Two-time Cy Young award winner and Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry died Thursday morning of natural causes at his Gaffney, S.C., home, according to the Cherokee County Coroner. He was 84.

Perry pitched for eight teams during his illustrious 22-year career, winning the Cy Young with Cleveland in the AL in 1972 and San Diego in the NL in 1978. After a 21-7 season with a 2.73 ERA and at the age of 39, he became the oldest player to win the award at the time. He was selected to five All-Star teams.

“Before I won my second Cy Young, I thought I was too old — I didn’t think the writers would vote for me,” Perry said in an article on the National Baseball Hall of Fame website. “But they voted on my performance, so I won it.”

Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1991, Perry had a career record of 314-265, finished with 3,534 strikeouts.

He was famous for his illegal spitball, using Vaseline to alter his pitches. He said he learned his famed greaseball pitch from Bob Shaw in 1964, when they were teammates with the Giants.

Perry was ejected from a game just once for doctoring a baseball — when he was with Seattle in 1982. The following year with Kansas City, in his final season, Perry and teammate Leon Roberts tried to hide George Brett’s infamous pine-tar bat in the clubhouse but were stopped by a guard. Perry was ejected for his role in that game, too.

During the 1971 NLCS between the Giants and Pirates, Perry’s 5-year-old daughter Allison was asked by a television reporter if her father threw a greaseball.

“It’s a hard slider,” she said.

However, in a book he wrote with Bob Sudyk titled “Me and the Spitter: An Autobiographical Confession,” Perry confirmed that he was familiar with the spitball and greaseball.

“I became an outlaw in the strictest sense of the word, a man who lives outside the law, in this case the law of baseball,” he wrote.

Perry was a member of the Yankees for part of the 1980 season, going 4-4 with a 4.44 ERA and 28 strikeouts over 50 ²/₃ innings pitched.

Hall of Famer Fergie Jenkins, a teammate of Perry’s during his time with the Rangers, posted a heartfelt message on Twitter following the his death.

“Saddened to get the call that Gaylord Perry passed away this morning. A great friend and a great teammate,” Jenkins wrote. “My thoughts go out to the Perry family. We’ll miss you Gaylord.”

Fred Lynn, who faced Perry during his days as an outfielder for the Red Sox and Angels, also shared a message on Twitter.

“We lost a great competitor today. Gaylord Perry. Faced him when he was going for #300. Every pitch dropped about a foot…mmmm. Was a good guy and we shared some great stories. #RIP,” wrote Lynn.

Perry later founded the baseball program at Limestone College in his hometown of Gaffney and was its coach for the program’s first three seasons.

— with AP