Don Gullett, a flame-throwing left-handed pitcher who starred on three World Series championship teams in the 1970s, first with the Cincinnati Reds and then with the New York Yankees, died Wednesday. It was 73.
The Reds organization confirmed the death in a statement but he did not state the cause or say where he died.
The Reds during Gullett’s tenure were one of the all-time greats. The Big Red Machine, as it was known, was famous for its lumber, with an era-defining string of hitters that included Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, Tony Perez and Pete Rose.
While the team’s pitching rarely received top billing, Gullett established himself as a formidable ace during the team’s dynasty. Nicknamed the Smokin’ Don, he drove away batters with a fastball whose velocity tickled the triple digits, sometimes drawing comparisons to his idol, Los Angeles Dodgers left-hander Sandy Koufax.
Willie Stargel, the Hall of Fame shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates, once said that Goulet “could throw a ball through a car wash without ever getting wet.”
Adding a nasty forkball that left balls flying in the air, he went 17-11 with a 3.04 earned run average in 1974. Sparky Anderson, the Reds’ manager, predicted that, “barring injury,” Gullett “is almost sure he will succeed. Hall of Fame.”
These words would prove prophetic, but not in the way Anderson intended.
Goulet had the honor of starting Game 1 of the World Series three straight years beginning in 1975 – the first two with the Reds, the third with the Yankees. In a thrilling seven-game victory over the Boston Red Sox in 1975, Gullett missed the first game but came back to win Game 5, surrendering just two earned runs in 8 ⅔ innings.
After the Reds swept the Yankees in four games the next year, Bronx Bombers principal owner George Steinbrenner apparently had seen enough: he signed Goulet to a six-year contract for $2.1 million (equivalent to about $11 million today) as free agent.
“He had to take it,” Bench was quoted as saying in Gullett’s obituary in The Cincinnati Enquirer. “It was the hardest decision I think Don Gullett ever made in his life, but for his family it was the only decision he could make.”
In his first year in pinstripes, 1977, Gullett went 14-4, helping the team to its first World Series victory since 1962.
Surgery in 1978 for a double tear in the rotator cuff of his left shoulder would spell the end of his playing days. His attempts to rehabilitate his pitching arm failed. He sat out the 1979 season and the Yankees released him in 1980.
Still, Gullett went 109-50 during his career, finishing with a .686 hitting percentage — seventh best in major league history for pitchers who pitched at least 1,000 innings.
In a star-studded Reds squad, his athleticism stood out to his teammates – as did his humble manner. “He was a complete athlete,” Bench said, according to The Enquirer. “He could hit and run like the wind and the nicest, nicest man. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a bad word about Don.”
Donald Edward Goulet was born on January 6, 1951, near Lynn, Ky., not far from the Ohio border, the sixth of eight children born to Buford and Lettie Goulet.
As a teenager, Don built his strength by baling hay on local farms while becoming a dazzling All-State star on the diamond, gridiron and hardwood at McKell High School. He became an area legend, known for such feats as scoring 72 points in a football game and striking out 20 of 21 batters while throwing a perfect game.
Selected 14th overall out of high school by Cincinnati in the 1969 draft, Goulet appeared in only 11 games in the minor leagues before quickly reaching the major leagues in 1970 when he was 19 years old.
In the 1970 National League Championship Series, the Reds swept a strong Pittsburgh Pirates team in three games, with Gullett, in relief, picking up saves in Games 2 and 3. Despite his young age, he was unfazed by the experience .
“I wasn’t nervous at all going in there,” he said during the series. “Talking to all those reporters is a lot tougher than going up against Willie Stargell or Roberto Clemente.”
The Reds lost the World Series in five games to the Baltimore Orioles that year and fell to the Oakland A’s (another 1970s dynasty) two years later. However, the best years were yet to come, both for the team and their left-wing star.
After his playing days were over, Goulet retired to a farm near his hometown, where he and his wife, Kathy, grew tobacco and other crops.
Information about his survivors was not immediately available.
In a 1989 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Gullett said it took time to get over his early exit from baseball.
“I looked at myself and I was only 31, 32 years old,” he said. “It bothered me mentally. It was mentally difficult to watch games.”
Although remorseful, however, he maintained his trademark humility.
“It was just unfortunate in my career,” he added. “If I had stayed healthy, there’s a chance I could have been very successful.”
