Loserville’s Crowded Dead Heat

New York Giant Bobby Thomson’s one October swing fifty seasons ago will provide much nostalgic talk in 2001. But going unnoticed, to no surprise, during the course of that campaign, an interesting record was unintentionally set by a half dozen American League hurlers. Coincidentally, over in Thomson’s Senior Circuit, three other pitchers nearly set an equivalent mark.

Twenty-first century researchers now have the pleasure of sifting through an entire century’s worth of complete “modem baseball” statistics, uncovering oddities and investigating the stories behind them. Such is the case of 1951 ‘s “small-time losers” in the AL, who unknowingly combined to set a double record. Neither stat has been approached since.

Through the AL’s first fifty years, the pitcher(s) with the most losses each season averaged just over 20. Seventy percent of the time, one pitcher would be the unlucky leader in this category, though in 1924 and 1949 three hurlers shared the unwanted record. Their 17 losses also happened to be the second lowest number. (Sixteen “led” in 1946.)

In 1951, a record six American League hurlers tied for the “honor” by losing a record low 14 contests. They were Cleveland’s Bob Lemon (17-14), White Soxer Billy Pierce {15-14), Philadelphia’s Alex Kellner (a 20-game loser in 1950, 11-14), Tiger duo Paul “Dizzy” Trout (9-14) and Ted Gray (7-14), and poor Brownie Duane Pillette (6-14). Lemon’s mound mates for the second-place Indians, Early Wynn (20-13) and Mike Garcia (20-13), nearly joined the crowded circle.

Each pitcher took a different route to his 14 losses. Below are some of the practical statistics to compare them by, in addition to the normal differences in the strengths of their respective team offenses and defenses. The “Years” column equals how many 50-inning major league seasons they pitched before 1951. Ages are calculated from start of season.

Some Particulars

Cleveland 93-61. Lemon was 5-5 in June and 9-9 by mid July when he won seven straight games. He finished by losing four of five and had only one start left after losing number 14. Chicago and New York each beat him three times; each AL squad beat Lemon at least once. The Hall of Farner lost 14 games three times in his career and 15 games in 1953.

Chicago 81-73. Pierce started off very well, 7-2 by early June. Then he went 2-7 for a 9-9 record as August began. Already having 14 losses by September 8, the youngster won his final three starts to avoid winning the Loser’s Derby. Every team beat Pierce at least once, but the champ Yankees did it five times. He lost 15 twice (rookie 1949 and pennant 1959) and 16 in 1950.

Detroit 73-81. Veteran Trout was 2-2 before losing nine of 10 games through July 4. He didn’t pitch much in July and lost one game in August. He then lost his final game on September 29 to Cleveland, placing himself in the Derby. Trout lost to all clubs except New York. Cleveland beat him four times. Trout lost 18 in 1942 and 15 in 1945. Gray was 3-10 by July 13 and had lost number 14 by September 12. He rallied to defeat Washington and St. Louis to avoid that fifteenth loss. Though Philadelphia didn’t beat Gray, the Red Sox did-five times. He lost 17 in 1952 and 15 more in 1953, his last full season.

Athletics 70-84. Kellner was 20-12 as a 1949 rookie but fell to 8-20 the next year-his 20 topped the league. He was 7-8 as August 1951 began, the month in which he lost five straight. Losing his fourteenth game on September 3 to New York put Kellner in a good position to take the Derby but he won three straight to end the campaign. Kellner lost five to New York, and at least once to the six other teams. He was 6-17 in 1954, the A’s final year in Philadelphia.

St. Louis 52-102. Playing for the worst team by far, Pillette had 14 losses by August 25, but he managed to avoid the “special” fifteenth in his seven later appearances. In 1954 (10-14), he won the first game ever for the new Baltimore Oriole franchise, but in 1951 his consecutive mid-June complete-game wins over New York and Washington were his only highlights. He defeated Cleveland for his first 1951 win and never lost to them. Chicago beat him four times, New York and Detroit three times each. Of the three clubs that did not have a pitcher on this small roster, the Yankees managed to take 19 of their 98 victories from the Derby squad, while Boston had 14 of 87 wins and the Senators 10 of 62. 

AL facts

From 1952 to the end of the century, the highest number of season losses slowly decreased, dramatically, since 1982. The shortened strike year of 1981 is the only time that 13 losses was the high (2-win rookie Juan Berenguer of Kansas City and Toronto, 7-game Blue Jay winner Luis Leal, and 4-win Jerry Koosman with Minnesota and Chicago. In the 1990s, the average highest loss number was 16.

Pedro Ramos of the Washington Senators-Minnesota Twins holds a “loser” record by being top dog four straight years (18-19-18-20, 1958-1961). Bobo Newsom also led the AL in defeats four times but they were far from consecutive. John “Happy” Townsend of Washington (5-26, 1904) and rookie Bob Groom (7-26, 1909) also for Washington, share the single-season high-loss mark, according to Total Baseball‘s revamped stats for that era. Red Ruffing holds the post-1920 record with 25 losses for the 1928 Red Sox. He added a league high 22 in 1929 for an unchallenged two-season, twentieth-century mark of 47.

NL facts 

Over in the National League, the smallest number of defeats to lead the league was 17 until 1958, when Pirate Ron Kline led with 16. The NL leader had 14 losses during the strike years of 1981 and 1994. In 1981, Met Pat Zachry was 7-14, and Padre Steve Mura was 5-14. In ’94, Padre Andy Benes was 6-14.

The NL pitchers who tied in that strange year of 1951, were Ken Raffensberger (16-17) of Cincinnati who was 12-17 when September began; teammate Willie Ramsdell (9-17), who was 9-10 on August 3; and Cubbie Paul Minner (6-17), who was 6-11 in mid August with three shutouts-two over Ramsdell. Pittsburgh’s workhorse Murry Dickson was 20-16.

In 1952, 1953, and 1954, Dickson led the NL in losses for Pittsburgh and then Philadelphia ( 19-20- 20). Comparing their four-year totals, Ramos (49 wins) tied Dickson (54 wins) with 75 defeats. In 1905, Boston’s Vic Willis set the modern National League record with 29 losses. Paul Derringer struggled through 27 for St. Louis (0-2) and Cincinnati (7-25) in 1933, giving us the post-Deadball mark.