LaMarr Hoyt, the 1983 AL Cy Young winner for the Chicago White Sox, dies at 66: ‘What a great competitor’

LaMarr Hoyt, the 1983 American League Cy Young Award winner for the Chicago White Sox, died Monday in Columbia, S.C., after a lengthy illness, the team confirmed Wednesday.

Hoyt was 66.

“My dad passed away from cancer with me by his side early in the morning of the 29th,” Mathew Hoyt, LaMarr’s oldest son, said in a statement. “He genuinely loved being a part of the White Sox organization, and I can say without a doubt those were the best years of his life. All he talked about in his final days was baseball, the White Sox and all of his former teammates.”

Hoyt went 98-68 during eight major-league seasons with the Sox (1979-84) and San Diego Padres (1985-86). He had a 3.99 ERA and 681 strikeouts in 244 career games (172 starts).

The right-hander went 74-49 with a 3.92 ERA, 513 strikeouts and 39 complete games in 178 appearances (116 starts) with the Sox. He went 24-10 with a 3.66 ERA in 1983, helping the “Winning Ugly” Sox to the AL West title.

Hoyt became the first Sox pitcher to win the Cy Young Award since Early Wynn in 1959.

“My first impression of LaMarr was, ‘Here is a pitcher,’” Tony La Russa, who managed the Sox from 1979-86 and returned to the team in 2021, said in a statement. “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. 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.”

Born Dewey LaMarr Hoyt Jr. on Jan. 1, 1955, in Columbia, Hoyt was selected by the New York Yankees in the fifth round of the 1973 draft. They dealt him to the Sox on April 5, 1977, with outfielder Oscar Gamble and pitcher Bob Polinsky for shortstop Bucky Dent.

He made his major-league debut Sept. 14, 1979, against the Oakland A’s and led the AL with 19 victories in 1982 before his Cy Young season the next year.

“It’s better than a dream,” Hoyt said after winning the award, according to an Oct. 26, 1983, Tribune story.

Hoyt began the 1983 season with a 2-6 record but went 22-4 the rest of the way en route to leading the majors in victories. He had 148 strikeouts, 31 walks and 11 complete games in 36 starts.

Hoyt went 13-18 in 1984, leading the AL in losses. The Sox traded him to the Padres on Dec. 7, 1984, as part of a deal that included shortstop Ozzie Guillén in return.

Hoyt started and was the winning pitcher for the National League in the 1985 All-Star Game, earning MVP honors. He finished 16-8 in 1985 and went 8-11 the next season.

He returned to the Sox organization in July 1987 but didn’t pitch for any of the affiliates. Hoyt had three “drug-related incidents” in 1986, and an arrest on drug charges in December 1987 prompted his retirement, according to a Dec. 6, 1987, Tribune story.

“His agent called and informed us that LaMarr had decided not to play baseball,” then-Sox GM Larry Himes said in the article.

Teammate Richard Dotson remembered Hoyt as a “great pitcher and a great teammate.”

“We would sit around and talk pitching for hours,” Dotson, who won 22 games with the Sox in 1983 and finished fourth in Cy Young voting, said in a statement. “He really knew how to pitch. His stuff was never great, but he had a great sinker and exceptional command.

“LaMarr, Britt Burns, Harold Baines and I all came up to the big leagues around the same time and grew up together, which eventually led to that memorable 1983 season. We are all going to miss him.”