Steve Carlton

Steven Norman Carlton, born December 22, 1944, is an American former professional baseball player who pitched in Major League Baseball as a left-hander from 1965 to 1988. Over his career he played for six different teams, most notably the Philadelphia Phillies, with whom he won four Cy Young Awards and the 1980 World Series. Nicknamed "Lefty," he became the first pitcher to win four Cy Young Awards in a career.

Carlton ranks second in lifetime strikeouts among left-handed pitchers and fourth overall, and second in lifetime wins among left-handers and eleventh overall. He held the lifetime strikeout record several times between 1982 and 1984, before his contemporary Nolan Ryan surpassed him. Among his most remarkable seasons, he won 27 games for the last-place 1972 Phillies, a team that finished 59–97, accounting for nearly half—46 percent—of his team's wins that year. He is the last National League pitcher to win 25 or more games in a single season, and the last pitcher from any team to throw more than 300 innings in a season. He also holds the record for the most career balks, with 90.

Carlton was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1994 in his first year of eligibility.