I was born on October 20, 1938 in the Dominican Republic village of Laguna Verde. At the age of 17, I quit high school and began pitching for the United Fruit Co. team at Manzanillo (for $12/week and all the fruit I could eat).
I started my major league career off to a good start by one hitting the Phillies in 1960, and never looked back from there. Continuing to mow hitters down with my high leg kicking delivery, I struck out 2,303 batters over 16 years (14 of those years spent with the Giants).
On July 2, 1963, I competed in a classic pitching duel against Warren Spahn. Throwing 227 pitches (take that modern day hurlers!) over 16 innings, I earned the 1-0 victory after Willie Mays homered off Spahn.
For the record, I was 191-88 for a .685 winning percentage, and had six 20 win seasons from 1960-1969 (better than Gibson at .610 with four 20 win seasons, and Koufax .695 and three 20 win seasons).
I won 243 games, had an ERA of 2.89, threw 244 complete games, 52 shutouts, and was elected to the hall of fame in 1983.
