Escape to New York
Sixteen days after becoming baseball’s first free agent, pitcher Catfish Hunter – formerly of the Oakland Athletics – signs a five-year, $3.75 million contract with the New York Yankees 50 years ago today.
Hunter joins the Yankees after arbitrator Peter Seitz declares him a free agent, a move on Dec. 15, 1974 that comes when Seitz determines Oakland owner Charlie Finley breaches his contract with the six-time American League All-Star pitcher.
Charlie Finley
“I hung up the phone,” Hunter says after hearing of Seitz’s ruling, “and turned to my wife and said, ‘We don’t belong to anybody.’ ”
In declaring Hunter a free agent, Seitz ignites a frantic bidding war for a 28-year-old pitcher who is coming off his fourth straight 20-win season for Oakland.
Among the suitors for Hunter are Cleveland, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Montreal, Pittsburgh and San Diego.
Hunter, of course, ends up with the Yankees, for whom he spends the final five seasons of his Hall of Fame career.
Hunter’s most effective season with New York is his first as he and Baltimore’s Jim Palmer each win a major league-high 23 games in 1975.
No one in the majors that season works longer and harder than Hunter, who leads all pitchers with 30 complete games and 328 innings of work.
Hunter’s right arm, though, is never the same after that season as he struggles to a 40-39 record over the final four years of his contract with the Yankees before retiring at the age of 33.
Three of his five seasons in New York end in the World Series with the Yankees winning two of them to give Hunter two more championship rings to go along with the three he earns in Oakland from 1972-74.
Before he retires with the Yankees, Hunter saves some of his best work for 13 starts against his old team as he goes 7-3 against the A’s with seven complete games and a 2.86 earned-run average over 104 innings.
“I believe there were higher offers,” Hunter says after signing with New York, “but no matter how much money was offered, if you want to be a Yankee, you don’t think about it.”