August 16, 1914: Ed McCreery becomes a dubious ‘one-win wonder’ in bizarre debut

In the midst of a mediocre 1914 campaign, the American League’s Detroit Tigers sought to bolster an “unreliable” pitching staff and build for the future.1 In August, the club summoned Ed McCreery, who had just turned in an all-star season on the mound for the Butte Miners of the Class-D Union Association. After nearly being stranded without funds in Montana upon the concurrent collapse of that minor league, McCreery was able to successfully lobby Detroit to cover his travel expenses to join the team in time for its series in Cleveland.2 On August 16 the rookie got the start there in his major-league debut against the Naps, and picked up the one and only win of his brief big-league career in the mistake-ridden “farce” of a game.3 The “one-win wonder’s” performance in the victory was very generously described as “unsatisfactory” – so much so that it remains by several measures one of the worst wins by a starting pitcher in baseball history.4

Facing last-place Cleveland at League Park for the fourth time in as many days, the Tigers sent the 24-year-old right-hander to the mound in hopes of salvaging a series split against the ominous backdrop of the onset of World War I. The Naps countered with veteran Fred Blanding, who had seen his recent performance fade following solid seasons in 1912 and 1913. An estimated 6,500 spectators were in attendance on the warm Sunday afternoon.

Detroit immediately put runners in scoring position with Donie Bush’s single and George Moriarty’s double to start the top of the first. An errant pitch from Blanding struck Ty Cobb to load the bases, portending a string of further miscues that plagued Cleveland early on. Following cleanup hitter Sam Crawford’s force out of Cobb that scored Bush, Bobby Veach hit a groundball to Naps shortstop Bill Wambsganss that appeared to be an “easy double play” to end the inning.5 However, Wamby inexplicably threw home wildly over the head of catcher Ben Egan, scoring Moriarty. One batter later, “all [Naps third baseman] Terry Turner had to do [on Marty Kavanagh’s groundball] was to touch a Tiger runner [Veach] ten feet away, but threw to first instead and his blunder permitted another run” scored by Crawford.6 A passed ball by Egan scored Veach to give Detroit its fourth run before Blanding retired George Burns to end the sloppy inning.

Despite being provided with a comfortable lead when taking the mound for his first taste of big-league action, McCreery got off to a shaky start himself when facing Cleveland in the bottom half of the inning. Turner led things off with a walk. After McCreery retired Ray Chapman, Shoeless Joe Jackson’s single put two on with one out. Cleanup hitter and team namesake Nap Lajoie delivered an RBI single to score Turner, cutting Detroit’s lead to 4-1 before the rookie spitballer retired Jay Kirke and Roy Wood to end the frame with no further scoring.

The second inning was a “corker,” with Cleveland’s “comedy of misplays” immediately resuming in the top of the stanza.7 Wambsganss’s high throw to first on a groundball allowed Oscar Stanage to reach base to get things started. An attempt to advance him to second failed when McCreery’s sacrifice attempt was popped to Blanding. Bush’s groundball to second base “should have been [an inning-ending] double play,” but Chapman dropped the ball attempting to tag Stanage.8 The Naps second baseman had an opportunity to quickly redeem himself by trying to pick off Stanage who overran second, but Wamby mindlessly touched the bag instead of the runner after taking Chapman’s throw, “a feat that caused the Tigers to give him the raucous laughter.”9 After Moriarty fanned, consecutive walks to Cobb and Crawford scored Stanage – and chased Blanding from the game. Left-handed mound replacement Fritz Coumbe immediately fell victim to another Cleveland blunder when his pitch got past Egan and scored all three baserunners. The damage could have been mitigated on the play, but Lajoie failed to cover the vacated home plate from his first-base position. Veach grounded out to end the inning, but not before Detroit had extended its lead to 8-1.

Despite Lajoie’s mental error and Egan’s being charged with the passed ball on Coumbe’s pitch that cleared the bases, the Cleveland media was not kind to the unlucky rookie reliever. “Coumbe is some clean-up artist,” quipped Cleveland Plain Dealer sportswriter Henry P. Edwards. “He may not be the heaviest batter in the league. In fact, he admits that Cobb and Home Run] Baker are his superiors but let the opposition fill the bases and Coumbe defies anyone to clean up any better than he did yesterday with a wild pitch.”10 Conversely, the Detroit media was sympathetic to the plight of the Naps starter, who allowed only two hits during the eight-run flurry. “While Blanding’s exhibition was not a remarkable one, he was more to be pitied than censured,” wrote the Detroit Free Press.11

Cleveland managed to make it a game again in the bottom of the second. After a leadoff single by Wambsganss, McCreery retired Egan and Coumbe. But the rookie pitcher’s debut quickly turned disastrous after he allowed the next five Naps to reach base safely. After the dust settled on Turner’s single, Chapman’s walk, Jackson’s double, Lajoie’s walk, and Kirke’s single, Cleveland had tallied four runs in trimming Detroit’s lead to 8-5 before McCreery bore down to finish the inning.

The relentless scoring continued in the top of the third. Kavanagh and Burns led things off for Detroit with singles and Stanage sacrificed. Naps manager Joe Birmingham went to the bullpen again, summoning Guy Morton to replace the struggling Coumbe. Morton, the third rookie hurler to appear in the game, issued back-to-back walks to pinch-hitter Harry Heilmann and Bush, the latter of which scored Kavanagh. Moriarty’s double brought home Burns and Heilmann before Morton stopped the bleeding with a double-play ball, but the Tigers headed into the bottom of the frame enjoying an 11-5 lead.

Things quieted down considerably after this point. Although his green starter had been able to battle through a catastrophic second frame, Tigers manager Hughie Jennings “chased youngster McCreery to the bench” and called on Pug Cavet to begin the bottom of third.12 The lefty shined the rest of the way, allowing only one Cleveland run on a Wambsganss RBI double in the bottom of the seventh. Despite Detroit scoring two runs in the top of that inning on Moriarty’s base hit, Morton had settled down and pitched reasonably well for the Naps through the eighth. Cleveland rookie pitcher Harley Dillinger – also making his big-league debut – pitched a scoreless ninth in mop-up duty. At the end of the “weird contest,” the Tigers celebrated a 13-6 victory.13

The Cleveland Plain Dealer opined that the 36-77 Naps “proceeded to assassinate the national pastime” that afternoon with their “displays of Marblehead, Mass., or Boulder, Colo., baseball.”14 And according to the Akron Beacon Journal, the only bright spot of the game for the home fans was when Morton struck out the feared Cobb in the sixth inning, bringing “a hearty cheer from the crowd.”15 Even the Detroit Times admitted that Cleveland gave a “fine exhibition of how the national game should not be played.”16

Overshadowed by the Naps’ slapstick antics was what turned out to be McCreery’s historically poor outing. Although the rookie starter was credited with the win due to the official scoring rules of the day, his stat line included five earned runs, six hits, and three walks in two innings pitched.17 Since the beginning of the Deadball Era (1901), McCreery’s 22.50 ERA and 4.50 WHIP in the game are both second worst of all time for a victorious starting pitcher.18 And considering only 12 starters have lasted fewer innings in a winning outing, McCreery arguably owns the most dubious victory ever for a hurler in a starting role – and unquestionably ranks among the least deserving of all the one-win wonders.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources 

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, GenealogyBank.com, NewspaperArchive.com, Newspapers.com, Paper of Record, and Stathead.com.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CLE/CLE191408160.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1914/B08160CLE1914.htm

Notes

1 E.A. Batchelor, “May Pitch Coombs in Big Series,” Detroit Free Press, August 13, 1914: 10.

2 “Union Association Is One Dead, Dead Corpse,” Anaconda (Montana) Standard, August 6, 1914: 2.

3 “This Was a Farce,” Daily Times News (Ann Arbor, Michigan), August 17, 1914: 6.

4 “Aided by Naps, Tigers Grab a Weird Contest,” Detroit Times, August 17, 1914: 6.

5 Henry P. Edwards, “Fielding Fumbles Cause Slaughter of the Naps,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 17, 1914: 9.

6  “Fielding Fumbles Cause Slaughter of the Naps.”

7 “Tigers Maul Naplanders with Gusto,” Detroit Free Press, August 17, 1914: 8.

8 “Aided by Naps, Tigers Grab a Weird Contest.”

9 “Fielding Fumbles Cause Slaughter of the Naps.”

10 “Fielding Fumbles Cause Slaughter of the Naps.”

11 “Tigers Maul Naplanders with Gusto.”

12  “Tigers Maul Naplanders with Gusto.”

13 “Aided by Naps, Tigers Grab a Weird Contest.”

14 “Fielding Fumbles Cause Slaughter of the Naps.”

15 “Cleveland Loses on Usual Errors,” Akron Beacon Journal, August 17, 1914: 9.

16 “Aided by Naps, Tigers Grab a Weird Contest.”

17 The modern rule requiring starting pitchers to pitch a minimum of five innings to qualify for a win (except in certain infrequent and unusual circumstances) was adopted before the start of the 1950 season.

18 The worst ERA in a game of all time by a winning starting pitcher was 36.00 posted by Duster Mails of the Cleveland Indians, who allowed four earned runs in one inning pitched on September 1, 1920, against the Washington Senators. The worst WHIP in a game of all time by a winning starting pitcher was 5.40 posted by Harry Courtney of the Washington Senators, who allowed four hits and five walks in 1⅔ innings pitched on May 3, 1920, against the Philadelphia Athletics.