Chapter 12

The complete record of the pitching percentages of victories pitched in, shows that Baltimore's full season's team of pitchers had a general percentage of victories pitched in of .695 by the eight pitchers who occupied the box during the season's campaign. This record excelled the percentage figures of New York's team of five pitchers by 31 points, and that of Boston's seven pitchers by 66 points, the respective percentage figures being, .695, .664 and .629. These figures show the relative strength of the three battery teams, as far as the record of percentage can show them. A better criterion of pitching skill would be, of course, at command, were the scoring rules giving the data of runs earned off the pitching revised properly; but as they were not in 1894, we have to take the next best data at command, that being the percentage of victories pitched in. Taking the records of the first three pitchers named in the Baltimore "battery" team record, as a whole, we do not hesitate to award to McMahon the position of leading pitcher of the club for 1894. Brown led McMahon in percentage of victories against the five Eastern teams, but the former was last on the list against the six Western teams, McMahon's percentage figures against the Western batsmen being .812 against Brown's .500. Against the Eastern teams Brown's figures were .750 to McMahon's .706. But McMahon pitched in 17 games against the Eastern batsmen, to Brown's 4 games only, and that fact counts to McMahon's advantage. Esper stood second in percentage figures against the Western batsmen with the percentage of .889 in 9 games to McMahon's .812 in 16 games. Gleason stood third against the Eastern teams with .625 to McMahon's .706; but against the West, Gleason was fourth, with the percentage of .769 to McMahon's .812. Hawke did service against the West with .688 to .556 against the East. Inks and Mullane stood even at .667 against the West, but Inks led Mullane by .511 to .500 against the East, Horner only pitched in one game. Here is a full record of the eight pitchers of the Baltimore team of 1894, showing what each pitcher did against the Eastern and Western batsmen separately, in victories and defeats against each club, and in percentage of victories pitched in against the batsmen of each section. It is a valuable record, if only in its showing what each pitcher did in the way of victories, against each club of each division.

THE BALTIMORE CLUB'S RECORD. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- EASTERN CLUBS WESTERN CLUBS. P h i W P C L l a C i i o W N a B s l t S n u o e d r h P e t C t c i P BALTIMORE n w B e o i e v s h . i s e / o l o n T r e b i L n v T r vs. L Y s p k g o c l u c o n i o c o o t h l t t e a r a u a l t e s r o i y o a n n g g i t l a n Pitchers t k n a n n l t Pitchers d h o s i e l t ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brown W 0 0 1 1 1 3 .750 Hemming 1 1 1 1 0 1 5 1.000 L 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 McMahon W 2 3 2 2 3 12 .706 Esper 3 1 1 2 0 1 8 .889 L 3 2 0 0 0 5 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 Gleason W 1 0 1 2 1 5 .625 McMahon 2 0 2 3 3 3 13 .811 L 1 1 0 0 1 3 1 2 0 0 0 0 3 Inks W 1 0 1 0 2 4 .571 Gleason 1 2 2 3 0 2 10 .769 L 0 0 1 2 0 3 1 0 1 0 1 0 3 Hawke W 0 1 0 1 3 5 .556 Hawke 1 1 3 2 2 2 11 .688 L 2 1 0 1 0 4 0 0 1 1 2 1 5 Mullane W 2 0 1 1 1 5 .500 Inks 1 0 0 1 1 1 4 .667 L 0 3 1 1 0 5 0 1 0 0 0 1 2 Esper W 0 0 0 1 0 1 .500 Mullane 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 .667 L 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 Horner W 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 Brown 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 .500 L 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

It will be seen by the above table that, while Brown did not pitch in a single victory against the two clubs standing next to Baltimore in the race, McMahon pitched in five victories; and yet Brown's percentage figures exceeded McMahon's by .750 to .706 against the five clubs as a whole, owing to McMahon's pitching in five defeats, against Brown's single defeats against the New York and Boston batsmen. Hemming's record is A No. 1, as far as he pitched, but he did not pitch in a single game against the Eastern teams, to the extent of a full record of innings pitched in.

Here is the record for the whole season, showing the total percentage:

THE BALTIMORE PITCHERS' FULL RECORD. ----------------------------------------------------------- Per cent. of Pitchers. Victories. Defeats. Games Pitched. Victories. ----------------------------------------------------------- Hemming 5 0 5 1.000 Esper 9 2 11 .818 McMahon 25 8 33 .758 Gleason 15 6 21 .714 Brown 4 2 6 .667 Hawke 16 9 25 .640 Inks 8 5 13 .615 Mullane 7 6 13 .538 Horner 0 1 1 .000 -----------------------------------------------------------

These tables include all victories and defeats of the season, whether counted or thrown out. It will be seen that only three pitchers pitched in a majority of the games played.

THE NEW YORK CLUB'S PITCHING RECORD.

The New York club, in 1894, went through the season's campaign with the fewest pitchers in their team of any of the twelve clubs. Moreover, their "battery" teams of the season, as a whole, surpassed those of any of the club's previous batteries since the club was organized. Led by Meekin and Farrell--the champion "battery" of 1894--followed by pitchers Rusie, Westervelt, German and Clarke, with catchers Wilson and Doyle, the club presented battery strength sufficient to have carried the team to the goal, but for sundry drawbacks they met with during the early part of the championship campaign, especially during April and May. And handicapped as they were, they managed to close the season in second place, after brilliant rallying work during the last three months of the campaign, when their pitchers were well backed up by better team-work than they had at command up to July.

In giving the record of the work done by the club pitchers, we have deemed it essential to divide the tables up into sections, showing the work done in the box against both the Eastern and Western teams separately, as well as the table showing the aggregate figures of the individual percentages of victories pitched in. Thus it will be seen in the appended table, that while Meekin's pitching was more successful against the batsmen of the Eastern teams, Rusie excelled Meekin in downing the batsmen of the Western teams, by a percentage of victories of .889 against .778 for Meekin. But it should be remembered that in pitching against the batsmen of the three leading teams in the race opposed to them, Meekin pitched in 7 victories out of 11 games, while Rusie only pitched in 6 victories out of 14 games. Against the three most successful of the Western teams, too, Meekin pitched in 13 victories against Rusie's 12. Taking the season's figures as a whole, Meekin led Rusie by the percentage figures of .783 to .735, quite a difference in favor of Meekin. German led Westervelt against the Eastern teams, but the latter led against the Western batsmen, and also had the best percentage figures, in the aggregate of the season, by .498 to German's .471; Clark being in the last ditch in all three tables. Westervelt was a new man in the field compared to German, but he is very likely to excel his last year's record in 1895. The best individual records in victories pitched in by the two leaders, were Rusie's 6 to 0 against Louisville, and Meekin's 3 to 0 against Baltimore. German's best was 2 to 0 against Washington, and Westervelt's was 1 to 0 against Baltimore; Clarke's best being 1 to 0 against Philadelphia.

Here are the records of the pitchers of the team against the five Eastern and the six Western teams for 1894:

THE SECTIONAL RECORDS. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- EASTERN CLUBS WESTERN CLUBS. P h i W P C L B l a C i i o W a a B s l t S n u o l d r h P e t C t c i P NEW YORK n t B e o i e v s h . i s e / i o l o n T r e b i L n v T r vs. L m s p k g o c l u c o n i o c o o t h l t t e a r a u a l t e s r o i y o a n n g g i t l a n Pitchers t e n a n n l t Pitchers d h o s i e l t ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meekin W 3 3 1 3 4 14 .778 Russie 4 4 4 4 2 6 24 .889 L 0 1 2 0 1 4 0 1 0 2 0 0 3 Rusie W 2 2 2 3 3 12 .545 Meekin 4 4 5 2 2 5 22 .783 L 2 3 3 1 1 10 1 0 1 1 3 0 6 German W 1 0 1 0 2 4 .500 Westervelt 1 0 1 1 0 1 4 .571 L 1 1 0 2 0 4 0 1 0 1 1 0 3 Westervelt W 0 1 0 1 1 3 .333 German 0 0 1 0 2 1 4 .471 L 2 1 2 1 0 6 1 1 1 1 1 0 5 Clarke W 0 0 1 0 0 1 .333 Clarke 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 .333 L 1 0 0 1 0 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 2 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE SUMMARY.

The summary giving the full totals of the season's record entire is appended:

Games Per cent. of PITCHERS Victories Defeats Pitched Victories ------------------------------------------------------------ Meekin 36 10 46 .783 Rusie 36 13 49 .735 Westervelt 7 9 16 .498 German 8 9 17 .471 Clarke 2 4 6 .333 ------------------------------------------------------------

THE BOSTON CLUB'S PITCHING RECORD.

While the Boston team of 1893 went through the season of that year with virtually but four pitchers to do their box work--Quarles and Coyle pitching in but three games in 1893--the batteries of the club for 1894 included seven pitchers, two of the seven each pitching in but single games, Nichols, Stivetts and Staley doing the brunt of the work of the past season. Nichols did his best work against the five Eastern teams, he being most effective against Philadelphia and Brooklyn, neither of which clubs won a game with him in the box against them. He also took both Cleveland and Louisville into camp without their being able to win a single game off his pitching, the only team to strike even figures in games against his pitching being the Cincinnatis--3 to 3, Baltimore winning 2 out of 3 with Nichols opposed to them, and New York 2 out of 5, St. Louis also getting the same figures. Beyond question, Nichols led the Boston pitching record of 1894, he ranking in strategic skill with the best in the League. Stivetts excelled even Nichols against the Western batsmen by a percentage of .763 to Nichols' .692; but against the stronger Eastern teams Nichols led Stivetts by the percentage figures of .756 to .417, an advantage more than off-setting the Western figures of the two pitchers. Lovett and Hodson both excelled Stivetts against the Eastern teams, by .714 and .500, respectively, against Stivetts' .417; but against the Western teams, Stivetts led by .763 to Hodson's .600 and Lovett's .500. Staley was very ineffective against the batsmen of both sections. Lampe pitched in but one game, and that one a defeat by Pittsburgh; Stephens pitching, too, in but one game but it was a victory over Washington. Here are the sectional records for the season, together with the column giving the totals of the season:

THE SECTIONAL RECORDS. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- EASTERN CLUBS WESTERN CLUBS. P G h G r i W P C L r a B l a C i i o a n W a N a B s l t S n u n d o l e d r h P e t C t c i P d P BOSTON n t w e o i e v s h . i s e e / i l o n T r e b i L n v T r T r vs. L m Y p k g o c l u c o n i o c o c o o o h l t t e a r a u a l t e t e s r r i y o a n n g g i t l a n a n Pitchers t e k a n n l t d h o s i e l t l t ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stephens W 0 0 0 0 1 1 1.000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.000 1 1.000 L 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Nichols W 1 3 4 4 3 15 .756 3 3 3 3 3 3 18 .692 33 .717 L 2 2 0 0 1 5 0 2 1 2 3 0 8 12 Stivetts W 4 1 0 1 2 8 .471 3 3 3 2 2 4 18 .763 26 .650 L 1 1 3 3 1 9 2 0 1 2 0 0 5 14 Lovett W 1 1 1 1 1 5 .714 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 .500 7 .636 L 0 1 0 1 0 2 0 0 1 1 0 0 2 4 Hodson W 0 0 1 0 0 1 .500 2 1 0 0 0 0 3 .600 4 .571 L 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 3 Staley W 2 1 0 0 2 5 .385 1 1 1 1 2 2 8 .371 13 .481 L 1 2 3 1 1 8 1 1 2 0 0 2 6 14 Lampe W 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0 .006 L 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE PHILADELPHIA CLUB'S PITCHING RECORD.

Under the Philadelphia club's management of 1893 but three pitchers were in the box in over 20 games each; and but two others in 10 games and over, seven pitchers being employed during that season. In 1894, the blunder was committed of experimenting with no less than _thirteen_ pitchers with the result of finding it difficult to reach fourth place at the end of the race; while the club, after being in second place in April, fell down to the second division in July. But for this error of judgment, the team might have ended among the three leaders. Of those who pitched in over 10 games, Taylor took a decided lead by a total percentage of .706 to Weyhing's .548 and Carsey's .533. Of those who pitched in less than 10 games and over 5, Harper led with .667 to Haddock's .571. None of the other pitchers reached average figures--.500--except Jones, who only pitched in one game, which he won against St. Louis, while four of the thirteen did not pitch in a single victory. Experimenting with thirteen pitchers was a costly mistake in the management, and should not be repeated. It is bad enough to try too many changes in the _in_ and _out_ field teams, but worse in battery-team-experiments of this kind. Harper led in percentage of victories with .800 against the Eastern club batsmen, while Taylor led against those of the West with .728. The failures of the season were Fanning, Callahan, Johnson, Turner, Burns, Figgemeir and Lukens, the former being the only pitcher of the seven who pitched in a single victory against the Eastern batsmen.

Here is the record in full:

EASTERN CLUBS WESTERN CLUBS. G G r W P C L r a B a C i i o a n W a N B s l t S n u n d o l e r h P e t C t c i P d P PHILADELPHIA n t w B o i e v s h . i s e e / i o o n T r e b i L n v T r T r vs. L m Y s k g o c l u c o n i o c o c o o o t l t t e a r a u a l t e t e s r r o y o a n n g g i t l a n a n Pitchers t e k n n n l t d h o s i e l t l t ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jones W 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1.000 1 1.000 L 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Taylor W 3 2 2 0 3 10 .625 4 2 2 0 3 3 14 .778 24 .706 L 0 1 1 3 1 6 1 1 1 1 0 0 4 10 Harper W 0 1 2 1 0 4 .800 1 1 0 0 0 0 2 .500 6 .667 L 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 2 3 Haddock W 0 1 1 1 0 3 .750 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 .333 4 .571 L 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 2 3 Weyhing W 0 2 0 3 3 8 .615 0 2 1 1 2 3 9 .500 17 .548 L 2 0 2 0 1 5 3 1 1 2 2 0 9 14 Carsey W 1 1 1 2 2 7 .467 0 2 2 1 2 2 9 .600 16 .533 L 1 2 3 1 1 8 2 1 1 0 0 2 6 14 Callahan W 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 .667 2 .400 L 1 1 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 Fanning W 0 0 0 1 0 1 .500 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 1 .250 L 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 3 Johnson W 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 .250 1 .250 L 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 3 3 Turner W 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0 .000 L 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 Burns W 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0 .000 L 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1* 1 Figgemeir W 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0 .000 L 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 Lukens W 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0 .000 L 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 [Footnote *: Should add up to 0. [Proofreader]] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE BROOKLYN CLUB'S PITCHING RECORD.

The Brooklyn club experimented with nine pitchers in 1894, of which but three were able to exceed the average in percentage of victories. Of the three, Stein took the lead with the total percentage figures of .650 against Kennedy's .545, Daub being third with but .406 to his credit, all the others pitching in less than 10 games. No less than four of the nine failed to pitch in a single victory. Lucid did good work in the few games he pitched in, his victory over Boston being noteworthy. But he pitched in as many defeats against the Western teams as he did in victories. Four of the nine were worthless for skilful, strategic pitching.

Here is the club's total record in full:

EASTERN CLUBS WESTERN CLUBS. P G h G r i W P C L r a B l a C i i o a n W a N a s l t S n u n d o l e d h P e t C t c i P d P BROOKLYN n t w B e i e v s h . i s e e / i o l n T r e b i L n v T r T r vs. L m Y s p g o c l u c o n i o c o c o o o t h t t e a r a u a l t e t e s r r o i o a n n g g i t l a n a n Pitchers t e k n a n l t d h o s i e l t l t ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Stein W 3 2 2 2 3 12 .632 2 2 2 3 2 3 14 .667 26 .650 L 1 3 2 1 0 7 1 1 1 1 2 1 7 14 Lucid W 0 0 1 0 0 1 1.000 1 0 0 1 0 1 3 .500 4 .571 L 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 3 3 Kennedy W 1 3 3 1 1 9 .500 2 4 2 3 2 2 15 .577 24 .545 L 2 3 2 1 1 9 2 3 2 2 1 1 11 20 Gastright W 0 0 0 0 2 2 .500 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 .333 3 .429 L 1 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 1 0 1 0 2 4 Daub W 0 0 0 1 1 2 .222 1 1 1 1 2 2 8 .500 10 .406 L 1 1 1 2 2 7 2 1 0 1 2 2 8 15 Underwood W 0 0 0 1 1 2 .400 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 2 .400 L 1 0 1 1 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 G. Sharrott W 0 0 0 0 1 1 .333 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 1 .333 L 1 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 Sommerville W 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0 .000 L 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 Korwan W 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0 .000 L 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE CLEVELAND CLUB'S PITCHING RECORD.