Dooley Womack Was Better than Fans Remember

By Paul Semendinger

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NOTE - The following is an excerpt from my recent book The Greatest New York Yankees By Uniform Number. This article was recently published in the IBWAA's newsletter, Here's The Pitch.

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Of the 25 players to wear number 58 for the Yankees, only two, both relief pitchers, had significant enough careers to be considered the best.

Of these two, the more recent player was Wandy Peralta who pitched for the Yankees for three seasons from 2021 through 2023. Peralta pitched in 165 games in that period amassing an overall record of 10-9, 2.82. He also saved eleven games.

The first Yankee to wear number 58 was Dooley Womack, who wore the number for his entire Yankees career from 1966 to 1968.

Over those three seasons, Womack pitched in 152 games going 15-16, 2.70. Womack’s best season was 1967, when he led the Yankees in appearances with 65. Although saves were not an official statistic in Major League Baseball until 1969, Womack has since been credited with 18 saves for that season. In 1968, Womack again led the team in appearances with 45.

In Jim Bouton’s classic book Ball Four, he writes in less than glowing terms about Womack, which, considering Womack’s success, was not accurate. Interestingly, after both of their Yankees careers had ended, in August 1969, Womack was traded from the Houston Astros to the Seattle Pilots for Jim Bouton. (What makes this especially interesting is Jim Bouton was the greatest Yankee at #56.)

When one compares the careers of Dooley Womack and Wandy Peralta, the numbers are quite similar and an argument can be made for either as the better of the two pitchers. Peralta, for example, had a winning record; Womack did not. Peralta also had a better ERA+ bettering Womack 149 to 116.

Womack, though, slightly edged out Peralta in WAR 3.8 to 3.4. Womack was also used more often as the team’s “closer” (the pitcher finishing out the game, although that term was not used in 1967) more often than Peralta. Womack closed out 110 games compared to Peralta’s 37.

The fact that Womack was used more often than Peralta as the team’s main relief pitcher gives him the slight edge in this discussion.

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Paul Semendinger is a retired teacher and school administrator. He recently served as the Interim Superintendent of Schools in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey. Paul is again retired and feverishly working on Volume 2 of his three book series, West Point at Gettysburg.