He is the Yankees franchise leader in career wins (236), shutouts (45), innings pitched (3,170+1⁄3), and games started by a pitcher (438; tied with Andy Pettitte).

[3] Ford signed with the Yankees as an amateur free agent in 1947 and made his major league debut in 1950.

Following a two-year sojourn to serve in the United States Army during the Korean War, Ford returned to the Yankees in 1953 and pitched for them until retiring in 1967.

In the wake of Yogi Berra's death in 2015, George Vecsey of The New York Times suggested that Ford was now "The Greatest Living Yankee".

At age five, he moved to the Astoria neighborhood of Queens, a few miles from the Triborough Bridge to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.

Ford received a handful of lower-ballot Most Valuable Player (MVP) votes despite throwing just 112 innings, and won the Sporting News Rookie of the Year Award.

Ford never threw a no-hitter, but he pitched two consecutive one-hit games in 1955 to tie a record held by several pitchers.

[15] Ford won the Cy Young Award in 1961; he likely would have won the 1963 AL Cy Young, but this was before the institution of a separate award for each league, and Ford could not match Sandy Koufax's numbers for the Los Angeles Dodgers of the National League (NL).

[18] In May 1967, Ford lasted just one inning in what would be his final start,[15] and he announced his retirement at the end of the month at age 38.

Yankee groundskeepers would wet down an area near the catcher's box where the Yankee catcher Elston Howard was positioned; pretending to lose balance, Howard would put down his hand with the ball and coat one side of the ball with mud and throw it to Ford.

[17] Ford described his illicit behavior as a concession to age: I didn't begin cheating until late in my career when I needed something to help me survive.

[7]Ford admitted to doctoring the ball in the 1961 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park to strike out Willie Mays.

Ford and Mantle had accumulated $1,200 ($12,087 today) in golf pro shop purchases as guests of Horace Stoneham at the Giants owner's country club.

[21] Ford's 2.75 earned run average is the third-lowest among starting pitchers whose careers began after the advent of the live-ball era in 1920.

Ford also leads all starters in World Series losses (8) and starts (22), as well as innings, hits, walks, and strikeouts.

[15] In 1974, Ford and Mickey Mantle were both elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame;[24] at that time, the Yankees retired his number 16.

[30] In 2000, the ballfield overlooking the East River on 26th Avenue, between 1st and 2nd Streets in Astoria, Queens, was named Whitey Ford Field at a Yankee Stadium ceremony.

The main dining area housed a panoramic display of Yankee Stadium from the 1950s, specifically a Chicago White Sox–Yankee game with Ford pitching and Mickey Mantle in center field; the Yanks were up 2–0.

[4] Ford died on October 8, 2020, at his home in Lake Success on Long Island at the age of 91, 13 days before his 92nd birthday.

He was watching the Yankees play in Game 4 of the 2020 American League Division Series on television, and was surrounded by his family.