On May 6, 1982, 43-year old Gaylord Perry walked off the Kingdome mound a complete-game winner, and the 15th pitcher in MLB history to reach 300 victories. The 7-3 win over the Yankees, witnessed by 27,369 fans, ended a 19-year drought at the milestone; no one had cracked 300 since Early Wynn in 1963. Perry's path to Seattle was unusual. The Mariners signed the aging right-hander specifically to chase the milestone in front of their fans, and he delivered; going the full nine innings against New York with the kind of guile that defined his career. The spitball, of course, was the legend. Perry was baseball's most famous (and most accused) practitioner of the wet one, though by his own account he kept the pitch in his back pocket the night he got #300, leaning instead on the fastball and curve. He finished his 22-year career with 314 wins, two Cy Young Awards (the first pitcher ever to win one in each league: AL '72 with Cleveland, NL '78 with San Diego), and a 1991 plaque in Cooperstown. The Mariners' gamble paid off!
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