Catfish Hunter Marquee Hall of Fame 1987

Charlie Finley signed him out of North Carolina, invented the nickname, and sent him to the majors without a minor-league season. On May 8, 1968, in his fourth year, he retired all twenty-seven Minnesota batters in a 4-0 win at Oakland, the first regular-season perfect game in the American League since 1922.

He won 21, 21, 21, 25, and 23 games from 1971 through 1975, took the Cy Young Award in 1974, and led the league in wins in his last Oakland season and his first in New York. In 1975 he completed 30 of his 39 starts and threw 328 innings, more than in any other year.

An arbitrator voided his Oakland contract after 1974 because Finley had missed a payment the deal required, and every club was free to bid. The Yankees won, at a figure that rearranged what owners expected to pay. He finished 224-166 and died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in 1999, at fifty-three.