“Strikes Never got a Pitcher Anything,” 1911
Two days before he collapsed on the field in Chattanooga, Tennessee on April 3, 1911 (and died 11 days later) Addie Joss spoke about pitching with a reporter for the final time.
Joss and the Cleveland Naps were in New Orleans when he told The Associated Press:
“Every time I fool a batter and he misses the ball I feel disappointed.
“Strikes never got a pitcher anything. Strikeouts don’t win baseball games and increase a man’s salary. It’s the man who wins games who gets the credit.
Addie Joss
“What I have said may sound heretical. But just think it over for a moment, and you will see why a pitcher should want the batter to connect when he is outguessed.
“When the pitcher outguesses the batter the batter is off his balance. The chances are ten to one he hits at the ball in a half-hearted way. The chances are twenty to one that if he does connect he will be an easy out.
“Now when that fellow strikes and misses don’t you see that the pitcher must start all over again? The last strike is just as hard to get as the first one. When a man misses a ball on which he has been fooled it is just like having an entirely new turn at bat.”
“In the Second Inning, things began to Happen,” 1909
William “Dolly” Gray was a 30-year-old rookie with the Senators in 1909; he came to Washington after pitching seven years for the Los Angeles Angels in the Pacific Coast League compiling a 117-65 record. That season he set a record which still stands: the most walks in an inning.
Dolly Gray
In 1923, in his syndicated column, Umpire Billy Evans called the game in which it happened, “The weirdest game I have ever seen.”
Evans said of the August 28, 1909, game:
“Gray allowed only one hit—a very questionable one—yet he was beaten 6 to 4. Not an error was made by his supporting cast…I umpired the game, and can recall the happenings of the unusual game as vividly as if they were just being staged.”
[…]
“In the second inning, things began to happen. Pat Dougherty led off with a high bounder to Bob Unglaub, playing first base for Washington. Unglaub jumped after it, the ball struck the top of his glove and was deflected into right field. It was scored as a hit, but I have always thought that Unglaub should have easily handled the ball.
After Dougherty had reached first base, Gray developed a streak of wildness—the most unusual streak I have ever seen. He walked seven men in succession, forcing in five runs. The count was three and two on practically every batter. A couple of outs and another base on balls were responsible for the sixth run of the inning.
“Joe Cantillon, managing the Washington club, was short on pitchers at the time and let Gray take his medicine. In the next inning Gray recovered control and for the rest of the game held the Sox runless and hitless. Washington staged several rallies and Chicago had a hard time winning 6 to 4…Gray, who really pitched a no-hit game, was beaten…That game stands out in my memory as the most peculiar ball game I ever worked.”
The Box Score
Gray walked 69 batters in the other 217 innings he pitched in 1909. His hard luck that day in August of 1909 extended for the duration of his short big league career; in three seasons with the Senators he posted a 3.52 ERA and was 15-51.
Meyers’ “Gnarled and Broken” Hand
Like all catchers of his era, John “Chief” Meyers’ hands were, as The New York Tribune described them “gnarled and broken.”
But the paper said he had found a cure after being drafted into the marines in November of 1918:
“(At Paris Island, Meyers) hands toyed with a Springfield, and when he swung the bat in the bi-weekly baseball games on the sand diamond at the great Marine Corps Training Station, where there is no fence, the horsehide pellet generally soared well out into the sea.
Chief Meyers
“Meyers says that his marine training has done wonders for him and that it has made him good for many more seasons behind the bat.”
After his discharge, the 38-year-old Meyers played just one more season, with the New Haven Weissmen in the Eastern League, hitting .301.
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