in any regular season. He helped himself with his bat, hitting 55 doubles, 10 triples, and five home runs with 103 RBIs. His 28 wins in 1952, the year he won The Sporting News Player of the Year Award, were the most in the National League since 1935, the year when Dizzy Dean won 28 games. Although he had 28 wins in 1952, Roberts had his best season, based on a career high WAR (wins above replacement) in 1953, posting a 23–16 record and leading the NL pitchers in strikeouts with 198. In a career-high innings pitched, he walked just 66 batters, and his 2.75 ERA was second in the league behind Warren Spahn's 2.10. One of the most memorable highlights of his career occurred on May 13, 1954, when Roberts gave up a lead-off home run to the Cincinnati Reds' (then known as the Redlegs) Bobby Adams and then he retired 27 consecutive batters to win 8–1, on a one-hit game. Roberts consistently (11 out of 14 years) had a better winning percentage than did the Phillies in games in which he had no decision. Overall, the Phillies were 1,020–1,136 from 1948 to 1961, a winning percentage of .4731. Roberts was 234–199 in that span, for a winning percentage of .5404. Later career After the 1961 season, Roberts was sold to the New York Yankees, who acquired the slumping pitcher from the Phillies for slightly more than the $20,000 league waiver price. On February 6, 1962, the Phillies announced that Roberts's uniform number 36 would be retired by the team on March 21, 1962, when the Yankees would visit Clearwater to play the Phillies in a spring training game. It was the first uniform number to be retired by the organization. Roberts started for the Yankees in the spring game, gave up four runs in three innings, and was the winning pitcher in the Yankees' 13–10 victory. He was released by the Yankees in May 1962 without having appeared in a regular-season game for the Yankees. He signed with the Baltimore Orioles on May 21, 1962. He went 42–36 with a 3.09 ERA in seasons with the Orioles. In his final year in Baltimore, he was the first road roommate and mentor to Jim Palmer, who made his major league debut in relief of Roberts in the third inning of a 12–9 loss to the Boston Red Sox in