His 1972 season with Philly was one of the greatest years ever by a starting pitcher. To win 27 games with a team that bad, was just remarkable. I think he won close to half their games.
agree, it's one of the most amazing feats by any pitcher ever, carlton went 27-10 on a team that was 59-97. if they were just a bit better carlton would be the last 30 game winner, not denny mclain.
What's remarkable is how many wins he would've had if the Phillies had any type of offense in 1972. It's very possible that he would have had a 35 win season.
Pirate hall of famer Willie Stargell put it best about trying to hit Steve Carlton's slider when he said "Its like trying to drink coffee with a fork."
@@stepheng9746 Lefty pitched during a terrible era of baseball, put him in todays game and he would get bombed. I respect your opinion but it is wrong!
Born in 1967 and grew up in Los Angeles and NOTHING was as intense and enjoyable as the late 70s rivalry between the Phillies and Dodgers. Dodgers and Cincinnati was good too!! It was absolutely the most fun time to anticipate a game between LA and Philly and especially during the playoffs. I HATED Carlton and knew he was going to blow the Dodgers away with Luzinski and Schmidt and Bowa and Maddox…shall I go on? It was a fun fun time to be a kid back then. That slider was so wicked it was unbelievable. The only other two during that time that was may close to him as an effective pitch was Ron Guidry and Sparky Lyle. I haven’t followed baseball for over 20 years now and wouldn’t know a multi million dollar star today if he stepped on my foot. There were far fewer teams back then and 2 divisions which made the talent pool a lot more pure. Artificial turf made it a different game, but fun though. I think St. Louis, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia had fields like that. I don’t miss baseball and am fortunate that I can remember so vividly when baseball was so much better.
Nice post, Allen. I was born in Philly in ‘63. We played wiffleball in the ‘70’s, pretending to be the Phils, Dodgers, Reds, or Pirates up at bat. Phil’s fans booed Burt Hooten off the mound in ‘77 but the Dodgers still beat us. Great times.
"Talent pool was a lot more pure." That's because scouts back in the 70s were nowhere as near active scouting internationally. Unintentional xenophobia much?
Thank God for youtube so I can look back and see these guys again. Now I'll look at Kent Tekulve Bob Gibson,Vida Tommy John Jim Palmer Sparky Lyle Catfish Goose Gaylord Tom Seaver The Neikros'and all the great pitchers of the 70s & early 80s cant forget the best, Nolan. Thanx uploader for this gem.
1972 Steve 27 and 10 with losing team 15 in a row you made my summer when I was 11 Steve, thanks, still remember the radio "Phillies are gonna win today, Carlton's pitching'--and they were right.
Carlton's delivery was so fluid that enabled him to release the Slider out in front so consistency. Right handed hitters swung over top of it, lefties took the day off.......Dave Parker
I tell ya, as a Mets fan, I used to hate it when we would face Lefty. Now, of course, I have nothing but mad respect for him. When he and Seaver would lock up, you knew you were in for a good one.
As a Phillies fan...that was a ticket to die for. We sold out when Tom Seaver came to town. What amazed me is that these 2 high powered pitchers would throw complete games
Indeeed...Pete Rose has said that Koufax was the toughest pitcher ever faced....that curveball was like Carlton's slider....one minute it's in the strike zone, the next it's nearly on top of the plate...would love to have seen those two in a duel...
I think to me the key is his balance and posture from start of his pitching motion of that "rocking" chair variety. Very consistent. When I saw him pitch in 82 from 1st inn. to ninth, his balance and posture never slumped. You couldn't tell if it was the 1inn or 9th, bad ump call or circumstances--good or bad. But in '83-84, I started to notice in the later innings, he started to veer off a bit which made his slider hitable. But had he had those relief pitchers of today, he would have won close to 20 games in ‘83 and ‘84. He was injured in '85 and tried to comeback in '86 by trying throwing breaking pitches first which made him really hittable. He said he needed "a journey" to develop that style. Maybe he could succeeded like Marco Estrada of throwing that high changeup.
I watched him many times. The angel of his arm and the break of his slider helped me with my slider. I had to almost visualize my break on my slider to creat that muscle memory when I was learning how to throw it. It took about 2 and half years before I threw it in a game and another year to command it. You know It's a good pitch when they know it's coming and they still cant do anything with it. Carlton was the best at it.
He was also the all-time best at picking runners off first base. He throw the ball to the first baseman and the runner was so caught off guard that he wouldn't even try to run back to the base
@@scarlton3232 are you the man himself? If so, I just want to thank you for all the years of pitching artistry you gave us, especially for Phillies fans like myself.
a couple things about that slider, notice how all the hitters whiffing are taking big cuts, which would prove mccarver's assessment that batters couldn't see the rotation and thought it was a fastball. and that would indicate how well carlton disguised his pitches, it's a hard thing to do, make your delivery the same no matter what you throw.
tomitstube The tell tale red dot on his slider developed very late. Very hard to pick up. And you are correct on the delivery. He would drop down a time or two. Thank you for the comment.
I have an autographed baseball from Steve Carlton. It was his last pitch ever in the major leagues. He struck the guy out and he threw it up in the stands. My dad later met him and he signed it. Its worth $960,000
Sean DeMarco, no, he’s lying. His last pitch ever in MLB was hit for a double. Carlton handed the ball to his manager on the mound as the relief pitcher was called, trailing 6-0. Carlton never was the type to throw a ball into the stands anyway as he had a stoic demeanor.
Carlton also was not big on signing autographs. I visited Phillies spring training in 1986, his final season with the Phillies. I stood outside between the locker room and their parking lot. Every Phillie except Carlton signed an autograph for me. I had to settle for taking his picture as he walked to his car.
@@straycatttt He must have mellowed in his retirement. I got his autograph at a card show held in a big hotel in New York. He was very pleasant and chatty. I'm an immigrant from England with noticeable accent, also got hooked on baseball in my forties, so not your average autograph-seeking fan, and maybe amused some of the players! Anyway, the second day of the show, I was leaving, on escalator down from the ballroom where show was held, and was hailed from the up escalator. There was Steve Carlton, calling across to me, asking did i get X's autograph, and Y's? Recognized this stout little middle-aged Englishwoman in a Mets jersey from the day before ... Made my day, I can tell you. He really was one of the nicest players I got an autograph from. I read the Philly reporters gave him a hard time, and it made him rather retreat into a shell with the media and possibly also the public.
After watching this, I see similiarities of his slider with Randy Johnson. Johnson's low and in slider was unhittable to right handed hitters and now i see where this pitch originated from. I thought RJ was the greatest left handed pitcher of all time but after watching Carlton's highlight videos I would put Carlton first and RJ second.
Look at the great hitters he make look silly in this video. Andre Dawson, Dave Parker, Tommy Herr, Sadaharu Oh, absolutely amazing pitcher. Sad how his career ended.
The most dominating pitcher I have EVER seen. My Pirates would roll into Philly for a four-game weekend series. They had 6 or 8 guys in the NL top ten hitting for average. GREAT hitters and a hitting machine team...Then the Phils would trot out Lefty on Sunday game and make these future Hall of Farmers look stupid. Absolutely STUPID. When he has his stuff he was the best. EVER.
That pitch at 1:19 I think was to Parker. He made a really good player look silly. Carlton's slider was really a slurve. It broke horizontally and vertically. That is what made it so devastating.
I'm a right handed pitcher.When you throw a slider,do you turn tour wrist at the last second when releasing the ball or do you just throw it like a fastball?An answer would be very very much appreciated!
No , hold baseball with index and middle fingers together with the seam and put pressure/hard snap on middle finger almost exactly like a cut fastball . No snapping wrist
All i know is Johnny Bench owned steve carlton although hes the best left hander in my lifetime who i seen pitch and im 51 and saw seavers no hitter at riverfront.
Yes, the 12 homers and .305 average by Bench versus Carlton were very good. A smart catcher like Bench knew how to read his pitches. Speaking of Seaver, Phillies first baseman Tommy Hutton owned Seaver but couldn’t hit anybody else, lol.
1:45 The Cubs batter's reaction basically says everything about Carlton's slider!! Simply an unhittable pitch, you know it's coming, and you still can't hit it! I think the batter may have been Bill Buckner, who (aside from the infamous error in the World Series) was a pretty great hitter.
Thank you for everyone’s comments! Took me a while to get back on my UA-cam account. I hope you all enjoy the videos!
Thank you Video!
His 1972 season with Philly was one of the greatest years ever by a starting pitcher. To win 27 games with a team that bad, was just remarkable. I think he won close to half their games.
@Sugar Muffin I think his era was under 2 wasn't it?
agree, it's one of the most amazing feats by any pitcher ever, carlton went 27-10 on a team that was 59-97. if they were just a bit better carlton would be the last 30 game winner, not denny mclain.
And he had the wininning RBI in pretty close to half of his wins. He could hit very well too.
Doc Gooden,Sandy Koufax Twice,and Lefty best seasons for a pitcher ever!
What's remarkable is how many wins he would've had if the Phillies had any type of offense in 1972. It's very possible that he would have had a 35 win season.
Pirate hall of famer Willie Stargell put it best about trying to hit Steve Carlton's slider when he said "Its like trying to drink coffee with a fork."
Well put!
Steve Carlton (1972)---27 wins for a last place team that won 59 overall games...incredible season!!
30 + complete games that year and an ERA of under 2.0
Hell yeah
@@stepheng9746 Overrated
@@mattyvaccaro9186 You obviously dont know baseball at all to say Lefty was overrated.
@@stepheng9746 Lefty pitched during a terrible era of baseball, put him in todays game and he would get bombed. I respect your opinion but it is wrong!
My childhood hero.
A lefthanded Kung Fu master.
It was a joy to watch that slider literally fall off the table.
Born in 1967 and grew up in Los Angeles and NOTHING was as intense and enjoyable as the late 70s rivalry between the Phillies and Dodgers. Dodgers and Cincinnati was good too!! It was absolutely the most fun time to anticipate a game between LA and Philly and especially during the playoffs. I HATED Carlton and knew he was going to blow the Dodgers away with Luzinski and Schmidt and Bowa and Maddox…shall I go on? It was a fun fun time to be a kid back then. That slider was so wicked it was unbelievable. The only other two during that time that was may close to him as an effective pitch was Ron Guidry and Sparky Lyle. I haven’t followed baseball for over 20 years now and wouldn’t know a multi million dollar star today if he stepped on my foot. There were far fewer teams back then and 2 divisions which made the talent pool a lot more pure. Artificial turf made it a different game, but fun though. I think St. Louis, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia had fields like that. I don’t miss baseball and am fortunate that I can remember so vividly when baseball was so much better.
Allan Howard- good points, but to me the best years were from when you were born until the 80's. The best World Series -- 1968 Detroit vs St. Louis.
Nice post, Allen. I was born in Philly in ‘63. We played wiffleball in the ‘70’s, pretending to be the Phils, Dodgers, Reds, or Pirates up at bat. Phil’s fans booed Burt Hooten off the mound in ‘77 but the Dodgers still beat us. Great times.
"Talent pool was a lot more pure." That's because scouts back in the 70s were nowhere as near active scouting internationally. Unintentional xenophobia much?
Thank God for youtube so I can look back and see these guys again. Now I'll look at Kent Tekulve Bob Gibson,Vida Tommy John Jim Palmer Sparky Lyle Catfish Goose Gaylord Tom Seaver The Neikros'and all the great pitchers of the 70s & early 80s cant forget the best, Nolan. Thanx uploader for this gem.
Thank you Mr. Carlton for all the wonderful years you’ve spent here in Philly !!! Great memories at the Vet in the 70’s and 80’s !!!
I'll never forget Lefty K'ing the first 6 batters of visiting Pittsburg Pirates. He was awesome. the best ever.
1972 Steve 27 and 10 with losing team 15 in a row you made my summer when I was 11 Steve, thanks, still remember the radio "Phillies are gonna win today, Carlton's pitching'--and they were right.
Carlton's delivery was so fluid that enabled him to release the Slider out in front so consistency. Right handed hitters swung over top of it, lefties took the day off.......Dave Parker
“I hold it like this and I throw the shit out of it”
Thanks for the tips Steve
I tell ya, as a Mets fan, I used to hate it when we would face Lefty. Now, of course, I have nothing but mad respect for him. When he and Seaver would lock up, you knew you were in for a good one.
As a Phillies fan...that was a ticket to die for. We sold out when Tom Seaver came to town. What amazed me is that these 2 high powered pitchers would throw complete games
"I hold it like this and throw the shit out of it."
As a Phillies fan, I think he is the greatest Philsdelphia pitcher in it's long history.
Been a Phillies fan forever. Your statement isn't even debatable. It's a no brainer.
Stephen G, as a Phillies and Carlton fan, I disagree and do think it’s debatable. Grover Alexander and Robin Roberts should be in that discussion.
Robin robert
Carlton's slider and Rivera's cutter. Probably the 2 most famous pitches of all time.
And Koufax Curveball
Two all-time personal favorites, two hall-of-famers!
Indeeed...Pete Rose has said that Koufax was the toughest pitcher ever faced....that curveball was like Carlton's slider....one minute it's in the strike zone, the next it's nearly on top of the plate...would love to have seen those two in a duel...
Koufax curveball, Randy Johnson slider, Nolan Ryan fastball, etc.
Greg Maddux Two Seam, Pedro Martinez changeup and Roger Clemens Splitter. Those 6 make for the best rotation of all time.
Amazing pitcher. Loved watching his "look" while on the mound getting the catchers signal.
bob gibson says HE taught him the slider.
Actually, there is a Steve Carlton interview in which Carlton said Gibson taught him the slider.
@@ron88303 yes, carlton admits gibson taught him the slider.
Steve Carlton for Rick Wise. Maybe one of the best trades in sports history!
I remember hearing that on the radio and kind of like the Moses Malone deal I knew it was a winner
Try Lou Brock for Ernie Broglio.
Not that Wise was a bad pitcher..
I think to me the key is his balance and posture from start of his pitching motion of that "rocking" chair variety. Very consistent. When I saw him pitch in 82 from 1st inn. to ninth, his balance and posture never slumped. You couldn't tell if it was the 1inn or 9th, bad ump call or circumstances--good or bad. But in '83-84, I started to notice in the later innings, he started to veer off a bit which made his slider hitable. But had he had those relief pitchers of today, he would have won close to 20 games in ‘83 and ‘84. He was injured in '85 and tried to comeback in '86 by trying throwing breaking pitches first which made him really hittable. He said he needed "a journey" to develop that style. Maybe he could succeeded like Marco Estrada of throwing that high changeup.
0:53 Just nasty.
The thing about Carlton's slider is that it was as effective against the right handers as the left handers.
Super video. wish the background music could be muted. We're looking at Lefty here.
The slider was how I quit organized baseball. Someone threw me the hardest nasty slider I thought it was going to hit my head.
I watched him many times. The angel of his arm and the break of his slider helped me with my slider. I had to almost visualize my break on my slider to creat that muscle memory when I was learning how to throw it. It took about 2 and half years before I threw it in a game and another year to command it. You know It's a good pitch when they know it's coming and they still cant do anything with it. Carlton was the best at it.
Phillies greatest pitcher of all times
Quite possibly the best lefty of all times...
Sandy Koufax, randy Johnson, etc etc
Steve calton slider might be greatest pitch ever, invisible or ghost pitch
He was also the all-time best at picking runners off first base. He throw the ball to the first baseman and the runner was so caught off guard that he wouldn't even try to run back to the base
He picked off a few first basemen too! 😆
@@scarlton3232 are you the man himself? If so, I just want to thank you for all the years of pitching artistry you gave us, especially for Phillies fans like myself.
Great point which most guys overlook.
Steve, please teach these young Braves pitchers the slider.
He was the greatest!
Randy Johnson called his slider Mr. Snappy.
His slider broke like a curve but was much faster. The batter had little time to react.
He was great
a couple things about that slider, notice how all the hitters whiffing are taking big cuts, which would prove mccarver's assessment that batters couldn't see the rotation and thought it was a fastball. and that would indicate how well carlton disguised his pitches, it's a hard thing to do, make your delivery the same no matter what you throw.
tomitstube The tell tale red dot on his slider developed very late. Very hard to pick up. And you are correct on the delivery. He would drop down a time or two. Thank you for the comment.
Their pitching motions were so much better than the pitchers today.
Nice piece of history you have there!
Absolutely wicked!
God put him on the earth with that slider.
I have an autographed baseball from Steve Carlton. It was his last pitch ever in the major leagues. He struck the guy out and he threw it up in the stands. My dad later met him and he signed it. Its worth $960,000
Uhmmm .. for real?
Sean DeMarco, no, he’s lying. His last pitch ever in MLB was hit for a double. Carlton handed the ball to his manager on the mound as the relief pitcher was called, trailing 6-0. Carlton never was the type to throw a ball into the stands anyway as he had a stoic demeanor.
Even if true, and it's not, there's no way a that ball would be worth 960k lol.....
Carlton also was not big on signing autographs. I visited Phillies spring training in 1986, his final season with the Phillies. I stood outside between the locker room and their parking lot. Every Phillie except Carlton signed an autograph for me. I had to settle for taking his picture as he walked to his car.
@@straycatttt He must have mellowed in his retirement. I got his autograph at a card show held in a big hotel in New York. He was very pleasant and chatty. I'm an immigrant from England with noticeable accent, also got hooked on baseball in my forties, so not your average autograph-seeking fan, and maybe amused some of the players! Anyway, the second day of the show, I was leaving, on escalator down from the ballroom where show was held, and was hailed from the up escalator. There was Steve Carlton, calling across to me, asking did i get X's autograph, and Y's? Recognized this stout little middle-aged Englishwoman in a Mets jersey from the day before ... Made my day, I can tell you. He really was one of the nicest players I got an autograph from. I read the Philly reporters gave him a hard time, and it made him rather retreat into a shell with the media and possibly also the public.
After watching this, I see similiarities of his slider with Randy Johnson. Johnson's low and in slider was unhittable to right handed hitters and now i see where this pitch originated from. I thought RJ was the greatest left handed pitcher of all time but after watching Carlton's highlight videos I would put Carlton first and RJ second.
put your hands up if you liked his slider
Look at the great hitters he make look silly in this video. Andre Dawson, Dave Parker, Tommy Herr, Sadaharu Oh, absolutely amazing pitcher. Sad how his career ended.
We need more pitchers like him in today's game
Great video!
Slider: Carlton or Guidry....?
Now thats how a slider should look!!!!!!!
Steve like Rod wasn't going to cry too.
@raywes ehhh thats iffy as a phillies fan myself i think robin roberts is up there as well
As a cardinal fan I still can’t believe we let him go for peanuts or Mr Wise
It was a sinking slider, if that makes sense.
Made in Narita Fumio, Japan. 成田文男に衝撃を受けて習得したスライダー。何種類も操れるんだな。すごいや
Rare to have the same pitch (other than fastball) be as devastating to lefties as it was to righties. A joy to watch.
Batters looked absolutely helpless, especially right-handed batters.
For once I'd like to see Carlton's slider with the camera behind him and to the "left" like they did with Yankees games
@Trigger Warning I'd be interested in seeing this. Can you forward the link? Or at least the title?
Any idea of the music used on this video? It would make a great workout song.
The most dominating pitcher I have EVER seen. My Pirates would roll into Philly for a four-game weekend series. They had 6 or 8 guys in the NL top ten hitting for average. GREAT hitters and a hitting machine team...Then the Phils would trot out Lefty on Sunday game and make these future Hall of Farmers look stupid. Absolutely STUPID.
When he has his stuff he was the best. EVER.
That pitch at 1:19 I think was to Parker. He made a really good player look silly. Carlton's slider was really a slurve. It broke horizontally and vertically. That is what made it so devastating.
I'm a right handed pitcher.When you throw a slider,do you turn tour wrist at the last second when releasing the ball or do you just throw it like a fastball?An answer would be very very much appreciated!
+BovineJustice So you release it in a position sort of between the fastball and the curve ball?
Exactly!
not really like curveball, you don't really turn your wrist, but the hand has to move like a whip (turning your wrist unintentionally )
No , hold baseball with index and middle fingers together with the seam and put pressure/hard snap on middle finger almost exactly like a cut fastball . No snapping wrist
All i know is Johnny Bench owned steve carlton although hes the best left hander in my lifetime who i seen pitch and im 51 and saw seavers no hitter at riverfront.
Yes, the 12 homers and .305 average by Bench versus Carlton were very good. A smart catcher like Bench knew how to read his pitches. Speaking of Seaver, Phillies first baseman Tommy Hutton owned Seaver but couldn’t hit anybody else, lol.
I thought the pic was of Harold Poole at first. You should do a segment on Harold Poole.
ooh that guy#32 got tommy john
He reminds me of Christopher reeves
What was lefty's Fastball clocked at?
steve is so handsome!
0:57 this is one of the thickest philly accents i've ever heard
That’s former team owner Ruly Carpenter, from nearby Wilmington, Delaware. Imagine a team owner sitting with the grounds crew!
Internet bullshitting. It never gets old.
Everybody calling it a slider but it has the action, release, and movement like a curveball in my opinion. Either way it is a nasty pitch.
Yeah, it certainly leans toward the curveball on the Slurve Spectrum....definitely not a pure slider like a Guidry or Steib....
Some teams just seem to do better than they should against a certain pitcher. As I recall, Carlton had a losing record against the Mets. Weird.
He had some nasty stuff....
How fast was his fastest slider?
Quite The "Out-Pitch", Huh?
That's nasty
Invisible pitch or 👻ghost pitch
ohohooooo see you later
Trying to hit it was like drinking coffee with a fork!
Gibby taught you that slider...
He looks like the guy in Kardashian Family XD
yeah he looks like bruce jenner
Yup.. Caitlan Jenner.
Olympic champion 🏆 1976 dad bruce Jenner,
Looks more like a hard curve.
no i dont think so.
That's not a slider. It is a curveball.
More like a slurve.
1:45 The Cubs batter's reaction basically says everything about Carlton's slider!! Simply an unhittable pitch, you know it's coming, and you still can't hit it!
I think the batter may have been Bill Buckner, who (aside from the infamous error in the World Series) was a pretty great hitter.
Luis O. Valdez Good Ol Billy Buckner. Class act.
No it's not.
dirty
시바 거의 존나 마구
Filthy…that pitch was so good it was bad…pure artistry
There was one guy whose name wasn't mentioned who said got traded to the cubs. What was his name?
+ronwbowlingjr do you mean ryne sandberg
Larry Bowa.
And Bowa later became a Phillies skipper.
Bowa. Not much at the plate, but multi golden gloves at short.
Sergio romo slider are way better :) (sf giants fan here)
yeah but hes never won 27 games in one season