Former New York Yankees pitcher Sturdivant dies - ESPN

RIP: former New York Yankees pitcher Sturdivant dies

I remember him mostly as a face on a baseball card, but he did have one noteworthy year. The 1957 Yankees had probably the best pitching staff of the 1950s not to wear an Indians uniform. All five of the top starters in the Bronx finished in the top eight in the league in winning percentage, and four of them finished in the top five in ERA. Somehow Tom Sturdivant emerged as the unlikely ace of that staff, although he began the season as the fourth starter. He lead the team in wins. He led the league in winning percentage, and he finished second in the league in ERA, behind Shantz.

Unfortunately, that year was pretty much the end of his career. He would never again start more than 12 games for any team. In the next three years he won 3, 2, and 3.

Oddly enough, Sturdivant was not the only member of that staff to collapse after 1957.

• Bobby Shantz had once been the best pitcher in the league. The tiny (5'6", 142) lefty actually won the MVP in 1952 (rare for a starting pitcher), and led the league in ERA in 1957, but he would never again start as many as 15 games in a season, or win as many as 10.
• Don Larsen was only a dependable fifth starter and never seemed headed for the Hall of Fame, as Shantz once did, but in 1956-57 he went 21-9, and I think you know what he did in the 1956 World Series. After 1957 he would never again start 20 games in a season, or win as many as 10. Just three years after his perfecto he went 1-10 with a 5.38 ERA.
• Bob Turley did not collapse after the 1957 season. He waited until after the 1958 season. He went 21-7 in 1958, then dropped off the radar, although still in his mid twenties.

The fifth member of the staff did not collapse at all. That would be a certain Mr. Whitey Ford, who anchored the staff for another decade while en route to a lifetime winning percentage near .700 and a plaque in the HOF.