"BADDEST" Pitcher ever?

[maveric]

I mean and intimidating. Ones that would make a batter think twice about charging the mound.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. No Rollie Fingers?

[Mojambo]

2. Gibson. No doubt

He was a mean SOB.

[Magrittes Pipe]

3. Dock Ellis.

1) Pitched a no-hitter on acid.
2) Intentionally hit Rose and Morgan, tried to hit Foster (he walked on 4 pitches), hit Perez, and tried to hit Bench before being pulled with a 2-0 count. All to show his teammates that he was not intimidated by the Big Red Machine.

That's BAD.

[richmwill]

4. Rob Dibble (n/t)

[Magrittes Pipe]

5. Oh. And don't forget Carl Mays.

After all, he killed a guy.

[maveric]

31. Or Carl Hubbel

[Magrittes Pipe]

40. Hubbel was a junkballer. Great pitcher, but he never whacked a man.

Mays LOVED being known as the guy who killed Ray Chapman.

[maveric]

6. Gibson is my choice. He'd knock guys down and NO ONE ever

charged the mound at him. He would have torn then apart limb from limb and knock them down again next time they faced him.
I'm a lifelong Red Sox fan and Bob Gibson is my favorite pitcher of all time. I remember what he did to the Sox in the 67 WS. Devastating!

[Ron Green]

7. Satchel Paige.

[Magrittes Pipe]

8. Juan Marichal beat John Roseboro with a bat.

That was pretty bad.

[maveric]

14. Thats not BAD, that was psycho!

Marichal was a great one and a Hall of Famer but that was one of the ugliest incidents in baseball history. What an asshole!
Roseboro was kind and compassionate player, very well-liked among his peers. That was un calle for.

[Magrittes Pipe]

15. Well, Rosie did hit him.

Koufax (the anti-Drysdale) refused to knock Marichal on his ass. Roseboro clipped Marichal's ear with the throw back to the pitcher.

Of course, that's all part of the game. What happened next was bizarre and horrible. Still -- it was, indeed, BAD.

[NV Whino]

9. Sandy Kofax

But Drysdale is close.

[NV Whino]

10. Well, on second thought

My guys aren't bad bad. They're bad good.

[maveric]

11. When Drysdale was told to intentionally walk a man, he's just hit him!

Tellin Walter Alston "I'm not gonna waste 3 pitches". He did that throughout his career.
Remember when a young and foolish Robin Ventura charged Nolan Ryan?
Nolan used him as a speed bag. It was embarrassing! Even in his 40's Ryan was the strongest man in the majors.

[tridim]

12. Oh yea!!

[Magrittes Pipe]

13. Mark Fidrych wasn't a hard thrower...

...but I wouldn't be too crazy about facing some sonofabitch who talked to the goddamned ball.


And don't even get me started on the Spaceman....

[Old and In the Way]

22. Bill Lee was my alltime favorite.

Maybe not the best technical pitcher, he was a gamer and he hated the Yankees. Loved his "Euphas" pitch, too!

I mean, how can you not like a guy who liked to sprinkle marijuana on his pancakes?

[maveric]

23. And called his manager, Don Zimmer, a "gerbil", to the press.

Zimmer's head exploded.

[Old and In the Way]

27. Think there was a cultural divide there, maveric?

LOL.....

[maveric]

29. Just a sliver.

Zimmer didnt know what to make of Lee. He had Zim puzzled and terrified for the couple years he managed.

[kcwayne]

16. Clemons throws a mean bat

[burythehatchet]

17. Al "Mad Hungarian" Hrabosky

[MrSlayer]

18. Two votes for Al.

What a psycho that dude was.

[maveric]

19. His physical actions and behaviors on the mounds scared the shit

out of batters.

[deadmessengers]

20. Can't pick just one

In no particular order:

Roger Clemens (Batman. 'nuff said.)

Bob Gibson (Holy hell this guy had a temper on him)

J. R. Richard (Remember him? This guy was so intimidating he made Randy Johnson look like Phil Niekro. He wasn't that much of a badass, but he left more than his share of bruises.)

Don Drysdale (I think I read a quote from him saying that he would have been willing to brush back his own mother - if she was crowding the plate.)

[Old and In the Way]

21. Voted for Raddatz

He was a great closer....Gibson was great, though (as was Lonborg in 67).

How about Nolan Ryan??????

My personal best pitching performance I witnessed was Rogelio (Roger) Moret at Fenway.....a 1 hitter against the White Sox....Richie Allen got a cheap infield hit to spoil the NH.

[Bombtrack]

24. The Rod Beck + El Guapo (Rich Garces) duo on the sox from a few years ago

A Fu Manchu and a mullet on a sweaty fat man + and an obese Venezuelan made the most ugly-ass bullpen in history. Uglyiest-assest is close enough to bad-ass for me.

[ironflange]

25. Sal "The Barber" Maglie

Pitched for Brooklyn in the 50's, good solid pitcher. Loved tossing the chin music, hence the nickname. Was the losing pitcher in Don Larsen's World Series perfect game, pitched a good one himself that day.

[H2O Man]

26. Al Downing.

Some of you other "old timers" will remember Al. Tough man, quiet, but tough.

[burythehatchet]

32. I met Little Al when he used to come to our HIgh School in New Rochelle

He was famous for giving up a milestone hit. I think it was Hank Aaron's 715th.

[maveric]

33. Thats the one.

[deadmessengers]

34. re:Downing

Unfortunately, no one will ever remember him for anything other than giving up #715 to Hank Aaron.

[burythehatchet]

35. yep...its baseball's version of being posterized

[H2O Man]

37. Casual fans might

only remember him for that. Real baseball fans - and I am speaking of Yankee fans - will remember the man for much more than that. Now, someone is likely going to say he's like the Red Sox, who are only known for losing to the Yankees. But it's different. The Red Sox should be remembered only for losing to the Yankees, because that's the best they ever do. But Al Downing did a heck of a lot more than lob an easy pitch to Henry to set the record.

[mwdem]

28. Mitch Williams,

Phillies, '92. Wild Thing.

[frylock]

30. gibby, no question..

but you knew I'd say that, per our discussion last week.

[Mikimouse]

36. 'Catfish' Hunter?

n/t

[VOX]

38. 1950s Yankee reliever Ryne Duren -- the original "Wild Thing"...

Ryne Duren was both blessed and cursed. And for two years, 1958 and 1959, he was the dominant reliever in the AL. Born in Cazenovia, Wisconsin on February, 22 1929, in his playing days he was known as “Blind Ryne” for the coke-bottle glasses he wore to help correct his 20/200 vision.

Duren was notorious for three things. Without his incredibly thick glasses, he was said to be legally blind. He was also known to pitch while intoxicated. And he had a lethal, 95 MPH heater that may or may not have been headed for home plate.

He was intimidating to say the least. Opposing batters were petrified, particularly after he squinted in to his catcher, then intentionally fired his first warm-up pitch halfway up the backstop. In the minors, he once hit a batter in the on-deck circle. And the fact he had a well-chronicled drinking problem didn't help matters.

Baseball Weekly, 5/8-14/96

[Donkeyboy75]

39. Gotta be Bob. But Iron Joe McGinnity is a close second.

Turn of the century pitcher twice threw over 400 innings in a season, and would routinely pitch both games of a doubleheader. After retirement, he opened his own roughneck bar, and served as his own bouncer. A mean tough fuck, that guy.