Baseball great Gaylord Perry dies; Cy Young winner and master of the spitball

Baseball Hall of Famer and two-time Cy Young Award winner Gaylord Perry, a master of the spitball who wrote a book about using the pitch, died Thursday at his home in Gaffney, S.C. Perry, who was 84, died of natural causes, Cherokee County Coroner Dennis Fowler said. “Before I won my second Cy Young I thought I was too old — I didn’t think the writers would vote for me,” Perry said in an article on the National Baseball Hall of Fame website. The Texas Rangers, whom Perry played for twice, said in a statement Thursday that the pitcher was “a fierce competitor every time he took the ball and more often than not gave the Rangers an opportunity to win the game.” “The Rangers express their sincere condolences to Gaylord’s family at this difficult time,” the team’s statement said. “This baseball great will be missed.” Perry’s 1974 autobiography was titled “Me and the Spitter,” writing that when he began his career in 1962 he was the “11th man on an 11-man pitching staff” for the Giants.