John Derran Lackey was born on October 23,1978 and is an American former professional baseball starting pitcher who played in Major League Baseball from 2002 through 2017 for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Boston Red Sox, St Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs.
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John Lackey made his MLB debut with the Angels in 2002 and helped the franchise win its first World Series title that year.
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John Lackey earned his third World Series championship in 2016 with the Cubs.
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John Lackey twice reached the top ten in both wins and strikeouts.
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John Lackey was born in Abilene, Texas to Derran and Sharon John Lackey.
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John Lackey attended Abilene High School, and was a letterman in football, basketball, and baseball.
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John Lackey played one season of baseball at the University of Texas at Arlington, playing first base and sometimes moonlighting as a relief pitcher.
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The first summer after attending UTA, John Lackey first learned to pitch in the Kansas Jayhawk Summer League.
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John Lackey gained his first postseason victory against the Minnesota Twins in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series, pitching seven innings while allowing only three hits and striking out seven.
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John Lackey started Game 4 of the Series, pitching four scoreless innings, but gaining a no-decision after allowing three hits and three earned runs in the 5th inning in the eventual Angels loss.
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John Lackey became only the second rookie in World Series history to start and win Game 7, the other being Babe Adams of the 1909 Pittsburgh Pirates.
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Mike Scioscia announced that John Lackey would start on Opening Day 2003, replacing injured ace Jarrod Washburn.
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On July 7,2006, John Lackey retired 27 consecutive batters after Mark Kotsay of the Oakland Athletics led off the first inning with double.
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John Lackey was later named American League Pitcher of the Month for July 2006.
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On June 13,2007, John Lackey became the first pitcher to win 10 games for the 2007 season.
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On July 1, John Lackey was named as one of three Angels to represent the club and the American League at the 2007 All-Star Game.
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John Lackey finished the 2007 season with an American League leading 3.
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John Lackey finished in third place for that season's Cy Young Award voting.
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On July 18,2008, John Lackey recorded his 1000th career strikeout, against Kevin Youkilis of the Boston Red Sox.
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John Lackey was the sixth Angels pitcher to accomplish that feat.
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On July 29,2008, John Lackey pitched against the Red Sox at Fenway Park, carrying a no-hitter into the ninth inning.
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John Lackey came within two outs of a no-hitter before Dustin Pedroia singled to left to spoil it.
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John Lackey threw his first pitch behind Ian Kinsler's head, and hit Kinsler in the side with his second pitch.
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Since Kinsler scored, John Lackey was charged with an earned run, giving him an ERA of infinity.
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John Lackey is one of only six major league pitchers who won at least 11 games in each year from 2004 to 2009, the others being CC Sabathia, Derek Lowe, Johan Santana, Javier Vazquez, and Jason Marquis.
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Baseball Prospectus declared, "John Lackey stands alone as the best of the best, a relatively young righty who carries significantly less risk than the other high-upside hurlers", additionally noting he faced a tough division and tougher league and his statistics would likely be even better if he were a National League pitcher.
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John Lackey drew interest from many teams, including the Seattle Mariners, the Milwaukee Brewers, the New York Yankees, the New York Mets, the Boston Red Sox, and the Pittsburgh Pirates.
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John Lackey's contract had a clause where if he missed a full season due to injury, the Red Sox would have a team option at the end of the contract worth the league minimum.
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John Lackey was later seen drinking beer in the clubhouse during his rehabilitation, causing further controversy.
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On October 30, John Lackey was the winning pitcher in Game 6 of the 2013 World Series, which clinched the Boston Red Sox' eighth World Series title.
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In doing so, John Lackey became the first starting pitcher in Major League history to win two World Series "clinching" games with two different teams.
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Lackey garnered much media attention by his refusal to leave the game when Manager John Farrell came to the mound with two outs in the seventh inning, telling Farrell "this is my guy".
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Farrell allowed John Lackey to stay in the game, but he eventually walked Holliday to load the bases.
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John Lackey was plagued by a lack of run support throughout the season, but threw two complete games, the first time in a season that he had multiple complete games since 2008.
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John Lackey began the 2014 season as the Red Sox' number-two starter behind Lester.
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John Lackey made the postseason for the seventh time in his career, starting once each against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Division Series and the San Francisco Giants in the National League Championship Series.
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John Lackey allowed three runs or fewer in all but of one of his prior 17 starts.
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One of the hits John Lackey allowed was a single to Ichiro Suzuki, a hit with which Ichiro passed Ty Cobb for the total attained in top-level professional baseball organizations, including Nippon Professional Baseball and Major League Baseball.
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Further, John Lackey turned in a season that exceeded his career norms, including a career-best 2.
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John Lackey opposed Jon Lester — both men had faced the Cardinals in the World Series two years earlier as teammates with the Red Sox.
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On December 8,2015, John Lackey signed a two-year, $32 million contract with the Chicago Cubs.
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John Lackey reached double-digit win totals for the 13th consecutive season on September 21,2016, in a 9-2 win over the Cincinnati Reds.
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John Lackey won the World Series for the third time of his career, and with a third different team after the Cubs beat the Cleveland Indians in the 2016 World Series, ending a 108-year long drought for a championship.
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On September 15,2017, John Lackey was ejected and fined for arguing a strike call by umpire Jordan Baker.
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John Lackey became a free agent after the Cubs lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS.
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At a Chicago Cubs home game on September 27,2018, John Lackey was in attendance, and toasted to the camera when it panned to him.
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John Lackey is a stepfather to Kristina's children from her first marriage.
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John Lackey was featured in a 2011 Kevin Fowler music video alongside fellow Red Sox starting pitchers Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, Tim Wakefield, and Clay Buchholz.
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In 2021, John Lackey made a cameo in the football film Under the Stadium Lights as a guest speaker at a pep rally.
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