About the Off-Season: Looking Back

About the Off-Season: Looking Back

by Tim Kabel

December 4, 2025

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A week from now, the winter meetings will be underway. Rumors will be flying everywhere. The Yankees will be linked to virtually every available free agent or player likely to be traded. Spencer Jones will have plane tickets to every city with a Major League team. The Yankees might actually make a move or two next week. They might even make a move or two before next week. Three days ago, the Mets signed Devin Williams, as part of their never-ending quest to acquire everyone who ever played for the Yankees. There had been some thought that the Yankees might bring Williams back but even if they had done so, it would have been one of those moves like inviting your Second Cousin Eloise to your wedding because your mother wants you to. The Yankees would not have been head over heels for the move. The best part about Williams signing with the Mets is that Edwin Diaz might now be available. Maybe the Yankees will sign him. Maybe they won't. We know they need to beef up the bullpen and that would sure do it. We will know soon enough. 

I want to take a break from the endless speculation about the 2026 roster for the New York Yankees. It's okay. It's not going anywhere. We can come back to it in a day or so. I can discuss Kyle Tucker rumors then. Although I am frankly tuckered out with the Tucker rumors. Instead, I want to write about one of my all-time favorite Yankees.

I started watching the Yankees seriously in 1975. I was hooked from that point forward. I watched as many games as I could. If I wasn't in school, I watched every day game. Night games were a little tricky because my mother was a rigid taskmaster when it came to bedtime. Occasionally, actually, fairly often, I would sneak a radio into bed and listen to the game. Sometimes, I would creep out of my room and stand at the top of the staircase so I could listen to the game that she and my father were still watching on TV.

One of those games was Ron Guidry’s 18-strikeout shutout against the California Angels on June 17^th, 1978. Now that I reflect upon it as a grown man, I really wasn't that slick. My mother was extremely bright, and she wasn't hard of hearing. On top of that, me sneaking somewhere would be like Del Griffith from Planes, Trains, and Automobiles sneaking somewhere in his awful blue pajamas. My mother knew what was going on. She just let me get away with it.

As I have written many times, my favorite player of all time was Thurman Munson. There are many other players whom I liked very much throughout the years. Some of them were not even stars. I was a big fan of Don Mattingly, Dave Winfield, Bernie Williams, Derek Jeter, Paul O'Neill, Mariano Rivera, and more recently, Aaron Judge, one of my favorites was actually Melky Cabrera. However, my second favorite Yankee was also from those teams in the 1970s, Ron Guidry.

Everyone knows that Ron Guidry almost quit baseball because it took him so long to make it to the Major Leagues. In 1977, he made it for good. That story and the fact that he looked like a strong gust of wind would blow him off the pitcher's mound made him really appeal to me. He was an excellent pitcher and a tremendous competitor. He played his entire career for the Yankees. Many people think that he is worthy of the Hall of Fame. Unfortunately, his career just wasn't long enough. That discussion is not the purpose of this article.

I have seen over 50 seasons of New York Yankees’ baseball. I have never seen a pitcher in a New York Yankees uniform put up a better year than Ron Guidry did in 1978. I am not going to go through the statistics and the micro-statistics and the micro-micro-statistics with a slide rule, ouija board, and an egg timer. I'm just going to write about what I remember and what I saw. (Before anybody writes a snappy rebuttal that Whitey Ford had a better year or Allie Reynolds threw two no-hitters in the same year, please don't. I am talking about the best year by a pitcher that I ever saw. I am neither Mr. Peabody nor Sherman. I don't have a Wayback Machine and if I did, I wouldn't use it to go watch Red Ruffing, no offense. There are other things I would do, which will remain between me and Mr. Peabody. I don't trust Sherman.)

  In 1978, Guidry went 25-3, which was the most games he ever won in a season and one of three seasons in which he won 20 games. His ERA was 1.74. His winning percentage was .893. He pitched 9 shutouts. He struck out 248 batters in 273.2 innings. He walked 72 batters.  His total of batters hit by a pitch, balks, and wild pitches was 9, the same number of complete game shutouts he threw. Without diving too deep into statistics, his WHIP was 0.946. 

Ron Guidry had a great career as a Yankee. In 1979, he went to the bullpen for a while after Rich Gossage was hurt in a horseplay incident with Cliff Johnson. Now we know why coaches and managers frown on horseplay. Jockeys don't for some reason, I'm not sure why.

Guidry’s season in 1978 was historic. It was legendary. As I said, it is the best season I have ever seen a Yankees pitcher have. I would have to think if I've ever seen any pitcher have a better season. He was dominant. He finished second to Jim Rice for the American League MVP. I'm not going to complain about that. I tend to think that an everyday player should have an edge over a pitcher for that award. I felt the same way in 1986 when Roger Clemens won the MVP over Don Mattingly. After all, the pitchers have the Cy Young Award, which Guidry won in 1978. He received every first-place vote. 

It's incredible to me that the best year I ever saw a pitcher have as a Yankee was one of the first seasons I watched. I have no reason to believe that no matter how many more seasons I will watch, any pitcher will ever have a better year than Ron Guidry did in 1978. The three pitchers he lost to in 1978 were all named Mike: Mike Caldwell, of the Brewers, Mike Flanagan, of the Orioles, and Mike Willis, of the Blue Jays. Wasn't Mike Willis George Jefferson’s neighbor and in-law?

There have been a lot of tremendous seasons put up by Yankees players. I have seen many of them, but the two most impressive years I think I have ever seen were Aaron Judge’s 62-home run season in 2022, and Ron Guidry’s magnificent season in 1978.