Jim "Catfish" Hunter, the country boy whose pitching arm lifted him into baseball's Hall of Fame while he kept his feet planted firmly in the farmland of eastern North Carolina, is dead of Lou Gehrig's disease at age 53.
Hunter died Thursday at his home in Hertford, surrounded by family and friends, of the same muscle-wasting disease that claimed Gehrig, another baseball great.Hunter died just days after being released from Pitt County Memorial Hospital in Greenville, where he was taken after hitting his head on concrete steps at his home on Aug. 8. He was unconscious for several days, but improved enough to be sent home Saturday.
Hunter was one of baseball's most dominant pitchers during a 15-year career with the Oakland Athletics and New York Yankees. He strung together five straight 20-victory seasons, pitched a perfect game, won a Cy Young Award and five World Series rings.
He also became the first multimillionaire player when he was declared a free agent on a technicality after the 1974 season, then led the Yankees to their first pennant in 12 seasons.
"I was probably the first player who broke it open for other players to be paid what they're worth," Hunter said in 1987 after he was elected to the Hall of Fame.
While achieving fame and fortune, however, he always remained true to his North Carolina roots.
"Jimmy was what you call 'country boy makes good, but remains country boy,"' said Gil Underwood, who taught and coached Hunter at Perquimans County High School. "His fame or his money or anything of that nature didn't change him at all. He still loved the simple things: hunting, his dogs, being outside."
Hunter was a player's player, a fierce competitor on the field, but a prankster who loved to have fun with teammates after the game. He grew a mustache and wore his hair long like them in the fashion of the late '60s and early '70s, but he retained his farmboy values and spun stories with a country drawl.
In September 1998, Hunter learned he had amyothropic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a neurological disease that attacks nerves in the spinal cord and brain that control muscle movement, causing progressive paralysis and leading to death. There is no cure for the condition.
Hunter also had diabetes and required insulin injections three times a day since 1978.
Hunter first noticed the neurological condition in the winter of 1997-98 when he was hunting near his farm.
"I couldn't lift my shotgun with my right hand," he said. "It was a little bit cool that day, and I thought there was something wrong with me that would go away. But it just kept getting worse."
Doctors put Hunter on a drug regimen to slow the disease, but it progressed quickly, leaving the once strong-armed pitcher unable to function without help. He talked of how Helen, his high school sweetheart and wife of more than 30 years, helped him through each day, dressing him and cutting his food.
"Once in a while," he said, "we sit there and cry together."
The Athletics found Hunter in Hertford, where he had led Perquimans County to a state championship and developed a reputation as a fearsome, fastball-hurling presence on the mound.
"I remember a lot of times, you'd see guys come to the plate, and he was so overpowering their legs would be shaking," said Francis Combs, who caught for Hunter from eighth grade through high school. "He was so intimidating."
"Against Plymouth, he struck out 27 batters in 13 innings," Combs recalled. "And he was just a sophomore."
A's owner Charles O. Finley, intent on promoting his players to the hilt, pinned the nickname "Catfish" on Hunter. To friends and family, however, he remained Jim.
Hunter came up with the A's in 1965 and punctuated the team's move to Oakland in 1968 with a perfect game against the Minnesota Twins. At the time, it was only the seventh perfect game in modern baseball history.
Starting in 1971, he strung together five straight 20-victory seasons, winning the AL Cy Young Award in 1974. After that season, he was declared a free agent by arbitrator Peter Seitz because Finley failed to make payments on an annuity that was part of his contract.
At the time, with baseball's reserve clause still in place, it was unprecedented to have a star of Hunter's magnitude available on the open market. That autumn, major league club executives trudged into Hertford to recruit Hunter, who was more interested in going out to hunt than talking contract.
Finally, Hunter agreed to a $3.75 million, five-year deal with the Yankees that made him the highest-paid player in baseball history at the time and set the stage for full-scale free agency, which began after the 1976 season.
Hunter finished his career with the Yankees in 1979. He returned to his hometown and his farm and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1987.
"I would trade all of that for good health," Hunter said after he knew he had ALS. "I'd be a groundskeeper and not let anybody know me."
A graveside service will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday at Cedar Wood Cemetery in Hertford, behind the ballfield where Hunter played in high school.
Hunter is survived by his wife, daughter Kim, sons Todd and Paul, grandson Taylor, three sisters and three brothers.
Memorial gifts can be made to the Jim "Catfish" Hunter ALS Foundation, P.O. Box 47 Hertford, NC, 27944, or the Perquimans County Rescue Squad, P.O. Box 191, Hertford, NC, 27944.