Who's in the Hall of Fame? T206 pitchers

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Posted By: Frank Wakefield

Howard,

Your response pointing out the error of my hits plus walks notion provoked me into finding the book and reading what it said...

Bill James' Historical Baseball Abstract, the OLD one, not the revised one...

Ed Who? is the article, on pages 73 and 74. I'd like to retype the entire article, but in fairness to Mr. James you guys need to buy copies of the book. It is quite affordable on ABE and Alibris, and insanely cheap once you're aware of its content.



"Ed is one of the Dangerfields of baseball history, a player whose name commands little respect today and , proportional to his accomplishments, drew little respect when he was active."

Ed is the only pitcher other than Lefty Grove to have lead the league in winning percentage for 3 consecutive seasons.

Ed pitches both games of a double header against Brooklyn on Sept 26, 1908, getting complete game shutout wins. He threw a shutout the previous start, and in his next start, then 5 innings of scoreless relief 2 days after that. 44 consecutive scoreless innings in September during that fierce 1908 pennant race. Forgotten.

in the 1982 BRJ of SABR, Cappy Gagnon quotes Baseball Magazine as describing Reulbach as "one of the brainiest players" and as having the finest curve ball in either league.

3 years at Notre Dame studying engineering, then after his playing days he studied law at Columbia.

Founding director of the Baseball Fraternity, secretary in 1914 and 1915, and that was what got the owners down on him.

185-104 record for Ed is better than these HOFers...
197-128 Chesbro
197-126 Walsh
193-142 Waddell
160-97 Joss
201-177 Marquard


Lifetime ERA of 2.28 was 11th best all time, when James wrote. On line at Baseball Almanac he seems to be 16th, but above him are Jake Weimer, Tommy Bond, Will White, and the great John M. Ward, 19th century hurlers. Babe Ruth is a fraction better than Ed.

Detractors point to his walks... he wasn't worst in the league. At that time pitchers pitched around hitters more, I think. Ed threw only 2 wild pitches in 1907. I think he had all the control he wanted. What he did do was allow less than one hit an inning in every season of his career, an accomplishment that no Hall of Fame pitcher can claim. I envision that he didn't mind walking someone, since he wasn't going to give up many hits anyway.

Ed defeated Brooklyn 9 times in 1908, James suspects that to be a singular accomplishment.

Ed threw a one hitter in the World Series, the best mark in limiting hitters until Don Larsen's fine no hitter.

He had a 12 game winning streak in 1906, a 14 game streak in 1909, making him the only NL of the 20th century to have two streaks of that length. And probably the only pitcher to win 14 straight in an off year (he was 19-9 that year, off for Ed).

Ed threw a 20 inning 2-1 complete game victory, the longest complete game win in history. He also won an 18 inning complete game by the same score.

Ed missed part of the 1910 season because his son had diptheria. He received limited play at the end of his career because of his support for the Baseball Fraternity.


Mr. James then mentions that Ed battled life off the field, he went through a fortune helping his son fight illness, a battle lost in 1931. He was then forced into bankruptcy. "He died on July 17, 1961, and for the last time was robbed of a decent headline. Ty Cobb died the same day."


Ed for the Hall of Fame.