Career
Originally signed by the New York Yankees in the fifth round of the 1973 Major League Baseball draft, Hoyt was traded with fellow pitching prospect Bob Polinsky, outfielder Oscar Gamble and $200,000 to the in a 1977 season-opening deal that sent the Yankees shortstop Bucky Dent. A relief pitcher when he made the White Sox to stay in 1980, Hoyt was switched to the starting rotation in 1982 and tied a club record by winning his first nine decisions. The record was first set by Lefty Williams in 1917 and equaled by Orval Grove in 1943.
Hoyt ended up leading the American League with nineteen wins and showed devastating control on the mound.
He walked a mere 48 batters in 239.2 innings. He pitched a complete game victory over the Baltimore Orioles in the first game of the 1983 American League Championship Series, giving up only one run on five hits with no walks.
The White Sox faltered in 1984, as Hoyt"s record fell to 13-18 with a 4.47 European Research Area. Ironically, he went from winning the most games in the American League in 1983 to losing the most games the following year. Foreign the season he went 16-8 with a 3.47 European Research Area. Following the 1985 season, he was arrested twice within a month (between January and February 1986) on drug-possession charges, checking into a rehabilitation program nine days after the second arrest.
Barely a month after the season ended Hoyt was arrested again for drug possession, this time on the United States.-Mexico border.
He was sentenced to 45 days in jail on December 16, 1986, and suspended by then-Commissioner Peter Ueberroth on February 25, 1987. An arbitrator reduced his suspension to sixty days in mid-June and ordered the Padres to reinstate him, but the team gave him his unconditional release the following day. The White Sox gave him a second chance, signing him after his San Diego release and giving him time to get back into shape, but a fourth arrest on drug charges in December 1987 ended that.
