Madden: Johnny Podres dead at 75

Johnny Podres.

Johnny Podres, the cool and clutch lefty who pitched the Dodgers to their one and only world championship in Brooklyn by shutting out the Yankees, 2-0, in the seventh game of the 1955 World Series, died Sunday night in a hospital in Glens Falls, N.Y. He was 75.

Podres, who forever earned his niche as the toast of Brooklyn with two wins over the Yankees in that ‘55 Series, had been suffering from a multitude of illnesses, the result of being a lifelong chain smoker, and had just undergone a leg amputation in doctors’ efforts to remedy an infection.

...Podres was essentially a three-pitch pitcher - fastball, curveball and changeup - all of which, Zimmer said, were exceptional. He is credited with being one of the greatest masters of the changeup, having taught it to dozens of pitchers, including Curt Schilling and Frank Viola, in later years as a pitching coach with the Red Sox, Twins and Phillies. As a pitching coach, Podres was strictly old school, scoffing at pitch counts, and that was probably the result of having hurled 77 complete games himself. In 1993, he took a Phillies staff that had ranked last in the National League in ERA the previous year to the World Series.

Even here...Madden has to work his pitchcountitis in.