Greatest UNKNOWN Pitcher Ever!!
 

The 6’5” three-hundred pound pitching sensation Pat “Paddy” McDonald became a fan favorite during the early days of the dead ball era. His immense size and scowling glare, coupled with a true contempt for his opponents, intimidated batters over the course of three seasons in the National League while playing, appropriately enough, for the New York “Giants.” So ill-tempered was he that Bob Ewing once proclaimed, “I don’t say much to Paddy or scarcely even look at him for fear he’d want to meet me under the bleachers after the game.”

Shown here performing his patented move during windup known as the “look-over-there point” designed to lure hitters to avert their attention from his otherwise clumsy delivery. Most would agree such a strategic deception was not needed, given the force and speed with which he threw the ball. Hitters like Honus Wagner would swear that they could smell smoke as his renown heater sped past them. This earned Paddy the nickname the Irish Fireballer.

In 1906, after his stint in the National League had apparently ended, players in the Tri-State League began to realize that the fire inside the big pitcher was still sweltering. Lancaster sent their resident brawler, Patsy Dougherty, himself a powerfully-built, no nonsense player awaiting a return to the majors, to try to settled down the opponent pitcher who was becoming a bit too confrontational with batters. After pitching seven shutout innings, Dougherty bumped Paddy outside the first base path in between innings. McDonald was no one to be confronted in such a manner and thus picked up Dougherty five feet in the air and tossed him headlong three rows into the stands! A lesson that did not escape the attention of opponents and major league clubs. McDonald was unofficially barred from the majors shortly thereafter. Said Pittsburgh manager Fred Clarke at the time, “McDonald’s efforts to intimidate batters might even make old Rube blush (referring to Waddell)!”

Known also for wearing shorts while playing, McDonald once scoffed, “Why should I wear the heavy socks, no one dares show me the steel (referring to the spikes worn on athletic shoes)!” A true original, this dominating pitcher left the sport to serve in the New York City Police Department and compete in strength events at the Olympic games. A two-time gold medalist, Pat McDonald is pictured here in his only known card, published in 1913.

[Anyone else want to entertain us with an Auction House style made up story about your favorite card??]

That was a fun read!

Amazing story

Love learning new thing in the mlb history and interesting with him being a gold medalist also

Nice story, thanks. But when I saw the thread I thought of Sidd Finch.

You have to make sure you read the last sentence.

broken bats
 

His heavy handed pitching style broke more bats than anyone in the history of baseball...Jerry

What a great made up story..I was fooled until the last sentence

Facts and fantasy meet in this story. Pat was indeed a 2 time gold medalist and a well known NY policeman. He’s a renown strongman with a statue erected in his family’s home town in Ireland. Numerous other details are embellished for entertainment purposes here at year end. Best regards, Joe

As crazy as it sounds he might have actually played short stop in the minors.https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=mcdonn001p--

As a collector of track T cards, I was really surprised how I had not known any of this for the first couple paragraphs. Well done.

Other than people like us, ask someone who Johnny Vander Meer was. They won't have a clue.

John Clarkson

https://www.baseball-reference.com/p...larkjo01.shtml

The Cy Young award today would have been the John Clarkson award had he not wrapped up his 328 win career in only 12 years.

Cy Young pitched 22 years to get to 511.

Koufax 165 wins in 12 years.

Who is he?
 

Why make it up when the true story is this good. Everything that follows is true and precedes the "player's" pivotal role in game 7 of one of the greatest World Series ever played!

"(The trade) proved a very prescient move. Beginning in 1919, the "Team" won seven consecutive . . . League pennants, and for three of those years "Player", who by then considered himself a hitter who occasionally pitched, put on one of the most dazzling offensive demonstrations the league had ever seen. In his first two seasons, 1917 and 1919 (he was in the US Army in 1918), with the exception of a lone pitching appearance in his first year, "Player" played exclusively at first base and in the outfield: In 185 games, he posted averages of .333 batting and .510 slugging. Then he really caught fire. From 1920 to 1922, "Player's" numbers were staggering, as he batted .378 in 439 games, scored 340 runs, drove in 399, and had a slugging average of an astounding .590. In both 1920 (161) and 1921 (120), "Player" led the league in RBIs; in 1921, he won the league Triple Crown, batting .412 (the league’s highest season average in the 20th century), with 24 home runs and 120 RBIs. His 246 hits that season remain the league’s single-season record.

Yet "Player" continued to pitch when needed, and those results, too, were staggering. From 1920 through 1922, "Player" pitched in 56 games and produced a 41-6 record, a winning percentage of .872: in both 1921 (.923) and 1922 (.867), he led the league in that category. In 1920 (2.10) and 1922 (1.73), "Player" also led the league in ERA, and over three seasons his ERA was an astounding 2.07. During those years, by virtue of his performance both at the plate and on the mound, the press bestowed on "Player" the moniker "Babe Ruth of the Minors".

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1640433421

Warren Spahn!

A final little known fact about McDonald: After his banishment for egregious behavior Paddy, hung around baseball for a while until he was picked up by the single A Blue Balls, WV club, who hadn't yet heard about Paddy's disgraceful antics. Regretfully, Paddy had not learned his lesson and in his first mound appearance on the mound he hurled a 16 pound shot put straight at the head of poor Frank 'Slash" Fortuna, a career .132 hitter named such for the straight razor he always carried in his back pocket. The results were tragic; 'Slash' ended up in a comatose state while Paddy blew town. Little was heard about Paddy after that except there were rumors that he had become the strong man with a traveling carnival.

Well played!

I was fooled until the comment about Waddell trying to intimidate hitters. His stuff was intimidating, but Rube himself wasn't.

If auction write-ups told me stuff I didn't know (Babe Ruth was great doesn't cut it) like this fictional one did I'd be all for it!

I thought Syd Finch was the greatest unknown pitcher ever?

I always think (briefly) of Will "Whoop-La" White as far as unknown pitchers. He lived in the shadow of his older brother, Deacon White, but has several interesting points of notoriety.

> He was the first, and for many years only, major league player to wear eye glasses while playing ball.
> His career ERA is 9th all time (say what?).
> In 1879, he started 75 games and completed all 75 of them with 680 IPs, and 2,906 batters faced, all of which are major league records which are unlikely to be broken, although the first could be if TB continues to use the same "opener" for a full season.

This guy is the opposite of the OPs fantasy pitcher with respect to intimidation. But he'd be on my "real" list of obscure pitchers who were actually better than people know.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_White

and George, outstanding write-up on Buzz. I'm still looking for my first card of his...