William F. Bailey (April 12, 1888 – November 2, 1926) was an American left-handed

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

. He played for the

St. Louis Browns The St. Louis Browns were a Major League Baseball team that originated in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as the Milwaukee Brewers. A charter member of the American League (AL), the Brewers moved to St. Louis, Missouri, after the 1901 season, where they ...

Baltimore Terrapins The Baltimore Terrapins were one of the most successful teams in the short-lived Federal League of professional baseball from to , but their brief existence led to litigation that led to an important legal precedent in baseball. The team played i ...

Chicago Whales The Chicago Whales were a professional baseball team based in Chicago. They played in the Federal League, a short-lived "third Major League", in 1914 and 1915. They originally lacked a formal nickname, and were known simply as the "Chicago Feder ...

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) Central division. One of the AL's eight charter franchises, the club was f ...

, and

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals hav ...

. He had a career record of 38–76 with a 3.57

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

(ERA).

Career

Bailey first pitched in the major leagues in 1907 for the St. Louis Browns, and he remained with the team through the 1912 season. He had one of his best seasons in 1909, when he finished with a 9–10 win-loss record but a 2.44 ERA. The next year, Bailey's ERA increased to 3.32 but his win-loss record spiraled to 3-18 for a Browns team that finished with a 47-107-4 record. In the inaugural

Federal League The Federal League of Base Ball Clubs, known simply as the Federal League, was an American professional baseball league that played its first season as a minor league in 1913 and operated as a "third major league", in competition with the e ...

season of 1914, Bailey struck out more than one batter per inning (131 strikeouts in 128 innings, or 9.2 strikeouts per 9 innings), a virtually unheard-of feat in that era. In the 1910–19 decade no other pitcher with at least 100 innings pitched even approached that level, with

Rube Marquard Richard William "Rube" Marquard (October 9, 1886 – June 1, 1980) was an American left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball in the 1910s and early 1920s. He achieved his greatest success with the New York Giants. He was inducted into the Ba ...

(7.7 strikeouts per 9 innings in 1911) being second. Nonetheless, Bailey had a losing record (7–9) in that season. In 1915, his second Federal League season, Bailey lost 20 games. He went 6–19 with a 4.63 ERA for the Baltimore Terrapins, was traded to the Chicago Whales, and went 3–1 with a 2.16 ERA for Chicago. After Bailey's two seasons in the Federal League, he pitched mostly in the minor leagues, with his only major league appearances coming in 1918 (8 games for the Detroit Tigers), 1921 (19 games for the St. Louis Cardinals), and 1922 (12 games for the Cardinals). In Bailey's later minor league career, he lost 20 or more games two more times. In 1919, he went 24–21 with a 2.67 ERA for the Beaumont Oilers of the Texas League, with whom he played through 1921. In 1922, Bailey split his time between the Houston Buffaloes of the Texas League and the Omaha Buffaloes of the Western League. He had a combined 17–23 record that year with a 5.20 ERA. He last pitched with Omaha in the 1925 season.

Death

Before Bailey could appear in any games in 1926, he developed

intestinal bleeding Gastrointestinal bleeding (GI bleed), also called gastrointestinal hemorrhage (GIB), is all forms of bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract, from the mouth to the rectum. When there is significant blood loss over a short time, symptoms may include ...

and was admitted to Baptist Hospital in Houston, where he underwent

blood transfusion Blood transfusion is the process of transferring blood products into a person's circulation intravenously. Transfusions are used for various medical conditions to replace lost components of the blood. Early transfusions used whole blood, but mo ...

s. The Western League held a benefit in his honor. Bailey seemed to get better for a while, but he died that November while awaiting another transfusion.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bailey, Bill 1888 births 1926 deaths Major League Baseball pitchers Baseball players from Arkansas St. Louis Browns players Baltimore Terrapins players Chicago Whales players Detroit Tigers players St. Louis Cardinals players Austin Senators players Montgomery Billikens players Providence Grays (minor league) players Toledo Iron Men players New Orleans Pelicans (baseball) players Beaumont Oilers players Beaumont Exporters players Houston Buffaloes players Omaha Buffaloes players Deaths from bleeding