In the first decades of the National League, with Organized Baseball still relatively young, the concepts of “milestones” and “all-time records” had yet to coalesce in the minds of fans, media, and, no doubt, the players themselves.[fn]Bill Felber, correspondence with author, April 7, 2010.[/fn] Perhaps, too, there was a healthy disregard for becoming too obsessed with “the numbers.” The author of a May 12, 1878, Special Dispatch to the Chicago Daily Tribune, lamenting the intricacies of scoring fielder’s choices and players hit by batted balls, concluded that “It would be a splendid thing for the game if no record except that of runs were kept.”

There was a maddening inexactness in contemporary record-keeping anyway: three newspapers could offer three different strikeout or error totals—with no video evidence to certify accuracy. So diamond warriors of that bygone age went merrily along without knowing what fodder they had strewn for the stat-gorging generations to come.

James Galvin, known to posterity as Pud (because he “made pudding of opposing batters”),[fn]Overfield, Joseph. “Jim Galvin,” Baseball’s First Stars (Cleveland, Ohio: SABR, 1996), p. 65.[/fn] hit the National Association in 1875, but kicked around for a few years before making his National League debut in 1879. Packing 190 pounds into a 5-foot-8 frame, he was sometimes called the Little Steam Engine, and he carved his Hall of Fame niche with consistency and endurance. The 1888 season was his 10th, excluding the one year in the National Association, and though still a valued hurler, he floundered through much of the season, thanks in considerable part to minimal run support. In mid-July his record stood at a miserable 5–17, but a couple of good streaks lifted him to 17–18 by the time his Pittsburgh club traveled to Indianapolis in the first week of September.

The five-game series promised little in the way of fireworks. Pittsburgh held a formidable 11-to-3 advantage in the season series against the Hoosiers. But the Alleghenies were long since out of pennant contention, struggling to pull themselves up to .500, and at best perhaps hoping for a fifth-place finish. Their hosts inhabited last place, having won only 37 of 103 games entering the series. Not exactly a marquee match-up.

On Monday, September 3, Galvin pitched ineffectively in the first game of a morning-afternoon twin-bill and went down to a 5-1 defeat. Pittsburgh rebounded to win the afternoon game, and The Little Steam Engine was due back in the box for game three the next day.

Seventh Street Park in Indianapolis seated a paltry crowd of 1,400 fans on Tuesday, September 4. For the second time in two days Galvin turned in a less-than-masterful effort, yielding nine hits and four earned runs, and winning only by the grace of three unearned runs scored by his team. In the seventh inning, rookie Indianapolis pitcher Bill Burdick, pressed into center-field duty when Paul Hines was injured, mishandled the only outfield chance of his major-league career, allowing the fifth and deciding Pittsburgh run to score. Sporting Life wrote that the home team was “demoralized in its field work, although it batted Galvin very hard.”[fn]Sporting Life, September 12, 1888, p. 3.[/fn] Pud managed but a solitary strikeout—the opposing pitcher, Handsome Henry Boyle. Rookie first baseman Jake Beckley, with 19 more seasons and an eventual place in the Hall of Fame ahead of him, went 4-for-4 in support of Galvin.

Seen merely in the context of the day, Galvin’s utterly unprepossessing pitching performance and, indeed, the game itself merit little attention. Yet on that date what would become the ultimate standard of pitching immortality was first reached—for the victory was the 300th of Pud Galvin’s career, a total no previous pitcher had achieved.

Since the National Association—in which Galvin won his first four victories—is not recognized by most authorities as a genuine major league, it should be mentioned that Galvin’s 300th victory in a league today recognized as “major” came about a month later, on October 5, when he triumphed on the road against Washington, 5–1. This time he let just one unearned run slip by, but again his teammates faltered at the bat and needed eight Washington errors and four unearned runs to post the victory.[fn]Sporting Life, October 10, 1888, p. 2.[/fn]

Galvin lasted four more seasons, retiring after the 1892 campaign with 365 victories to his credit, 361 of them in recognized major leagues. By that time Tim Keefe, Mickey Welch, Hoss Radbourn, and John Clarkson had also reached 300. But not until 1903 was Pud’s victory total surpassed, by Denton True Young, and only a handful have passed it since.

There was no mention of the milestone in the newspapers of the day. Reporters noted Pittsburgh’s brilliant fielding,[fn]Boston Daily Globe, September 5, 1888, p. 5.[/fn] a good throw from right field by Jack McGeachey,[fn]Chicago Daily Inter Ocean, September 5, 1888, p. 2.[/fn] and Beckley’s four hits[fn]New York Clipper, September 15, 1888, p. 432.[/fn]—but nothing about 300 wins. Who knows how long it took for someone—anyone—to take note? In 1906 a retrospective titled “Pitchers of the Past: Crack Twirlers of a Quarter Century Ago,” lauded Galvin as “a magician in the points” but made no mention of his 300 wins.[fn]Washington Post, February 11, 1906, p. S3.[/fn] The New York Times, proclaiming Lefty Grove “Twelfth To Gain No. 300” in 1941, appended a list of the elite dozen, which erroneously included non-300-game winner Tony Mullane and omitted Galvin.[fn]New York Times, July 26, 1941, p. 10.[/fn] The Hall of Fame plaque etched for his 1965 induction makes note of his two no-hitters and 649 complete games … but not that he was the first to break the 300 barrier.

Pud was not done with record-setting. Four seasons later, in his final major-league tour, he founded an even more exclusive club – only Cy Young has joined since then – when he became the first pitcher to lose 300 games.

This essay was originally published in “Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century” (2013), edited by Bill Felber. Download the SABR e-book by clicking here.

Winner of a major-league-record 60 games while a member of the National League’s Providence Grays in 1884, Radbourn was believed to have 310 lifetime victories when he was selected as one of six “star performers of the era prior to 1900” to be inducted in the Hall of Fame in 1939, 42 years after his death.2 (Then, as during his playing days, newspapers spelled his last name Radbourne.) Twelve years later, baseball’s first comprehensive statistical encyclopedia, Turkin and Thompson’s Official Encyclopedia of Baseball, credited Radbourn with 306 wins.3

In 1969 the Macmillan Company’s Baseball Encyclopedia set Radbourn’s total at 309 –  the same figure found 30 years later in the Total Baseball encyclopedia, and in April 2025 at MLB’s official online database.4 Nearly a quarter of the way through the twenty-first century, however, a consensus has emerged – from references like Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org, as well as the Hall of Fame – that Radbourn’s win total was, in fact, 310.

Newspapers have heralded the date at which major-league pitchers have reached 300 wins since the late 1930s, but Radbourn’s 300th win doesn’t seem to have been identified until 1990.5 With Nolan Ryan at that time about to win his 300th, the Elias Sports Bureau listed Radbourn as notching his 300th on June 2, 1891, while pitching for the NL’s Cincinnati Reds against the Boston Red Stockings.6 That date, placed alongside an assumed win total of 308 for Radbourn, has since been repeated by many outlets – up through at least January 2025.7

But the recalculation of Radbourn’s total means a reassessment of when his 300th win happened. Under the current accounting, Radbourn’s June 2 victory, his fourth of the 1891 season, was actually number 303. The milestone win instead happened on May 9, 1891, in what was his first victory of the year.

The ace of the 1890 Players’ League champion Boston Reds, Radbourn was left without a team when the PL ceased operations after their lone season – or so it might have seemed. In February 1891 his previous club, the NL’s Boston Reds, included Radbourn on their reserve list for the coming season.8 Former Boston teammate Mike “King” Kelly tried to woo Radbourn to his American Association Cincinnati nine, but proved unable to do so.9

In the second week of  April, Radbourn did agree to play in Cincinnati – but for the National League Reds, under a different former teammate, Tom Loftus. The contract called for Radbourn to receive a salary of $5,500 ($195,000 in 2024 dollars) and exempted him from playing on Sundays.10

Radbourn made his first start on April 25, at home against the Cleveland Spiders, before a small crowd owing to Mike Kelly’s Queen City debut that same day across town.11 There was no fanfare for what we now would consider Radbourn’s fourth attempt at winning his 300th. In earning his 27th victory for the Reds on September 24 of the previous season, Radbourn had reached 299 for his career, then lost every start he made between then and the end of the 1890 season: on September 25 to the Cleveland Infants, on September 29 to the Buffalo Bisons, and on October 3 to the Pittsburgh Burghers.12

Cleveland pummeled Radbourn in his 1891 debut, to the tune of 23 runs and 26 hits. Content to have the trio of Tony Mullane, Jesse Duryea, and Billy Rhines work the Reds’ next 11 games, manager Loftus finally gave the 11-year veteran another start on May 9.

Radbourn’s fifth attempt at winning number 300 came in the finale of a four-game series against Pittsburgh, a team that was informally beginning to be known as the Pirates.13 Pittsburgh player-manager Ned Hanlon sent curveballer Harry Staley out to pitch the series finale. A 21-game winner for Pittsburgh’s NL team in 1889 – then known as the Alleghenies – and then again for the Hanlon-managed Burghers in 1890, he’d topped the Reds two days earlier, allowing only two runs and five hits.14

A crowd of 1,735 was on hand at Cincinnati’s League Park for the Saturday afternoon game, watching the 4-11 Reds play on what was the warmest day of the spring in the city to that point, with temperatures in the upper 70s.15

Electing to bat first, the Reds immediately ran themselves out of a rally. With one out and runners at the corners, captain Arlie Latham, a two-time stealer of 100 bases who swiped 87 in 1891, was gunned down at home on an aborted double steal. Then his reluctant co-conspirator, Lefty Marr, was thrown out attempting to steal second by Pittsburgh catcher Jocko Fields.16

With veteran umpire Jack McQuaid in charge and the Reds’ newest catcher, Bob Clark, behind the plate,17 36-year-old “Grandpa Radbourne” held the Pirates scoreless in the first, thanks to the first of three double plays that surehanded second baseman Bid McPhee turned that day.18

An inning later, Pittsburgh plated the game’s first run on a leadoff single by Fred Carroll and a one-out single by Hanlon. The Enquirer credited Hanlon’s hit with bringing Carroll home, but the Pittsburgh Press claimed Carroll scored on Fields’ subsequent fly out.19

Cincinnati took back the lead in the third. After Staley retired the first two batters, McPhee walked, stole second base, and scored on a single by Latham. (Before his hit, “the freshest man on Earth,” as Latham was commonly called, had presciently shouted, “Now look out for fire-works.”20) Latham, who played this game “like a Hambletonian yearling with a chestnut burr under his tail,” according to the Cincinnati Enquirer, stole second, then reached third on a grounder fumbled by shortstop George Miller.21 He scored when third baseman Sam LaRocque, making his lone major-league appearance at third base (and his only 1891 appearance for Pittsburgh), in place of an otherwise-engaged Charlie Reilly,22 muffed a popup off the bat of Bug Holliday, one of seven Pittsburgh errors in the game.

The combination of savvy pitching by Radbourn and stellar Cincinnati defense quashed what could have been a big fourth inning for Pittsburgh. A leadoff single by Carroll and a double by Lou Bierbauer gave the Pirates runners on second and third with nobody out. Radbourn pitched around Hanlon, putting Pittsburgh’s second-best run producer on first with “four balls so far away … he could not have touched them with a bed slat.”23 The move proved to be a brilliant one. Fields popped out and LaRocque lined into a double play, with McPhee nabbing Hanlon at first to the delight of the partisan crowd.

Buoyed by his defense, McPhee tripled leading off the fifth. He stayed put when LaRocque bobbled a grounder hit by Latham, but came home along with Latham on Marr’s double to right field. Marr scored the third run of the inning on Fields’s passed ball and center fielder Hanlon’s “mangy little misjudgment” of a Reilly fly ball.24

Staked to a four-run lead, Radbourn had little trouble with the NL’s weakest offense through the middle innings.25 “As cool as the subcellar of an over-the-Rhine brewery,” he held Pittsburgh scoreless in innings three through six.26 The Pirates pulled a run closer in the seventh after Fields reached third on a ball that skipped past first baseman Long John Reilly. He came home either on a single by Miller (said the Pittsburgh Press), or LaRocque’s sacrifice (per the Cincinnati Enquirer).

Radbourn helped his own cause in the ninth, reaching second on the third error of the day by Calliope Miller27 and scoring on Latham’s single. Latham went to second when the ball bounced off the shin of left fielder Pete Browning and scored the final run of the game on Marr’s third hit of the game, a single. Radbourn kept the Pirates in check in the ninth to secure the 7-2 win. The victory made Radbourn the fourth major leaguer to win 300 games, joining the ranks of Pud Galvin, who reached 300 in 1888, Tim Keefe (1890), and Mickey Welch (1890).

“Long live the King!” hailed the Enquirer in its game summary the next day, adding, “Old Hoss Radbourne is himself again.” The article credited Radbourn with inspiring his heretofore downtrodden teammates to “not play ball … as if they were paid for it.”28

Radbourn shut out Brooklyn on four hits five days later, in what proved to be the next-to-last blanking of his career.29 After an up-and-down four months in which his record fell below .500 for just the third time in his career and he compiled a 4.25 ERA that was nearly a run above league average, on August 22 Radbourn asked for and was given his release.30 Content with what he’d accomplished, in a career that included 488 complete games in 502 starts, he returned home to Bloomington, Illinois, to begin a well-earned retirement.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Thomas Merrick and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Old Hoss Radbourn, SABR-Rucker Archive.

Sources

In addition to the Sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Brian McKenna’s biography of Radbourn and Ralph Berger’s Arlie Latham biography in the SABR Biography Project as well as the Baseball-Reference.com, Baseball-Almanac.com, and Retrosheet.org websites.

Notes

1 For example, Rube Waddell’s 1904 strikeout total was changed from 343 to 349 in 1969, giving him a single-season American League record; and a 1940 adjustment of Christy Mathewson’s career win total from 372 to 373 pulled him into a tie with Grover Cleveland Alexander for third-place, all-time. Dave Smith, “A Number of Changes,” Baseball Hall of Fame, https://baseballhall.org/discover-more/stories/baseball-history/changing-nature-of-statistics, accessed January 22, 2025. Waddell displaced Bob Feller, who fanned 348 batters in 1946, as the AL single-season strikeout king. After the game in which Feller reached that mark, Associated Press sportswriter Joe Reichler contended that the Cleveland ace had fallen one strikeout shy of Waddell’s total. Waddell held the record until Nolan Ryan came on the scene in the mid-1970s.

2 Earl Hilligan (Associated Press), “Hoss Radbourne Added to Hall of Fame,” Bloomington (Illinois) Pantagraph, May 3, 1939: 12. The other pre-1900 stars inducted with Radbourn were Al Spalding, Cap Anson, Candy Cummings, Buck Ewing, and Charles Comiskey. The date of their selection, May 2, 1939, was arguably more renowned in baseball history for something that didn’t happen that day. In Detroit, New York Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig held himself out of the lineup in an afternoon clash with the Tigers, ending his consecutive-games-played streak at 2,130.

3 Hy Turkin and S.C. Thompson, The Official Encyclopedia of Baseball (New York: A.S. Barnes & Co., 1951), 259.

4 The Baseball Encyclopedia (New York: Macmillan Co., 1969), 2068; John Thorn et al, eds., Total Baseball (New York: Total Sports, 1999), 1766.

5 A few months after Radbourn’s 1939 Hall of Fame selection, Lefty Grove spoke openly of his desire to reach 300 wins, which he did in his final season, two years later. “Lefty Grove’s Comeback Keeps Red Sox on Trail of Leading Yanks,” Uniontown (Pennsylvania) News Standard, August 18, 1939: 12.

6 “300-Game Winners: When They Did It,” Fort Myers (Florida) News-Press, July 24, 1990: C1.

7 See, for example “On This Date,” Spokane (Washington) Spokesman-Review, June 2, 2023: B3, and National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Facebook post, December 11, 2023, https://www.facebook.com/baseballhall/photos/hall-of-fame-pitcher-charles-old-hoss-radbourn-was-born-on-this-date-in-1854-the/678787837748764/?_rdr. In mid-January of 2025, Baseball-Almanac.com also carried the June 2 date on its 300-game-winner webpage, but revised it to reflect the corrected date from this article: “300 Wins Club by Baseball Almanac,” Baseball Almanac, https://www.baseball-almanac.com/pitching/pi300c.shtml, accessed January 14 and 22, 2025.

8 “Can Reserve Fourteen,” Boston Globe, February 1, 1891: 18.

9 Multiple newspapers reported that Radbourn had in fact signed with Kelly, but it turned out that he hadn’t. “As Expected,” Cleveland Leader, March 17, 1891: 3; “Cincinnati Gain,” Boston Globe, March 20, 1891: 5.

10 “‘Rad’s Big Salary,” Fall River (Massachusetts) Globe, April 11, 1891: 1. Loftus and Radbourn had been teammates in the late 1870s with the independent Peoria Reds and Dubuque Red Stockings of the Northwest League.

11 “Tornado of Hits,” Cleveland Leader, April 26, 1891: 6.

12 “Bostons 5, Clevelands, 4,” Springfield (Massachusetts) Republican, September 25, 1890: 8; “Lost to Cleveland,” Fall River Globe, September 26, 1890: 1; “Buffalos 7, Bostons 4,” Springfield Republican, September 30, 1890: 5.

13 A charter member of the American Association, Pittsburgh’s team – known as the Alleghenies – had been admitted into the National League in 1887. After the club signed star second baseman Lou Bierbauer from the Association’s Philadelphia Athletics, who’d neglected to reserve their former member upon the dissolution of the Players’ League, Pittsburgh director J. Palmer O’Neil began calling his club “pirates,” a name which immediately stuck. David Nemec, “Lou Bierbauer,” SABR Biography Project, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/lou-bierbauer/, accessed May 4, 2025; “Baseball Brevities,” New York World, March 4, 1891: 3; “The Gay Old Sport,” Pittsburg Dispatch, May 2, 1891: 6. 

14 “Of the Very Finest,” Pittsburgh Dispatch, May 8, 1891: 6.

15 “Cincinnatis, 7; Pittsburgs, 2,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, May 10, 1891: 11; NOWData, National Weather Service, https://www.weather.gov/wrh/Climate?wfo=iln, accessed January 21, 2025.

16 “Old Hoss Himself Again,” Cincinnati Enquirer, May 10, 1891: 9.

17 A six-year veteran from nearby Covington, Kentucky, Clark was making his Cincinnati debut after recently being acquired from the Brooklyn Bridegrooms in late March. “Base-Ball Gossip,” Cincinnati Enquirer, May 9, 1891: 2; “New Players,” Cincinnati Enquirer, March 25, 1891: 2.

18 “In Luck to Break Even,” Pittsburgh Press, May 10, 1891: 6. McPhee came into the 1891 season having led second basemen in the leagues in which he played (the AA from 1882 to 1889 and the NL in 1890) in double plays for nine straight years, fielding percentage six times, putouts five times and assists five times.

19 “In Luck to Break Even”; “Old Hoss Himself Again.”

20 “Old Hoss Himself Again.”

21 “Old Hoss Himself Again.”

22 Reilly, the Pirates’ regular third baseman, was in a Cincinnati court fighting an injunction sought by the American Association Columbus club to keep him from playing for Pittsburgh. Reilly had first signed with Columbus for the 1891 season, then, after the Association elected to abrogate the National Agreement, jumped to the Pirates. The suit was ultimately dismissed in Reilly’s favor. “Cincinnatis, 7: Pittsburgs, 2”; “Reilly in Court,” St. Paul Globe, May 10, 1891; “Reilly the Victor,” Cincinnati Enquirer, May 21, 1891: 2.

23 “Cincinnatis, 7: Pittsburgs, 2.” Hanlon’s 60 RBIs for the 1891 Pirates were second only to the 73 RBIs that first baseman Jake Beckley unofficially collected.

24 “Old Hoss Himself Again.”

25 Pitsburgh finished the 1891 season last in the NL in batting average and slugging percentage.

26 “Old Hoss Himself Again.”

27 “Cincinnatis, 7: Pittsburgs, 2.”

28 “Old Hoss Himself Again.”

29 “Radbourn’s Right,” Cincinnati Enquirer, May 15, 1891: 2.

30 “National League,” Boston Globe, August 31, 1891: 5; “He Quit the Business,” Bloomington (Illinois) Weekly Leader, August 28, 1891.

“The permanent passing of ‘Old Cy’ Young from the big league[s] leaves but a single man believed to have any sort of chance to equal the famous Ohioan’s pitching record, and already fandom is looking at that man askance,” wrote Hearst Newspapers’ Damon Runyon in June 1912, less than a year after the end of Young’s 22-season major-league career. “Every time ‘Big Six’ loses a game nowadays, the question is asked: ‘Is Matty going back?’ Little attention is paid to his winnings. Gotham is accustomed to seeing him win: It is only when he drops a game that he attracts attention. Some contend that Matty’s curves are not breaking in the old way, and that he is slowly but surely retrograding, but you can’t get ball players to take any stock in that theory.”1

Take Joe Tinker, the Chicago Cubs shortstop, for instance. He said: “Any time a man can pick nine strikes out of ten thrown balls and retire the side, you can [bet] your little bank roll that he isn’t going back very far. Control like that will win even after his curve is gone.”2

Or take the Brooklyn Dodgers, who quickly learned not to underestimate the big Pennsylvanian that July.

On July 4 the Dodgers had knocked Mathewson out of the game and snapped New York’s 16-game winning streak. After Mathewson surrendered five runs in the first three innings, manager John McGraw lifted him from the game and watched as the Dodgers swept the doubleheader.3 So Brooklyn’s hitters wore what the New York Times described as “broad grins” when Mathewson, out for revenge, returned to the Polo Grounds mound to start the next day. But with “a back-breaking fadeaway, saucy inshoots, deceptive out-hops, a slow ball that hesitated in midair two or three times before reaching the pan, and control which kept the pill under magician-like influence,” Mathewson instead made the Dodgers appear “as if they had been eating too much watermelon”4 in a 6-1 Giants win. He picked up his 300th career victory in front of 5,000 fans in the process.

Action went against the Dodgers from the start, as Cy Barger walked leadoff man Fred Snodgrass and Beals Becker followed with his first home run of the season. Red Murray sent a one-out single to right and moved ahead on Buck Herzog’s groundout before Jack Meyers rapped a clutch RBI single to center for a 3-0 New York lead.

Brooklyn manager Bill Dahlen – himself familiar with how effective Mathewson could pitch from their days together as Giants teammates from 1904 to ’075 – took no chances and pulled Barger from the game before he could record the third out, marking the third time Barger had failed to get out of the opening frame against the Giants over his first 68 career starts.6 New York stranded runners on the corners when rookie reliever Maury Kent got Heinie Groh to pop out in foul territory, but Barger’s poor showing left him with his second of six consecutive losses in July.

New York continued its rally in the second. Mathewson helped his own cause with a leadoff single, and he “went down to second as if he was after an Olympic record” for his 15th career stolen base.7 Murray sent a Texas Leaguer between three Dodgers, and after one of the players kicked the ball, both Mathewson and Fred Merkle, who had walked, crossed the plate for a 5-0 lead.

The Dodgers scored in the fifth after a combination of singles and infield groundouts allowed Bert Tooley to slowly but surely round the bases. Brooklyn recorded two of its five hits in the inning.

In the eighth, Meyers and Art Fletcher hit back-to-back one-out singles for the Giants, and on Groh’s grounder Meyers advanced to third while Fletcher was forced at second. When Meyers and Groh took off on a double steal, Brooklyn catcher Otto Miller initially threw to second. By the time second baseman John Hummel threw back to the plate, his low throw gave Meyers plenty of time to score the game’s final run.

Though Mathewson did not record a strikeout, he allowed only five hits and a walk while stifling Brooklyn for nine innings. With his 300th career win, Mathewson became the eighth pitcher in major-league history to reach the mark and the first to do so without pitching in the 1800s.

But in another example of the pervasive opinion about Mathewson’s age, one report the next day stated that he “made the Dodgers look like bush leaguers, but Matty is growing old in the game and can not be depended on as in days gone by.”8

Occasional criticism of Mathewson’s skills had followed him for years. Because he was widely considered the best pitcher in baseball in the first half of the decade, fans and journalists seemed to hold Mathewson to a higher standard than many of his peers. In 1908, for example, he lost three straight games, prompting the New York Times to suggest “the star of Christy Mathewson has set.”9 A week later, when he lasted only two innings against the Cubs, the Times wrote, “All signs of his former greatness had flown by the time the Cubs got through with him.”10 Mathewson responded with back-to-back shutouts, and he lost only eight more times that season while sealing up his second pitching Triple Crown with 37 wins, a 1.43 ERA, and 259 strikeouts.

In 1911 fans swooned over Mathewson’s protégé, Rube Marquard, who burst into the starting rotation with a blazing fastball and a wicked curve, and his 237 strikeouts led the NL and helped push the Giants into the World Series. When the 25-year-old Marquard opened the 1912 season with 19 straight victories, his on-field success, youthful exuberance, and big-city personality won fans over. Marquard began receiving ovations that out-thundered those bestowed upon Mathewson, and reporters and fans accepted that Marquard had surpassed Mathewson in performance and popularity.11

But just as Mathewson did in 1908, he proved his doubters wrong. After his win on July 5, New York’s record improved to 55-13, a continuation of one of the finest season-opening stretches in history.12 The Giants stood 14½ games ahead of the Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates in the National League standings after the win, while Brooklyn fell to 27-41 on the way to their ninth straight losing season (58-95).

“The Giants are now in the National League race so far in front that some experts declare there is not a possibility of the club being overtaken. I leave a statement of that sort to experts,” Mathewson said a few days later. “Nothing is sure in baseball until it is accomplished. But with the New York club leading the field as it does, it seems reasonably certain that the team will stick ahead until the end of the race.”13

By season’s end, the Giants had won 103 games to capture their second of three straight NL pennants. New York finished with a 10-game lead over the Pirates but could not get past the 105-win Boston Red Sox in the World Series.

Mathewson certainly did his part to get the Giants to the top. After beating Brooklyn, he won his next four starts and compiled a 12-7 record with a 1.98 ERA through the end of the season. And though Mathewson took two one-run losses in the 1912 World Series, manager McGraw said those games – along with his 11-inning Game Two effort that resulted in a tie – conclusively refuted all suggestions that Mathewson had passed his prime.

“He pitched three games in which but one earned run was made against him,” McGraw said. “Those three games were the best, in my opinion, that he had ever pitched. And, after years in baseball, I confidently believe that Christy Mathewson is the best man who ever pitched the game.”14

But Mathewson did not stop there, maintaining his place as one of the league’s elite pitchers by tying Grover Cleveland Alexander with a National League-high 49 wins over the next two seasons before his age finally caught up with him in 1915.15 Mathewson credited his continued success to making adjustments that helped him keep pace with his peers, as “every year, baseball becomes more of a thinking game. Each year, the game becomes just a little bit more complicated. Baseball is demanding more and more a better coordination between brain and brawn.”16

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bill Marston and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted the Baseball-Reference.com, Stathead.com, and Retrosheet.org websites for pertinent materials and box scores. He also used information obtained from news coverage by the New York Times, the Brooklyn Standard-Union, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, and the New-York Tribune.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NY1/NY1191207050.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1912/B07050NY11912.htm

Notes

1 Damon Runyon, “Mathewson Still Reigns,” Sioux City (Iowa) Journal, June 23, 1912: 31.

2 “Christy Mathewson Praised by National,” Knoxville (Tennessee) Sentinel, June 13, 1912: 12.

3 The Giants also carried a 16-game winning streak into a doubleheader against the Philadelphia Phillies on July 4, 1904, and earned the sweep to extend the streak to 18 games. Philadelphia beat New York in extra innings the next day.

4 “Old Man Mathewson Grows Young Again,” New York Times, July 6, 1912: 8.

5 Dahlen’s efforts at shortstop helped Mathewson compile 110 wins and a 2.02 ERA during those years. Because Mathewson often pitched to contact instead of trying to strike out hitters, strong defense from players like Dahlen, who finished as the runner-up in fielding percentage among NL shortstops three times with the Giants, was crucial to New York’s success.

6 Barger lasted only two-thirds of an inning against the Giants on April 15, 1911, when Larry Doyle’s comebacker knocked one of his fingers out of joint. Later that season, on October 5, Barger surrendered six runs on three hits and four walks in one-third of an inning against New York in his shortest career start. (He matched his futility mark when he allowed six runs on four hits and a walk against the Phillies on April 15, 1912.)

7 “Old Man Mathewson Grows Young Again.”

8 “Giants’ Pitching Staff Is Off Edge,” Buffalo Times, July 6, 1912: 8.

9 “Matty Forced to Retreat Once More,” New York Times, May 19, 1908: 8.

10 “Cubs Win in Tenth,” New York Times, May 26, 1908: 8.

11 Larry D. Mansch, Rube Marquard: The Life And Times of a Hall of Famer (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 1998), 106.

12 As of 2023, no American or National League team has ever reached 55 wins faster than the 1912 New York Giants.

13 “Giants Have No Cinch on Flag,” Washington Post, July 7, 1912: 4.

14 “‘Little Napoleon’ of Baseball Says Best Team Won in World’s Series,” Ottawa (Ontario) Citizen, November 9, 1912: 9.

15 Mathewson closed his career in 1916 with 373 wins, second only to Cy Young (511). Through the 2022 season, he stands tied for third with Grover Cleveland Alexander behind Young and Walter Johnson (417). Had Mathewson not won his lone start with the Cincinnati Reds, he would have become the first 300-win pitcher to record all his victories with one franchise.

16 Philip Seib, The Player: Christy Mathewson, Baseball, and the American Century (New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 2003), 83.

The players’ pent-up energy was released in the initial frame, which foreshadowed how the game would unfold. The Tigers missed a shot for the first run when Ty Cobb (on first via a fielder’s choice), was thrown out at home on a “perfect relay” from right field on Bobby Veach’s double.3

The Nationals, as the team was often called by sportswriters, wasted no time taking advantage of John Glaiser, whose big-league experience consisted of six innings and who was making what proved to be his first and only start in the majors. Joe Judge led off by drawing a walk but was caught in a rundown between third and home on Sam Rice’s one-out grounder. After Braggo Roth walked, Bucky Harris doubled home both runners. Frank Ellerbe also caught the “pedestrian fever,” noted the Washington Post, and then in Deadball-Era style, Harris stole third, and subsequently home in a daring double steal for the Senators’ third run.4 Red Shannon drew yet another free pass from Glaiser, but was forced at second.

The Senators’ pitching “staff suffered from inaction,” opined Dougher, who described starter Tom Zachary as “look[ing] like a busher.”5 The 24-year-old didn’t resemble the southpaw who had blanked the New York Yankees on five hits six days earlier for his fifth big-league victory. Harry Heilmann led off the second with a single, took second on Sammy Hale’s single, stole third, and then sped home on Oscar Stanage’s fly to left field. According to Nationals beat writer J.V. Fitz Gerald, home-plate umpire George Hildebrand called Heilmann out but reversed his call when Patsy Gharrity dropped the ball.6 The Tigers tied the game, 3-3, in the fourth on Stanage’s two-run double, plating Veach (who had led off with a two-bagger) and Ira Flagstead.

The Senators stormed back in the fifth, loading the bases on singles by Clyde Milan and Rice and a walk to Roth. Milan was tagged at home on Harris’s squeeze bunt, but Ellerbe and Shannon followed with run-scoring singles and Gharrity with a sacrifice fly for a 6-3 lead.

Swedish-born Eric Erickson had taken over for Zachary and pitched a scoreless fifth. “He was Olaf when he strode to the mound,” wrote the acerbic Dougher, and “was Oh Laugh within two innings.”7 Flagstead beat out a roller to lead off the seventh and Stanage and Chick Shorten, pinch-hitting for Glaiser, drew one-out walks to load the bases. Castigated by Dougher for his “ludicrous lack of control,” Erickson’s third straight walk, to Ralph Young, forced in a run and sent the hurler to the showers.8

To the rescue with the bags bursting came Walter Johnson, sitting on 299 career victories. The 32-year-old right-hander had finished the decade of the teens by winning at least 20 games each season, 265 in all, including 74 shutouts. He led the AL victories five times during that stretch and posted a career-best 36 in 1913. Vying with Grover Cleveland Alexander as the decade’s best hurler (at least until Old Pete was debilitated from serving in the Great War), Johnson relieved regularly, and 20 percent of his appearances in the 1910s were in relief.9

Johnson had been uncharacteristically hit hard in his last two outings, both complete-game losses, yielding 24 hits and 12 runs (8 earned), and seemed confused when the first batter he faced, Donie Bush, hit a tapper back to the mound. According to sportswriter Jack Nye of the Washington Herald, the Big Train threw late to home and Babe Pinelli, pinch-running for Stanage, scored.10 Johnson was on the verge of putting out the fire, but the Georgia Peach, coming off his 12th AL batting crown in 13 seasons, yet batting just .243 in 1920, belted a line drive that center fielder Sam Rice handled “as if it was a chunk of TNT,” quipped Fitz Gerald.11 Cobb cleared the bases (credited with two RBIs on Rice’s error) to give the Bengals an 8-6 lead.

Despite that rough inning, allowing three inherited runners to score (charged to Erickson’s slate) and yielding an unearned run, Johnson “brought a semblance of order out of a wild and woolly game,” wrote the Herald.12 He held the Bengals scoreless over the last three frames, and helped lead the Senators’ comeback with his bat.

The Senators rallied in the seventh off reliever Ray Oldham, back in the big leagues after a four-year absence. Roth led off by walking, and Ellerbe beat out a one-out grounder. Shannon’s grounder forced Ellerbe but second baseman’s Ralph Young’s relay throw to first was wide, enabling Roth to scamper home and Shannon to advance to second. After Gharrity walked, Johnson blasted a single to drive in Shannon and tie the score, 8-8. No slouch with the bludgeon, Johnson was a robust .235 career hitter and regularly pinch-hit. Manager Jennings, seemingly out of patience with his hurler, took a page out of Griffith’s playbook and called on his ace, Hooks Dauss, to stop the bleeding. A longtime workhorse who was coming off 21 victories in 1919, Dauss retired Judge to end the frame and then hurled a scoreless eighth.

The Senators put on their “big shillalah act in the ninth,” cooed the Post.13 Singles by Ellerbe, Shannon, and Johnson loaded the bases against Dauss. With the outfield drawn in for a play at the plate, Joe Judge came to bat. Mostly forgotten by modern baseball historians, Judge was a productive hitter throughout his 20-year career (1915-1934), collecting 2,352 hits and batting .298. He blasted a ball to center field, where “Tyrus made no effort to chase after it,” reported the Post, and was credited with a single, giving the Senators a 9-8 victory in 2 hours and 35 minutes.14

Johnson earned his 300th career victory, becoming just the 10th pitcher to reach that milestone and the first since Eddie Plank in 1915, and also joined Plank and Christy Mathewson as the only members of that fraternity who started their careers in the twentieth century.15 Despite the importance contemporary sportswriters and fans place on statistics and cumulative accomplishments, Johnson’s achievement was apparently lost on contemporaneous sportswriters. Neither the Herald, Post, nor Times mentioned his 300th victory in its game summary.

The biggest story about Johnson in May focused on his uncharacteristic struggles. Two days after his win in relief, the Big Train was shelled for 12 hits in a complete-game 4-2 loss to the St. Louis Browns. On May 20 he was hammered for nine hits and 10 runs, though only two were earned, in a disastrous six-inning relief appearance resulting in another loss and dropping his record to 3-5. Washington scribes wondered if Barney was washed up, and those sentiments grew louder when Johnson was tagged for four runs in four innings of relief in his next outing. For the first time in his career, Johnson was suffering from an injury, to his shoulder. Given extra time between starts, Johnson was inconsistent. On July 1 he tossed arguably the best game of his career, holding the Boston Red Sox hitless and fanning 10 while walking none at Fenway Park. Fifteen days later, his season was over (8-10, 3.13 ERA) as pain made pitching impossible.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author accessed Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, Newspapers.com, and SABR.org.

Notes

1 Louis A. Dougher, “Looking ’Em Over,” Washington Times, May 15, 1920: 17.

2 J. V. Fitz Gerald, “Judge’s Hit Yields Victory Over Tigers,” Washington Post, May 15, 1920: 12.

3 Harry Bullion, “Washington Beats Tigers in the Ninth Inning, 9 to 8,” Detroit Free Press, May 15, 1920: 13.

4 Fitz Gerald.

5 Dougher.

6 J.V. Fitz Gerald, “In the Wake of the Game,” Washington Post, May 15, 1920: 12.

7 Dougher.

8 Dougher.

9 In the decade of the teens, Johnson started 361 of 454 appearances (79.5 percent); in his career, he started 666 of 802 appearances (83.0 percent).

10 Jack Nye, “Joe Judge’s Timely Drive Over Ty Cobb’s Head in Ninth Wins Game for Nationals,” Washington Herald, May 15, 1920: 12.

11 Fitz Gerald.

12 Nye.

13 Fitz Gerald.

14 Fitz Gerald.

15 The leaders in wins at the time were Cy Young (511), Christy Mathewson (373), Pud Galvin (365), Kid Nichols (361), Tim Keefe (342), John Clarkson (328), Eddie Plank (326), Old Hoss Radbourn (309), and Mickey Welch (307).

Johnson, who debuted with the Washington Senators in August of 1907, took the mound on April 27, 1926, at Griffith Stadium in search of his 400th career victory, a figure attained by just one pitcher up to then, Cy Young. He was coming off a 9-5 victory on April 23 over the Philadelphia Athletics. That victory was the 399th of his storied career and the start on April 27 was his first try at number 400.

The Senators were a mediocre team for much of Johnson’s career, except for 1924 and 1925, when they appeared in their only two World Series. The 1924 squad won the World Series (for the only time in Johnson’s career and the team’s history), and in 1925 the team suffered a heartbreaking loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates in Game Seven. Johnson came on in relief in Game Seven in 1924 and was the winning pitcher. In 1925, after winning the first two Series games he pitched, Johnson was the losing pitcher in Game Seven.

Entering the game, Washington had a record of 7 wins 6 losses and was two games behind the New York Yankees. Johnson had a 2-1 record and ended the season with a 15-16 record, just the fifth time in his 20-year career that he failed to produce a winning record.

The Senators were led by their player-manager, second baseman Bucky Harris, and also had outfielders Goose Goslin and Sam Rice and pitcher Stan Coveleski, all of whom eventually joined Johnson in the Hall of Fame.

Washington’s opponent was the Boston Red Sox, who were in the midst of a terrible decade after former owner Harry Frazee sold Babe Ruth and other stars to the Yankees. The only player on the team to hit over .300 was outfielder Baby Doll Jacobson, and the only pitcher to finish with double-digit wins was starter/reliever Ted Wingfield (11-16).

Johnson’s mound opponent that day was Tony Welzer, who was making his second major-league start in a career that would last just two seasons. He had yet to gain a decision and consequently was 399 wins behind the great Johnson.

Boston took a 1-0 lead in the second inning before an offensive explosion by the Washington nine in the bottom of the third put the game out of reach for the Red Sox.

The Boston run came when Ramon Herrera hit a double that scored Sy Rosenthal. He had walked and gone to second on Topper Rigney’s sacrifice.2

Before the fateful third inning Welzer had looked good. But in the third he dropped a throw from first baseman Phil Todt on Rice’s grounder.3 Then third baseman Fred Haney and Herrera collided on an easy pop fly by Goslin.4 Even with those miscues, if Welzer had support from his teammates, there might not have been any scoring.5

But Bucky Harris sacrificed, then Joe Harris hit a hot shot to Haney, who let the ball get through and Rice scored.6 Joe Judge forced Harris, but then Bluege hit a scorching shot down the third-base line that hit the stands and bounced over the head of left fielder Rosenthal for a home run that plated three runs.7

The Senators weren’t done. Buddy Myer, hitting .178 going into the game, singled. Myer scored when right fielder Roy Carlyle let Muddy Ruel’s double get away from him.8 Johnson, the sixth batter of the inning, flied out to end the inning. Five runs had scored and that was the ballgame.9

After the debacle of the third inning, Welzer pitched swimmingly until the sixth inning.10 He was driven from the mound by a five-hit barrage that netted four runs.11 Ruel singled and went to third base when Rice beat out a bunt. Another bunt by Bucky Harris caught the Red Sox napping and that scored Ruel.12 Goslin doubled to right field to score Rice and Joe Harris double in Bucky Harris and Goslin. Welzer was replaced by right-hander Del Lundgren, who succeeded in halting the hit parade.13 Rudy Sommers pitched the eighth inning, but his pitching along with Lundgren’s was wasted as the Red Sox were helpless against the pitching of Johnson.14

Goslin led the Washington offense with three hits, including a double. Rice, Joe Harris, and Muddy Ruel each had two hits and Bluege added his home run. Johnson pitched like the Johnson of old, allowing just four hits while walking four and striking out three.

At the end of the game none of the 2,000 to 3,000 fans at Griffith Stadium thought the Red Sox could rally and look like baseball players.15

Washington would finish the 1926 season in fourth place while the Red Sox remained mired in last place for the fourth time in five years. As for the Big Train, he finished the year with a record of 15 wins and 16 losses and 412 wins. He would win five more games in 1927 and retire as a player with 417 victories. Johnson’s last appearance as a major-league player occurred on September 30, 1927, as a pinch-hitter in the ninth inning for Tom Zachary, who earlier in the game gave up Babe Ruth’s 60th home run of the season.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author accessed Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, and the SABR.org websites.

Notes

1 Baseball-Almanac.com.

2 “Johnson Conquers Red Sox with Ease,” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 28, 1926: 22.

3 “Senators Win Sloppy Game,” Baltimore Sun, April 28,1926: 14.

4 “Senators Win Sloppy Game.”

5 “Senators Win Sloppy Game.”

6 “Red Sox Slump in Their Hitting and Are Beaten,” Boston Globe, April 28, 1926: 15.

7 “Senators Win Sloppy Game.”

8 “Senators Win Sloppy Game.”

9 “Senators Win Sloppy Game.”

10 Red Sox Slump.”

11 Red Sox Slump.”

12 Red Sox Slump.”

13 Red Sox Slump.”

14 Red Sox Slump.”

15 N.W. Baxter, “Boston Gets 4 Hits Off Johnson,” Washington Post, April 28,1926

The 47-43 Red Sox were in third place, 15 games behind the New York Yankees. Boston was coming off an 11-1 drubbing of the Chicago White Sox the previous afternoon, led by Jim Tabor’s six RBIs and Frankie Pytlak’s two runs and two doubles.5 However, the Red Sox had started the season slowly, sitting in fifth place as May ended, before their 17-11 June record propelled them into third. Besides the 22-year-old Williams, Boston was led by player-manager Joe Cronin, veteran first baseman Jimmie Foxx, second baseman Bobby Doerr, outfielder Dom DiMaggio, and pitchers Dick Newsome, Joe Dobson, and Charlie Wagner.

The 53-39 Indians stood just ahead of Boston in second place, 10 games behind New York. In contrast to Boston, the Indians started the season strong, then experienced an early-summer swoon. Cleveland’s 11-4 April record and 18-13 May record positioned them in first place when May ended. However, their 13-13 June record, while the Yankees went 19-7, dropped the Indians into second place. Furthermore, Cleveland was swept in a three-game series by the Yankees just before the Boston series. The Indians were managed by Roger Peckinpaugh and led by staff ace Bob Feller, outfielder Jeff Heath, shortstop Lou Boudreau, and third baseman Ken Keltner.

Grove was attempting for the third time to earn his 300th career victory.6 He had lost his previous two outings, both complete-game efforts; on July 11, the Detroit Tigers shut out the Red Sox7 and on July 18, the Chicago White Sox scored the winning run on a 10th-inning misjudged fly ball.8 Through 14 starts in 1941, Grove was 6-4 with a 3.55 ERA over 101⅓ innings, including eight complete games. The left-hander threw a fastball, curve, and forkball, delivering his forkball more often later in his career.9

Joe Krakauskas received the starting nod from Peckinpaugh, replacing scheduled starter Mel Harder. Krakauskas was playing his first season in Cleveland after spending the first four years of his career with the Washington Senators. The 6-foot-1 left-hander had been traded during the offseason from Washington to Cleveland in exchange for Ben Chapman. Krakauskas’s primary pitch was his fastball.10

Sixteen thousand fans attending ladies day at Fenway Park watched Grove retire the Indians in order to start the game. Boudreau started the game with a fly out to left field. Rosenthal bunted and was thrown out. Grove finished the inning strong by striking out Gee Walker. Krakauskas retired the Red Sox on two groundouts and a strikeout during in the bottom of the first inning.

Cleveland reached the legendary left-hander during the second inning. Heath led off with a single, Keltner doubled, and Hal Trosky walked. Heath scored on Oscar Grimes’s fly ball. Cleveland missed an opportunity to score more runs when Gene Desautels popped out and Krakauskas struck out, but the Indians had a 1-0 lead.

Grove struggled again during the third inning. Boudreau singled and stole second base. Larry Rosenthal singled. Walker singled, scoring Boudreau and moving Rosenthal to third base, but was thrown out at second attempting to advance on the outfield throw. Heath plated Rosenthal with another single, the fourth single off Grove in the inning. Keltner doubled home Heath, the fifth consecutive Clevelander to hit safely off the struggling Grove. The future Hall of Famer finally escaped further damage when Keltner was caught stealing third base and Trosky struck out, but Grove appeared likely to need another day to reach his milestone victory. Cleveland led 4-0.

An offensive meltdown and a defensive breakdown had cost Grove in his previous bids for his 300th win, but the Red Sox were not going to fail him this time. Their offense awoke in the fourth inning. Cronin reached first on a muffed groundball. Williams singled. Foxx walked. With the bases loaded, Tabor walked, forcing home Boston’s first run. Although Krakauskas had allowed only one hit through three-plus innings, and only one ball reached the outfield during the first three innings,11 his four walks compelled Peckinpaugh to summon Mel Harder from the bullpen. Doerr popped out in foul territory for the first out, and Johnny Peacock singled home Williams. The Red Sox stranded the two remaining baserunners in scoring position after a fly out and groundout, but Boston cut Cleveland’s lead in half, 4-2.

The Red Sox reached Harder during the fifth inning. Lou Finney beat out a bunt down the third-base line. Cronin lined out. Williams slammed his 19th homer “into the extreme left section of the right field covered seats, a few rows out of rightfielder Jeff Heath’s reach,”12 and tied the game, 4-4. Foxx walked. Tabor singled. With Boston threatening to jump ahead, Doerr popped out, Dom DiMaggio hit into a fielder’s choice, and the game remained tied.

In the Cleveland seventh inning with one out, Boudreau homered over the left-field wall to put the Indians back ahead. One out later, Walker tripled to left-center and scored on Williams’s errant throw to third. The Indians had regained the lead, 6-4. Both offenses took a quick break in the sixth inning, the only inning other than the first in which no runs crossed the plate.

During the bottom of the seventh, Williams walked. With one out, Tabor tied the game with a two-run clout over the wall in left. Doerr struck out looking, but Peacock singled and Harder’s day was finished. Al Milnar, who struggled in his previous five starts, relieved for the first time in the season. Grove doubled to left, but Gee Walker fired the ball to Boudreau, whose relay to the plate caught Peacock attempting to score the go-ahead run. The teams were tied 6-6 after seven innings.

The Red Sox delivered their crushing blow in the eighth inning. DiMaggio walked and moved to second on Finney’s sacrifice. Cronin was intentionally walked. Williams popped out in foul territory. Foxx, Grove’s longtime teammate in Philadelphia and Boston, blasted a triple off the center-field bleacher wall, scoring DiMaggio and Cronin; Foxx himself scored on a wild relay throw from second baseman Ray Mack.13 Tabor followed Foxx’s triple with his second home run of the afternoon, pushing Boston’s lead to four runs.

Grove retired Rollie Hemsley, Beau Bell, and Boudreau in order, all on fly balls, during the ninth inning to end the game. Boston won 10-6, with Grove earning his milestone victory.

Tabor’s two home runs, Foxx’s timely two-run eighth-inning triple, and Williams’s three runs highlighted Boston’s offense, while Boudreau’s homer, double, and single and Keltner’s two doubles paced Cleveland. The Red Sox benefited from eight walks issued by Indians pitchers and three errors by Cleveland’s defense. Grove improved to 7-4, though his ERA increased slightly to 3.67. His six strikeouts were one off his season high.

The Red Sox overtook the Indians at the end of August, and finished in second place, 17 games behind New York. Their 84-70 record was a slight two-game improvement over their 1940 season. Boston led the AL in team batting average, OPS, and several other offensive categories, but their slightly-below-average pitching counteracted their dynamic offense. The Indians muddled through a terrible August (10-21) and September (10-16), falling into a fourth-place tie with Detroit, finishing 75-79 and 37 games behind the pennant-winning Yankees.

Grove called this contest “the toughest game I ever sweated through,” having dropped 8½ pounds in the sweltering sun and 90-degree temperature during the 2½-hour game. After the game, baseball’s newest 300-game winner received a police escort off the field when fans mobbed the field. The game ball was sent to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.14 He pitched the complete game, allowing six runs (five earned) on 12 hits while striking out six and walking one. This sweet victory was the final win of his storied career. The AL’s oldest player that year finished his last major-league season with a 7-7 record and a 4.37 ERA in 134⅓ innings, his highest season ERA since his 1934 campaign and his second-fewest innings pitched. Grove completed his career with a 300-141 record and a 3.06 ERA, recording 2,266 strikeouts in 3,940⅔ innings. He was the AL ERA leader for nine years. Grove was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1947.

Acknowledgments

The author thanks John Fredland for his article recommendations, Evan Katz for his detailed fact-checking, Len Levin for his editing, and Lisa Gattie for her meaningful input.

Sources

Besides the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and the following:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS194107250.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1941/B07250BOS1941.htm

Notes

1 Bill James, The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (New York: The Free Press, 2001), 848.

2 Bill James and Rob Neyer, The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers (New York: Fireside Books, 2004), 225.

3 Robert W. Creamer, Baseball and Other Matters in 1941 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1991), 3-10.

4 Nathan Bierman, “July 17, 1941: DiMaggio’s Streak Stopped at 56 by Cleveland’s Stellar Defense,” SABR Games Project, Accessed June 14, 2021: https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/july-17-1941-dimaggios-streak-stopped-at-56-by-clevelands-stellar-defense/.

5 James O’Leary, “Harris-Tabor Star as Hose Win, 11-1,” Boston Globe (Main Edition), July 25, 1941: 16.

6 Fred Barry, “Third Time Won’t Fail, Grove Vows in 300 Quest,” Boston Globe (Other Edition), July 25, 1941: 6.

7 Gerry Moore, “Grove Fails to Win 300th,” Boston Globe, July 12, 1941: 5.

8 Gerry Moore, “Grove Beaten in 10 Innings,” Boston Globe, July 19, 1941: 4.

9 James and Neyer, 225.

10 James and Neyer, 271.

11 Gordon Cobbledick, “Indians’ Weak Pitching and Fielding Enable Grove to Bag No. 300,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 26, 1941: 14.

12 Gerry Moore, “Lefty Grove Scores 300th Pitching Win,” Boston Globe, July 26, 1941: 4.

13 “Lefty Grove Scores 300th Pitching Win,” Boston Globe, July 26, 1941: 1.

14 “Lefty Grove Scores 300th Pitching Win,” Boston Globe, July 26, 1941: 4.

Fans wanted to witness what they expected to be a historic event, which translated to high ticket sales. Braves assistant ticket director Charlie Bloosfield said, “The response has been amazing. We’ve had calls from people we haven’t heard from in two years. … It seems everybody wants to get in on history in the making.”1 As it turned out, the game attracted 40,775 spectators, the largest County Stadium crowd in two years.

Spahn was 11-12 so far in the season. He was impatient to get the game, and victory, behind him, saying, “I realize everyone is pulling for me, and I know I’m gonna get it sometime. Sure, it’s a big night for me and all the guys on our club are anxious for me to get it, but I’ll also be awfully glad when it’s over.”2

The game was a pitchers’ duel between the 40-year-old Spahn and Cubs rookie southpaw Jack Curtis, who came into the game with a 7-6 record. Spahn allowed only two hits through five innings, a two-out single by George Altman in the fourth, and a one-out infield hit by Jerry Kindall in the fifth. Curtis matched Spahn’s performance, allowing just a leadoff hit to Gino Cimoli in the first, and a one-out single off the bat of Henry Aaron in the fourth.

The scoreless tie ended on an unearned run in the bottom of the fifth. The Braves’ Joe Torre, leading off, reached second base when rookie left fielder Billy Williams dropped his line drive for an error, and advanced to third base on Roy McMillan’s single. Of all people to drive in the game’s first run it was Spahn himself. His sacrifice fly scored Torre, although McMillan was thrown out trying to advance to second on the throw home.

The Cubs knotted the game in the top of the sixth. Second baseman Don Zimmer led off with a single to center, but was forced at second base on a grounder off the bat of Ron Santo. Altman popped out to third base and things seemed under control, but consecutive singles by Williams and Andre Rodgers scored Santo. Spahn avoided further damage by getting Kindall to pop out to third baseman Eddie Mathews.

The Braves had a baserunner in the bottom of the sixth on a one-out single by Mathews. After Aaron flied out to center field, Curtis picked Mathews off first base to end the inning. The Cubs’ Al Heist reached base after two men were out in the top of the seventh inning courtesy on an error by second baseman Frank Bolling, but he was picked off at first and eventually tagged out at second base.

The situation got difficult for Spahn in the Cubs’ eighth inning. Zimmer led off with a single and was sacrificed to second by Santo. With a runner in scoring position, Spahn bore down and retired Altman on a fly ball to center, and Williams on a grounder.

The Braves took the lead in the bottom of the eighth when Cimoli took Curtis deep for his third home run of the season. Spahn retired the first two batters in the ninth, striking out Rodgers and getting more help from Cimoli, who made a sliding catch on his knees in center field on a ball hit by Kindall. But pinch-hitter Ernie Banks reached base on an error by Mathews. Another pinch-hitter, Jim McAnany batting for Curtis, ended the game when he flied out to right fielder Henry Aaron.

The game was over, but the accolades for a remarkable achievement as well as a well-pitched game began. Joe Torre, the Braves catcher for the historic win, said of Spahn’s performance, “He was the best he’s been since I joined the club.”3 After Spahn’s death in 2003, Torre further reflected on the game: “Warren Spahn was a fighter and a winner. He made catching in the big leagues a lot easier because he took me under his wing along with Lew Burdette. One of my biggest thrills to this day was catching his 300th victory in 1961.” 4

The challenge of winning 300 games was brought up by Lefty Grove, who said in an interview after Spahn’s victory, “We used to pitch every fourth day. We did not know that there was a bullpen. If you win 15 games now, it’s considered a big year.”5

Former Yankees pitcher Waite Hoyt, who won 237 games in a 21-year career, wrote in a letter to Spahn, “When a fellow does something very few of us have been able to do, and in this day of the hopped up ball, it is a feat far beyond the ordinary, requiring an unusual talent, guts and brains. I don’t know when we’ll see another Warren Spahn or a man of your ability. Good luck. Make it 350.”6

Reflecting on his performance, Spahn said in spring training the next season, “It really was a big thrill — the thrill of my life. Winning the pennant and the World Series a few years back was a big thing from a team basis, but this had to be the biggest personally. Everybody made such a hullabaloo about it in advance, the newspapers, radio, and television. It was such a wild day that by the time I got to the park, I wanted just to get it over with. The game was the kind I always wanted it to be. No fluke, no big scoring game when I would be sitting in the clubhouse at the end. It was low scoring and hard fought. A hectic night I was glad to get over and we finally had beaten the Cubs 2-1.”7

Spahn was the 13th player to win 300 games. Number 14, Early Wynn, notched his 300th on July 13, 1963. Spahn retired after the 1965 season with 363 victories, baseball’s winningest left-hander (as of 2016).

This article appears in “From the Braves to the Brewers: Great Games and Exciting History at Milwaukee’s County Stadium” (SABR, 2016), edited by Gregory H. Wolf. To read more stories from this book at the SABR Games Project, click here.

Notes

1 Lou Chapman, “Star Out for 300th Victory,” Milwaukee Sentinel, August 12, 1961.

2 Lou Chapman, “Spahn Calm Before Date With Destiny,” Milwaukee Sentinel, August 12, 1961.

3 Bob Wolf, “Cimoli Gets Deciding Hit,” Milwaukee Journal, August 12, 1961.

4 “The Greatest Lefty Warren Spahn Dead at 82,” Baseballdugout.com, November 24, 2003.

5 Associated Press, “Grove Happy for Spahn, Hopes Wynn hits 300,” Milwaukee Sentinel, August 13, 1961.

6 Lou Chapman, “Spahn’s Goal Now 350 Wins,” Milwaukee Sentinel,” August 13, 1961.

7  Associated Press, “Warren Spahn Discusses His Biggest Thrill — 300th Win,” Sarasota (Florida) Herald-Tribune, March 11, 1962.

After the season Chicago released Wynn. Seemingly, he would fall short of one of baseball’s most coveted milestones. Only 13 pitchers had so far accomplished the feat, the last being Warren Spahn on August 11, 1961. Indeed it was an exclusive club, and most of whose members received a passport to Cooperstown and the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

The 43-year-old hurler was home in Venice, Florida, when the Cleveland Indians reached out to him on June 1, 1963. He reported to the Indians and pitched batting practice under the watchful eye of manager Birdie Tebbetts. “The legs are all right but it will take a couple of weeks at least to get the arm ready,” said Wynn. “It’s up to Birdie when I pitch.”1

But Wynn though he had plenty of action left in his right arm, and insisted that he had not joined Cleveland just to win his 300th game. Indians President Gabe Paul agreed, giving a twofold reason for the signing. “In the first place, we need help and we think he can supply some,” said Paul. “Secondly, we knew what a ferocious competitor he is. It should be good for our pitching staff.”2

Wynn made his initial attempt to attain the elusive victory on June 21 against his old mates from the White Sox. Wynn showed plenty of moxie as he went the distance, but lost 2-0. Chicago’s Ron Hansen belted a two-run homer in the top of the ninth inning.

And on it went. The Indians won Wynn’s next two starts, by identical scores of 4-3, but Wynn received a no-decision in each. He stood at 299. On July 13 Wynn got the start against the Athletics’ Moe Drabowsky in the second game of a doubleheader at Kansas City’s Municipal Stadium. (The Athletics scored two runs in the eighth inning to beat Cleveland, 6-5 in the opener.)

In the second game, the Indians took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning. Drabowsky retired the first two Indians hitters, but walked John Romano and Al Luplow. Larry Brown singled to knock in Romano. The Athletics’ George Alusik hit a bases-empty home run off Wynn to lead off the bottom of the fourth, making the score 1-1.

The tie was short-lived as Wynn led off the top of the fifth inning with a single. He advanced to second base on Tito Francona’s fly out to left field. Dick Howser sent a roller down the third-base line that hugged the line, but did not go foul, and Wynn reached third. Drabowsky walked Max Alvis to load the bases and Joe Adcock followed with a single, scoring Wynn and Howser. Romano walked to reload the bases. Drabowsky was given the hook, replaced by rookie right-hander Dale Willis. Luplow greeted him with a single for two more runs. Romano was thrown out at the plate for the third out, but the Indians led 5-1.

In the bottom of the inning, Wynn lost his edge. The former Cy Young Award winner gave up three consecutive singles to Ken Harrelson and pinch-hitter Gino Cimoli. Jose Tartabull followed with a bunt single to load the bases. Jerry Lumpe cleared the bases with a double to the right-field corner. Luplow threw Lumpe out at third base when he tried to advance.

Wynn retired the side, but his day was over. He was replaced by pinch-hitter Woodie Held in the top of the sixth inning. With five complete innings in the books, he could be the winning pitcher, but he couldn’t be the loser. It was up to his teammates to secure the one-run margin for the final four innings. Wynn had scattered six hits over five innings, striking out three, and walking three. All four runs he surrendered were earned.

In the bottom of the sixth, right-hander Jerry Walker took the mound for the Indians. The former Athletic had been traded in the offseason to Cleveland for outfielder Chuck Essegian. He shut the door on his former team, pitching four scoreless innings to pick up his first save.

The Indians added single tallies in the seventh and ninth innings to make the final score 7-4. Romano, Luplow, and Howser each had two hits, and Adcock knocked in three runs.

“I was pooped,” said Wynn. “Don’t know why, but my legs felt it right from the start. I had good stuff, but I couldn’t get it over the plate.”3

Romano presented Wynn with the ball from the last out in the game. “I feel I had this one coming after pitching well and losing so many tough ones,” said Wynn. “It seems a little strange, though, after waiting so long for it.”4

“He pitched three good starts before today, and two scoreless relief innings against the Yanks,” said Tebbetts. “With any luck, he could have won three or four games for us.”5

Wynn did not win another game for the remainder of the season. His final ledger: Five starts, 1-2 with a 2.28 ERA and one save. The 1963 season was Wynn’s last in the big leagues. For his career, Wynn posted a 300-244 record with a 3.54 ERA. He struck out 2,334 and walked 1,775 batters in 4,564 innings pitched. He won the 1959 Cy Young Award when he was with the White Sox. (Only one award was given for both leagues until 1967.) Wynn led the American League in strikeouts twice, wins twice, ERA once, and games started, five seasons. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1972.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org websites contain box score information on the game.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/KC1/KC1196307132.shtml

http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1963/B07132KC11963.htm

Notes

Perhaps the most exciting baseball was being played by the Phillies. So far in September, the Phils were sporting a 16-6 record, and they were the owners of seven straight victories.1 This recent success catapulted Philadelphia into first place, as the Pirates (three games back) and the Expos (four games back) were on the brink of elimination with only a week of games left on the schedule.

In their recent winning streak, the Phillies swept the Cardinals in a three-game series at home and won a doubleheader over the Expos. It would seem as if it was only a matter of time before the Phillies were crowned division champions.

There was no doubt that the Phillies had a talented team as they began a three-game series in St. Louis on September 23. Their offense was led by Mike Schmidt, who was having another tremendous season, leading the league in home runs (38) and walks (126) and was third in RBIs (104). The pitching staff was anchored by John Denny, who was tied for the league lead in wins with Montreal’s Steve Rogers (17); Denny was second in ERA (2.40).

But while the Phillies were enjoying a successful season, it took a midseason jolt to get the team pointed in the right direction. After dropping two of three to Cincinnati in mid-July, the Phillies found themselves tied for first place with St. Louis. Manager Pat Corrales was fired by the Phillies, and replaced with Paul Owens. Owens, primarily a scout, had last managed in 1972 with the Phillies. “A 43-42 record is not what we expected at this time,” said Phillies general manager Bill Giles. “You see players hitting 40 points below what they are supposed to. The manager’s job is to motivate players to play up to their capacity. Was it the players’ fault? Was it Pat’s fault? My fault? We have to find out. We had a meeting with Pat. We told him what we felt he should do to improve the club. And we feel he didn’t do it.”2

It could be debated where the finger of blame should be pointed, but the result was that Owens had the Phillies on the doorstep of the postseason.

In the first game of the Phillies-Cardinals series, there was certainly some drama building. Phillies left-handed pitcher Steve Carlton was going for his 300th career win. It was a bit ironic that he was trying to gain immortality at Busch Stadium, the ballpark where he broke into the big leagues two decades earlier. Lefty was having a so-so year in 1983. He entered the game with a 14-15 record, but a very respectable 3.15 ERA. Carlton had beaten the Cardinals just five days earlier, 5-3. St. Louis countered with Joaquin Andujar (6-15, 4.04 ERA). Andujar pitched against the Phillies and Carlton in the previous matchup, and was charged with the loss.

St. Louis fans, a knowledgeable bunch with regard to baseball, knew that the reigning world champions were done for the season. But still, a crowd of 27,266 showed up to witness baseball history. While many fans of other clubs might have packed it in, fans in St. Louis, noted as a “great baseball town,” were not deterred.

After a scoreless first inning, the Phillies reached Andujar for single runs in the second and third frames. Carlton backed his effort with a single to plate one run and Greg Gross did the same to stake the visitors to a 2-0 advantage.  

The Cardinals evened matters in the home half of the fourth, when George Hendrick led off with a single and came home via David Green’s eighth home run of the year.

The Phillies untied the score in a hurry. With one out in the top of the fifth, Schmidt got aboard with an infield single. Joe Lefebvre followed with a single to left field. The Phillies then executed a double steal, moving both baserunners up a base. Gary Matthews singled to left to plate Schmidt. Gross walked to reload the bases. Bo Diaz came through with a single to right field, scoring both Lefebvre and Matthews.

The plug was pulled on Andujar, bringing reliever Jeff Lahti into the game. The righty induced Iván de Jesús to hit into a 1-6-3 inning-ending double play.

Carlton seemed to be in control with the comfortable lead after five innings and whiffing seven St. Louis batters. The Phillies tacked on another run in the top of the sixth, on doubles by Joe Morgan and Schmidt. The Phillies now led 6-2.

Ozzie Smith led off the bottom of eighth inning with a triple to center field. But Carlton showed why he was one of the best pitchers ever when he came back to strike out Willie McGee and Hendrick. Green grounded out to Carlton to keep the Cardinals run total at two.

Al Holland came in and mopped up the ninth inning to preserve Carlton’s 300th win. The 38-year-old Carlton, the career strikeout leader at the time, added 12 more to his total. Keeping with his boycott of the media, Carlton did not speak after the game, but his teammates held a private celebration in the Phillies clubhouse. Carlton was the 16th pitcher in major-league history to win 300 or more games in his career.

“I could tell he was more on edge than he usually is,” said pitching coach Claude Osteen. “He really wanted to get this out of the way. He was pacing in the clubhouse with a bat and looked pretty anxious.”

“Warming up he didn’t have very good stuff, but you can never tell about that with him. And by the fourth or fifth inning he had a really good fastball.”3

“I’m like Lefty,” said Schmidt. “I got the impression that this was one more step up the ladder for Lefty. I don’t think he was ever a big statistic guy. If Lefty gave a damn for embellishment, he’d talk to the press. Not caring about it, that got him there quicker.”4

The Phillies won the East and defeated Los Angeles in the NLCS in four games. However, they lost the World Series to Baltimore in five games.

Carlton retired after the 1988 season with a career record of 329-244 and an ERA of 3.22. He totaled 4,136 strikeouts. He ranks fourth all-time in strikeouts behind Nolan Ryan (5,714), Randy Johnson (4,875), and Roger Clemens (4,672).

Steve Carlton was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1994, his first year of eligibility. He garnered 95.6 percent of the votes.

Sources

The author accessed Baseball-Reference.com for box scores/play-by-play information and other data, as well as Retrosheet.org.

baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN198309230.shtml.

retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1983/B09230SLN1983.htm  

Notes                        

1 The streak reached 11 games.

2 Stan Hochman, “Bridging the Communication Gap,” Philadelphia Daily News, July 19, 1983: 79.

3 Peter Pascarelli, “Carlton Notches 300th Victory,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 24, 1983: 6-D.

4 Stan Hochman, “A Toast to Carlton’s 300th Win,” Philadelphia Daily News, September 24, 1983: 47.

The juxtaposition of season, person, and place was perfect. The dog days of summer. Tom Seaver on the mound. A packed stadium in New York City. It had become commonplace since it first occurred in 1967, when Seaver was a 22-year-old phenom with the New York Mets and soon to become one of the game’s great pitching stars. For starters, his major-league-leading 25 wins spearheaded the Mets to their storybook World Series title in 1969, earning Seaver the first of three National League Cy Young Awards. Seaver’s 19 wins, leading the Mets to the equally improbable National League pennant in 1973, earned him his second Cy Young Award. His 10 All-Star Game selections as a Met appropriately placed him among his peers.

But this day, the first Sunday afternoon in August of 1985, was different. Seaver wasn’t wearing the Mets’ home whites; he was wearing the road grays of the Chicago White Sox.2 He wasn’t toeing the rubber at Shea Stadium; he was ready to pitch at Yankee Stadium in front of 54,032 fans.

Seaver had spent 12 seasons as the Mets’ ace, in between two stints (six campaigns) with the Cincinnati Reds. Lost to the White Sox during the winter of 1983-84, his return to the Mets a casualty of baseball’s convoluted free-agent compensation system, Seaver was now in his second season with Chicago. His pitching record at all three stops made Cooperstown a certainty—299-189, 3,492 strikeouts, 227 complete games.

The occasion was historic. If you were the 40-year-old Tom Seaver, there was no time to waste. The White Sox opened their road trip five days earlier against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. Seaver pitched nine innings but squandered an early 4-0 lead, allowing the Red Sox to tie the score at 4-4 in the seventh. When the White Sox pushed across three runs in the 10th and Juan Agosto held on for the save, Seaver had win number 299. The next stop was New York City. But Seaver would have to wait.

It was Phil Rizzuto Day at Yankee Stadium and the ceremonies included retiring the diminutive shortstop’s number-10 Yankee-pinstriped uniform. It was a deserved recognition, but a long ceremony. Seaver started his pregame on-the-field routine before 2 P.M. On two occasions, Seaver had to stop warming up in the bullpen as the ceremonies dragged on. Seaver (11-8, 3.02 ERA) finally took the mound for his first pitch in the bottom of the first inning at 3:06 in front of a crowd that had to be half Mets fans.3 His mound opponent was Joe Cowley (9-4, 3.88 ERA). Back in April, Cowley had pitched his only complete game of the season against the White Sox. He lost 4-3 when he walked rookie shortstop Ozzie Guillén with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning.

The White Sox tried hard to give Seaver an early lead but some bad baserunning got in the way. Rudy Law opened the game with a single to left but was picked off first by Cowley. Bryan Little walked, but when Harold Baines singled to right, Little was thrown out at third, Dave Winfield to Mike Pagliarulo. In the second inning, a double-play grounder ended a promising two-on, nobody-out threat and Law’s single to open the third inning went for naught when he was caught trying to steal second.

It was the Yankees who scored first. Pagliarulo opened the third with a single to right, advanced to second on a groundout, and scored the game’s first run on Ken Griffey’s RBI single to right. But Seaver was as determined as he was nearly perfect over the next four innings. Winfield reached first on an error to open the fourth inning. Of the next 13 batters who faced Seaver, only Willie Randolph reached base, when he was hit by a pitch in the same inning.

The White Sox needed one inning to turn the game. Cowley opened the top of the sixth by walking Greg Walker. Carlton Fisk’s grounder forced Walker at second and Oscar Gamble followed with a single to right, advancing Fisk to third. Even though Chicago was still scoreless, Yankees manager Billy Martin had seen enough from Cowley, who allowed 12 runners—seven on hits and five on walks—in 5⅓ innings.

Rookie reliever Brian Fisher was greeted by Tim Hulett’s double and Guillén’s single, and the White Sox led 2-1. One out later, Fisher walked Law to load the bases. When Little followed with a single to right, two more runs scored, and the White Sox had a 4-1 lead. It might have been more but Law was thrown out at the plate on Baines’ single. White Sox manager Tony La Russa disagreed vehemently with the call by umpire Derryl Cousins and was ejected.4

Now the game’s outcome was left to Tom Seaver and he was determined to finish the last two innings himself. Seaver conceded later, “I was beat as hell. But there wasn’t a chance in hell I was coming out.”5

Bob Meacham opened the Yankees’ eighth with a single. With two outs, Don Mattingly singled to put runners on first and third, prompting a mound visit by pitching coach Dave Duncan, subbing for the ejected La Russa. Seaver was not coming out of the game. Instead, he struck out Dave Winfield on a full-count changeup.6 Despite the rules that he needed to be in the clubhouse, La Russa saw the moment from the dugout runway leading to the clubhouse.7 He recalled, “There’s a picture in my mind which I’ll never forget about that game. You could see the exhaustion and fatigue in Seaver’s face. That was the most important of those twenty-seven outs, right there!”8

Trouble lurked again for Seaver in the ninth inning. Rookie Dan Pasqua lined a single off the wall, missing a home run by no more than four feet.9 Seaver struck out Ron Hassey and Baines crashed against the wall in right to catch Randolph’s line drive for the second out. Seaver then walked Pagliarulo, bringing the tying run to the plate and prompting another visit by Duncan.

Just as in the eighth, Seaver was not coming out of the game. Pinch-hitter Don Baylor lofted Seaver’s first pitch—and his 145th of the game—to left, Reid Nichols caught it, and baseball history had its 17th 300-game winner.

At the game’s conclusion, Seaver was presented with a silver bowl by the Yankees to commemorate the occasion. It was only fitting that Phil Niekro made the presentation. After all, the 46-year-old Niekro was next in line to win 300 games in his career.

Finally on October 6, 1985, the last day of the regular season, Niekro’s fifth attempt at 300 wins was successful. He became the 18th pitcher to reach the milestone, shutting out the Toronto Blue Jays, 8-0. The next morning, the story was front page in the New York Times.10 However, it was also obvious that New York City’s love affair with Tom Seaver was still in full bloom as was speculation regarding his pitching home for the 1986 season. Dave Anderson’s column, Seaver: ’86 Met or Yank, splashed across the sports pages of the Times above the details of Niekro’s triumph.11 Neither happened and Seaver finished his 20-year career in 1986, pitching for the White Sox as well as the Boston Red Sox.12 Seaver’s career pitching line—311-205, 2.86 ERA, 3,640 strikeouts, 231 complete games, 61 shutouts—led to his induction into the Hall of Fame in 1992, wearing a New York Mets cap.

What about 3,000? While Seaver was spending his Sunday afternoon securing his 300th career win on the East Coast, Rod Carew of the California Angels was collecting his 3,000th career hit on the West Coast, a single to left in the third inning on Frank Viola’s cut fastball. The Angels beat Carew’s former teammates, the Minnesota Twins, 6-5.

The connection between Rod Carew, Tom Seaver, and New York City is unmistakable. Carew honed his baseball skills on the streets and playgrounds in the Bronx near Yankee Stadium.13 He got his first major-league hit on April 11, 1967, in Baltimore when he lined a Dave McNally slider up the middle in the second inning, just nine days before Seaver’s first win in the big leagues.14 At season’s end they were named American League and National League Rookies of the Year.

The Sports Monday page of the New York Times captured both record-setting milestones in layout and story.15 Is it hyperbole to suggest that “baseball may never see such a Sunday again”?16 Maybe not.

Sources

The author accessed Baseball-Reference.com for box scores/play-by-play information (baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA198508040.shtml), and other data, as well as Retrosheet.org (retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1985/B08040NYA1985.htm). The Tom Seaver baseball card (#670) is from the 1985 Topps series and was obtained from the Trading Card Database.

Notes

1 Bill Madden, Tom Seaver—A Terrific Life (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2020), 242. Of the seven pitchers to win 300 games since Seaver’s achievement, only Phil Niekro (October 6, 1985) and Don Sutton (June 18, 1986) pitched complete games in reaching their milestone.

2 Paul Dickson, The Dickson Baseball Dictionary, 3rd Edition (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2009), 430. Home whites—“The traditional uniform worn by a team on its home field. Home teams have worn white uniforms since 1911.Compare road grays.”

3 Bill Madden, “An inside account of the day Tom Seaver returns to New York with the White Sox and wins No. 300,” NYDailyNews.com, November 21, 2020, nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/ny-tom-seaver-bill-madden-book-excerpt-20201121-mrqd6pogvvcsrmxymk66wpm7ku-story.html.

4 Michael Martinez, “300! Seaver Arrives Smoothly at Milestone, Overcomes Yankees, 4-1,” New York Times, August 5, 1985: C4.

5 Madden.

6 Craig Neff, “Tom Takes a Giant Step,” Sports Illustrated, August 12, 1985: 14.

7 Martinez.

8 Bill Madden, Tom Seaver—A Terrific Life.

9 Martinez.

10 Murray Chass, “Yanks’ Niekro Changes Styles and Wins 300th,” New York Times, October 7, 1985: 1.

11 Dave Anderson, “Seaver: ’86 Met or Yank,” New York Times, October 7. 1985: C4.

12 Seaver won four more games in 1985 after his milestone day at Yankee Stadium to finish the season with a record of 16-11, 3.17 ERA. Seaver won seven more games in 1986, divided between the White Sox and the Boston Red Sox. The breadth of Tom Seaver’s career is described by SABR biographer Maxwell Kates (Maxwell Kates, “Tom Seaver,” SABR Baseball Biography Project).

13 “3,000! Carew Gets His Big Hit, Singles in the 3rd Against Twins,” New York Times, October 7, 1985: C1.

14 Thomas J. Brown, “April 20, 1967: Mets beat Cubs to give Tom Seaver his first major-league victory,” SABR Baseball Games Project.

15 “Sports Monday,” New York Times, August 5, 1985: C1.

16 Bruce Anderson, “Rod Reels In His 3,000th Hit,” Sports Illustrated, August 12, 1985: 21.