Spud Chandler Spurgeon Ferdinand " Spud " Chandler ( September 12 , 1907 – January 9 , 1990 ) was an American right - handed starting pitcher in major league baseball who played his entire career for the New York Yankees from 1937 through 1947 . He was named the American League ' s Most Valuable Player in after anchoring the team ' s pitching staff with 20 wins and only 4 losses as New York won its third consecutive pennant ; his 1 . 64 earned run average in that season was the lowest by any major league pitcher between 1920 and 1967 , and remains a Yankees team record . In eleven seasons , he never suffered a losing record ; with a total of 109 wins and 43 losses , his career winning percentage of . 717 is the highest of any pitcher with at least 100 victories since 1876 . Biography . Chandler was born in Commerce , Georgia , and attended the University of Georgia . He played football as a halfback , throwing a touchdown pass to help defeat Yale in a 1929 game dedicating a new stadium . He also pitched for the baseball team and competed on the track team . He was a brother of the Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity and graduated with a degree in agriculture . He spent five seasons in the Yankees organization after signing with the team , his favorite since boyhood . Chandler finally made his major league debut at age 29 on May 6 , 1937 , and went 7 - 4 that season with a 2 . 84 ERA and six complete game s ( including two shutout s ) . The following year he was 14 - 5 , and in 1939 he was 3 - 0 in 11 relief appearances . Although the Yankees won the World Series in each of those years , Chandler did not appear in the postseason . Bothered by injuries during his early career , after records of 8 - 7 and 10 - 4 in 1940 and 1941 he improved further to 16 - 5 in , finishing third in the AL with a 2 . 38 ERA and earning his first of four All - Star selections . He was the All - Star Game ' s winning pitcher in 1942 . Chandler had one start in the World Series each year , but lost both times , as the Yankees won in 1941 and lost in 1942 . His greatest year came in 1943 . In addition to his outstanding ERA , he led the league with 20 wins in 30 starts , as well as 20 complete games and five shutouts . In 253 innings pitched , he gave up 46 earned runs , allowing only five home run s . Chandler ' s 134 strikeout s were third in the league , and equalled his combined total of the previous two seasons . He made the AL All - Star team for the second time . Chandler finally had a successful World Series , pitching two complete game victories , including a shutout in the final Game 5 , as the Yankees defeated the St . Louis Cardinals . Winning the MVP award , he beat out Luke Appling of the Chicago White Sox . Chandler remains the only Yankee pitcher to win the Most Valuable Player award . After one start in 1944 , he entered World War II military service with the Army for nearly all of the next two seasons . He returned in with another All - Star season , going 20 - 8 with a 2 . 10 ERA ( 2nd in the league to Hal Newhouser ) and a career - high 138 strikeouts . That year he also had 20 complete games for the second time in his career . He earned his last All - Star selection in , but finished the year with only a 9 – 5 record as injuries ended his career at age 40 . He pitched for the last time in the historic 1947 World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers , pitching two relief innings in a Game 3 loss . In four World Series , he had a 2 – 2 record with a 1 . 62 ERA , 16 strikeouts , and 1 shutout . Over his career Chandler was 109 - 43 in 211 games ( 109 complete , 26 shutouts ) , with a 2 . 84 ERA . He had 614 career strikeouts and gave up 64 home runs and 1327 hits . As a hitter , he had a batting average of . 201 , with a . 234 on base percentage ; he had 110 hits in 548 at bat s in his career , and on July 26 , 1940 had two home runs including a grand slam . He later managed in the minor leagues , became pitching coach with the Kansas City Athletics in 1957 - 58 , and scouted for several teams before retiring in 1984 . He was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 1969 and into the Franklin County Sports Hall of Fame in 1997 . Death . Chandler died at age 82 in South Pasadena , Florida . He was married and had two sons . Legacy . Chandler was inducted into the University of Georgia Ring of Honor in 2000 .