Jim Palmer Biography

James Alvin Palmer, born October 15, 1945, played professional baseball as a pitcher in Major League Baseball for 19 years with the Baltimore Orioles from 1965 to 1967 and again from 1969 to 1984. Palmer recorded 186 wins during the 1970s, making him the winningest MLB pitcher in that decade. Palmer won at least 20 games in eight different seasons while earning three Cy Young Awards and four Gold Gloves during the decade. In 1971, he was part of a Baltimore Orioles rotation that included four 20-game winners in a single season. Palmer was first scouted at age 18 in 1963 as a high school player in Arizona by a member of the Orioles' organization. He won 21 games in 1972 and posted a 22–9 record with a 2.40 ERA in 1973, earning his first Cy Young Award. In 1975, Palmer won 23 games, recorded 10 shutouts, allowed only 44 hits in those games, and posted a 2.09 ERA, leading the American League in all three categories.