. He won the Cy Young Award in 1978 after posting a 25-3 record and a 1.74 ERA.

The rest of the story