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| Don Gullett Country Memorial; Greenup, Ky. |
On the lawn of the Greenup County is a memorial declaring that “This is Don Gullett Country.” I’ll be the first to admit, I didn’t recognize the name. I recognized the subject of he neighboring memorial, for Jesse Stuart, plus the Stuart memorial offered details as to who Stuart was.
I had to rely on Google to learn about Don Gullett, and I suppose if I were more of a baseball fan I might have recognized the name. Gullett was born in South Shore (Greenup County), Kentucky in 1951. Before he could drive, pro and college recruiters – baseball, football and basketball – were coming to Greenup County to watch him play at McKell High School. He skipped college and was drafted by the Cincinnati Reds in 1969. He played for the Reds for a few seasons before being picked up as a free agent by the New York Yankees.
During his pitching career, he won four consecutive World Series (1975, 1976 with the Reds; 1977, 1978 with the Yankees). His stats are available here. Gullett, suffering from shoulder injuries, retired from the game in 1979 and was released from the Yankees in 1980. He is enjoying retirement on a farm near his birthplace in South Shore.