White Sox 1983 Cy Young Winner Lamarr Hoyt Dies Of Cancer At 66

CHICAGO — Every time pitcher Lamarr Hoyt took the mound for the "Winning Ugly" White Sox during his Cy Young Award-season in 1983, a great calm came over the clubhouse.

"Lamarr wanted to play the game. He just loved to pitch. He loved being competitive, and he wanted the ball in his hand no matter what," former teammate Ron Kittle said. "When Lamarr was on the mound, we knew we were going to win that day."

And he did. A lot. Over an eight-year big-league career. Hoyt posted a 98-68 record as a starting pitcher. In 1983, Hoyt went 24-10 with a 3.66 ERA. He won 13 straight games and walked only 38 batters over nearly 261 innings.

White Sox manager Tony La Russa, who called Hoyt up from the minors during his first stint as skipper, said it was obvious the 6-foot-3, nearly 200-pound hurler had unique big-league potential.

"He had average stuff but amazing command and tremendous confidence, and he never showed fear. We brought him up to the big leagues in 1979, and nothing bothered him," La Russa said in a statement. "He had this impressive cool where he believed if he made his pitches, he would get hitters out. He faced teams multiple times in a season but could change up his looks and keep them off balance. What a great competitor.”

Hoyt died at home in South Carolina on Monday after a long battle with cancer.

He was 66.

Pitching "is not difficult."

Compared to the rest of his life, staring down big-league hitters was a stress relief for Hoyt.

He was born in Columbia, South Carolina, on New Year's Day in 1955 to an alcoholic father and a mother who didn't want him, according to his son, Matt Hoyt.

He was raised by his aunt and shared a small bedroom with two cousins during a childhood tainted by tragedy. The teenage death of one of his roommate cousins was especially impactful. His rough upbringing inspired Hoyt to put all his focus on baseball, his son said.

"Dad's story is one of perseverance. Everything he went through motivated him throughout his baseball career. He always kept pushing," Matt Hoyt told Patch in a telephone interview. "He told me to never let pain get me down, and to use it as strength."

After winning the MLB's highest pitching honor in 1983 for the AL West Division Champion White Sox, Hoyt told the Tribune that taking the mound — more than his $1 million contract — brought him relief.

"What I do is not difficult at all when it is compared to my childhood," he said back then. "I matured early because of my upbringing in South Carolina. It was tough, pitching isn't. Baseball isn't life and death to me."

Hoyt was drafted in the fifth round of the 1973 draft by the New York Yankees and traded to the White Sox on April 5, 1977, with outfielder Oscar Gamble and pitcher Bob Polinsky in exchange for shortstop Bucky Dent.

Hoyt's confidence on the mound was extraordinary and evident early in his White Sox career, according to Kittle, who first met Hoyt in the minor leagues.

Kittle was a catcher back then. He met Hoyt while working on pitching drills as former Sox manager Paul Richards, then working as a player adviser, looked on.

"Lamarr was working from the wind-up. Paul told him to throw from the stretch, and Lamarr said, 'Ain't never had a need to be in it,'" Kittle said, and then chuckled. "And in the minors that year, that was mostly true. He didn't let many guys get on base. I remember he went from AA ball to AAA to the big leagues in a couple of months."

Hoyt's confidence in his ability to throw a baseball exactly where he wanted it to go was the stuff of minor league legend.

Kittle recounted the time Hoyt showed up a gaggle of players trying — and repeatedly failing — to throw a ball from second base into a slightly-bigger-than-a-baseball-sized hole in the right field fence at War Memorial stadium.

"He picks up one ball and throws the first one through the damn hole," Kittle told Patch. "Everybody said, 'Looks like we're done here.'"

Hoyt's cool confidence continued in the majors. Kittle recounted Hoyt's retort to a reporter expressing concern about him throwing 89 pitches during his game.

"Lamarr hit back saying, 'Yeah, and 86 of them [pitches] was on the black [baseball slang for the edges of home plate.] Then, Lamarr goes into the training room, swear to God — remember he's a right-hander — and he soaked his left elbow in ice water, and drank a beer. He just had that great personality. Loved being around him."

"Beating Those Demons"

Hoyt's career started to spiral after the 1985 season, when he started the All-Star game in Minnesota and was the winning pitcher. He continued to pitch through a shoulder injury rather than risk what at the time was potentially career-ending rotator cuff surgery.

That year, Hoyt said he turned to drugs and alcohol to manage the pain, according to published reports.

In February 1986, after being traded to the San Diego Padres, Hoyt was arrested twice in less than two weeks on drug charges. On Feb. 10 that year, federal agents charged him with smuggling marijuana, Valium and quaaludes at the Tijuana border crossing.

Eight days later, San Diego police arrested him for carrying a switchblade and two marijuana cigarettes. Shortly after his second arrest, Hoyt checked himself into a drug treatment center.

In 1987, Hoyt was arrested on drug charges in Florida. While serving 38 days of a 45-day jail sentence, the Padres parted ways with the former Cy Young winner, voiding a contract that was set to pay him $3 million over three years.

"We talked about that a lot," Matt Hoyt said. "Baseball was his life, and I mean it. I think that's why he had the problems he did at the end of his career. He knew he was probably getting closer to the end of it. From the way he was brought up, I think that had a big contributing factor to the end of his career. I just don't think he could really handle it at the time. But he still ended up pushing through, and fighting and beating those demons."

Focused On Family

In 1988, Hoyt met his future wife, Leslie, at a bar in South Carolina. Her sister set up the blind date.

"My aunt said, she had a guy she really wanted my mom to meet. The way they talked about it, they met, and that was it," Matt Hoyt said. "They got married on Dec. 3, 1988. And they had my sister a year to the day later."

Over the last six years, Hoyt's health started to fail. Severe lymphedema in his legs made it difficult to get around. His daughter, Alex Hoyt, died in a car crash in 2017. Since then, the former White Sox star made his top priority spending time with his granddaughters, Zoey and Eliza Hoyt, and grandsons, Noah Hoyt, Cruz Hammond.

"He was an extremely caring person behind his tough exterior," Matt Hoyt said. "A lot of people just don't know he had the biggest heart. A lot of people would tell you otherwise. But it's true."

Hoyt is survived by his wife and sons, Matt and Josh Hoyt, and four grandchildren.

Funeral arrangements are pending.