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Edward Augustine "Big Ed" Walsh (May 14, 1881 – May 26, 1959) was an American pitcher and manager in Major League Baseball. From 1906 to 1912, he had several seasons where he was one of the best pitchers in baseball. Injuries shortened his career. Walsh holds the record for lowest career earned run average, 1.82.Coffey (2004), pp. 26–33. He is one of two modern (post-1901) pitchers to win 40 or more games in a single season, and the last pitcher to do so. He is the last pitcher from any team to throw more than 400 innings in a single season, a feat that he most recently accomplished in 1908. He was inducted into the
Interviewed for the 1966 book '' The Glory of Their Times'', Hall of Famer Sam Crawford referred to Walsh's use of a pitch that was later outlawed: "Big Ed Walsh. Great big, strong, good-looking fellow. He threw a spitball. I think that ball disintegrated on the way to the plate, and the catcher put it back together again. I swear, when it went past the plate, it was just the spit went by".Kashatus (2002), pp. 83–84.
In 1910, the White Sox opened White Sox Park, which was soon nicknamed
Walsh was a workhorse who pitched an average of 375 innings annually during the six seasons of 1907 through 1912. After the 1912 season, Walsh reportedly requested a full year off to rest his arm.Kashatus (2002), p. 85. Nevertheless, he showed up for spring training the following season, contending, "The White Sox needed me—implored me to return—so I did".
Walsh's playing time began dwindling in 1913. It has been claimed that he came into spring training in poorer physical shape than other members of the White Sox pitching staff, and his pride led him to try to keep up with the other pitchers in terms of pitch speed before getting into adequate shape, thereby causing damage to his pitching arm. "I could feel the muscles grind and wrench during the game, and it seemed to me my arm would leap out of my socket when I shot the ball across the plate", Walsh later recalled. "My arm would keep me awake till morning with a pain I had never known before". He pitched only 16 games during the 1913 season, and a meager 13 games over the next three years.
By 1916, Walsh's arm was dead. He wanted a year off, but Charles Comiskey released him instead. He attempted a comeback with the
Bios Of The Inductees
. Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame website. Retrieved 2014-02-23. Walsh's son
SABR Biography Project
* : {{DEFAULTSORT:Walsh, Ed 1881 births 1959 deaths American League ERA champions American League strikeout champions American League wins champions American people of Welsh descent Baseball players from Pennsylvania Bridgeport Americans players Chicago White Sox coaches Chicago White Sox managers Chicago White Sox players Major League Baseball pitchers Meriden Silverites players Milwaukee Brewers (minor league) players Minor league baseball managers National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees Newark Sailors players People from Luzerne County, Pennsylvania People from Pompano Beach, Florida Wilkes-Barre/Mount Carmel players
Baseball Hall of Fame
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-r ...
in 1946
Events January
* January 6 - The 1946 North Vietnamese parliamentary election, first general election ever in Vietnam is held.
* January 7 – The Allies recognize the Austrian republic with its 1937 borders, and divide the country into f ...
.
Early life
Walsh was born in Plains Township, Pennsylvania, to Michael and Jane Walsh. He worked in the Luzerne County coal mines when he was young. Walsh started his professional baseball career with the 1902 Meriden Silverites of the Connecticut State League. After playing the 1903 season with the Meriden Silverites and Newark Sailors of the Eastern League, the Chicago White Sox purchased Walsh's contract for $750 ($ in today's dollars).MLB career
Peak years
Walsh made his major league debut in 1904 with the Chicago White Sox and pitched his first full season in 1906, going 17–13 with a 1.88 ERA and 171strikeout
In baseball or softball, a strikeout (or strike-out) occurs when a batter accumulates three strikes during a time at bat. It usually means that the batter is out. A strikeout is a statistic recorded for both pitchers and batters, and is deno ...
s.Kashatus (2002), p. 84. In Game Three of that year's World Series, which the White Sox won over the Chicago Cubs
The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is located ...
in six games, Walsh struck out a then-World Series record 12 batters. He also struck out at least one batter each inning of that game; this feat has since been duplicated only once, by Bob Gibson in the 1968 World Series
The 1968 World Series was the World Series, championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1968 Major League Baseball season, 1968 season. The 65th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between American League (AL) ch ...
opener. From this season through 1912, Walsh averaged 24 victories
The term victory (from Latin ''victoria'') originally applied to warfare, and denotes success achieved in personal Duel, combat, after military operations in general or, by extension, in any competition. Success in a military campaign constitu ...
and 220 strikeouts and posted an ERA below 2.00 five times. He also led the league in saves five times in this span. His finest individual season came in 1908 when he went 40–15 with 269 strikeouts, 6 saves and a 1.42 ERA,Kashatus (2002), pp. 84–85. leading the American League in wins and strikeouts. In 1910, he posted the lowest ERA (1.27) for a pitcher with at least 20 starts and a losing record. Walsh also set an American League record by pitching 464 innings in a season. On August 27, 1911, Walsh no-hit
In baseball, a no-hitter is a game in which a team was not able to record a hit. Major League Baseball (MLB) officially defines a no-hitter as a completed game in which a team that batted in at least nine innings recorded no hits. A pitcher wh ...
the Boston Red Sox 5–0.
Interviewed for the 1966 book '' The Glory of Their Times'', Hall of Famer Sam Crawford referred to Walsh's use of a pitch that was later outlawed: "Big Ed Walsh. Great big, strong, good-looking fellow. He threw a spitball. I think that ball disintegrated on the way to the plate, and the catcher put it back together again. I swear, when it went past the plate, it was just the spit went by".Kashatus (2002), pp. 83–84.
In 1910, the White Sox opened White Sox Park, which was soon nicknamed Comiskey Park
Comiskey Park was a baseball park in Chicago, Illinois, located in the
Armour Square neighborhood on the near-southwest side of the city. The stadium served as the home of the Chicago White Sox of the American League from 1910 through 1990. Buil ...
by the press in honor of team owner Charles Comiskey. The name was officially changed to Comiskey Park in 1913. An apocryphal story goes that architect Zachary Taylor Davis consulted Walsh in setting the park's field dimensions. Choosing a design that favored himself and other White Sox pitchers, rather than hitters, Walsh made Comiskey Park a "pitcher's park" for its entire 80-year history.
Later career
Walsh was a workhorse who pitched an average of 375 innings annually during the six seasons of 1907 through 1912. After the 1912 season, Walsh reportedly requested a full year off to rest his arm.Kashatus (2002), p. 85. Nevertheless, he showed up for spring training the following season, contending, "The White Sox needed me—implored me to return—so I did".
Walsh's playing time began dwindling in 1913. It has been claimed that he came into spring training in poorer physical shape than other members of the White Sox pitching staff, and his pride led him to try to keep up with the other pitchers in terms of pitch speed before getting into adequate shape, thereby causing damage to his pitching arm. "I could feel the muscles grind and wrench during the game, and it seemed to me my arm would leap out of my socket when I shot the ball across the plate", Walsh later recalled. "My arm would keep me awake till morning with a pain I had never known before". He pitched only 16 games during the 1913 season, and a meager 13 games over the next three years.
By 1916, Walsh's arm was dead. He wanted a year off, but Charles Comiskey released him instead. He attempted a comeback with the Boston Braves
The Atlanta Braves, a current Major League Baseball franchise, originated in Boston, Massachusetts. This article details the history of the Boston Braves, from 1871 to 1952, after which they moved to Milwaukee, and then to Atlanta.
During it ...
in 1917, but was let go, ending his major league career. He later did some pitching in the Eastern League, and gave umpiring a try (he umpired 87 American League games during the 1922 season), after which he was a coach for the White Sox for several seasons (1923–1924, 1928–1929).
Walsh retired with 195 wins, 126 losses, and 1736 strikeouts. His career ERA of 1.82 is the lowest major league ERA ever posted. He has the third-lowest career WHIP
A whip is a tool or weapon designed to strike humans or other animals to exert control through pain compliance or fear of pain. They can also be used without inflicting pain, for audiovisual cues, such as in equestrianism. They are generally e ...
in MLB history (1.00) and the lowest ever for someone with 10 or more seasons pitched.
As a hitter, Walsh posted a .194 batting average (210-for-1,085) with 92 runs, 3 home runs
In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...
, 68 RBI
RBI most often refers to:
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*Run batted in
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, 14 stolen bases
In baseball, a stolen base occurs when a runner advances to a base to which they are not entitled and the official scorer rules that the advance should be credited to the action of the runner. The umpires determine whether the runner is safe or ...
and 46 bases on balls
A base on balls (BB), also known as a walk, occurs in baseball when a batter receives four pitches that the umpire calls '' balls'', and is in turn awarded first base without the possibility of being called out. The base on balls is defined in Se ...
.
Managerial record
Later life and legacy
Walsh was inducted into theBaseball Hall of Fame
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-r ...
in 1946
Events January
* January 6 - The 1946 North Vietnamese parliamentary election, first general election ever in Vietnam is held.
* January 7 – The Allies recognize the Austrian republic with its 1937 borders, and divide the country into f ...
. He died on May 26, 1959, 12 days after his 78th birthday.
In 1999, Walsh was ranked number 82 on '' The Sporting News list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was nominated as a finalist for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team
In 1999, the Major League Baseball All-Century Team was chosen by popular vote of fans. To select the team, a panel of experts first compiled a list of the 100 greatest Major League Baseball (MLB) players from the 20th century. Over two million fa ...
. In 2011, he was inducted into the Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame.. Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame website. Retrieved 2014-02-23. Walsh's son
Ed Walsh Jr.
Edward Arthur Walsh (February 11, 1905 – October 31, 1937) was an American Major League Baseball pitcher from Meriden, Connecticut, and son of Hall of Famer Ed Walsh. He played four seasons in the Majors, all with Chicago White Sox, from ...
played for the White Sox from 1928 to 1932.
See also
*List of Major League Baseball no-hitters
Below is a list of Major League Baseball no-hitters, enumerating every no-hitter pitched in Major League Baseball history. In addition, all no-hitters that were broken up in extra innings or were in shortened games are listed, although they are no ...
* List of Major League Baseball annual ERA leaders
In baseball, earned run average (ERA) is a statistic used to evaluate pitchers, calculated as the mean of earned runs given up by a pitcher per nine innings pitched. A pitcher is assessed an earned run for each run scored by a baserunner who reach ...
* List of Major League Baseball annual saves leaders
The following is a list of annual leaders in saves in Major League Baseball (MLB), with separate lists for the American League and the National League. The list includes several professional leagues and associations that were never part of MLB.
...
* List of Major League Baseball annual strikeout leaders
In baseball, the strikeout is a Baseball statistics, statistic used to evaluate pitchers. A pitcher earns a strikeout when he putout, puts out the Batting (baseball), batter he is facing by throwing a ball through the strike zone, "defined as that ...
* List of Major League Baseball annual wins leaders
Major League Baseball recognizes the player or players in each league with the most wins each season. In baseball, wins are a statistic used to evaluate pitchers. Credit for a win is given by the official scorer to the pitcher whose team takes an ...
* Major League Baseball titles leaders
References
Further reading
* Coffey, Michael (2004). ''27 Men Out: Baseball's Perfect Games''. New York: Atria Books. . * Kashatus, William C. (2002). ''Diamonds in the Coalfields: 21 Remarkable Baseball Players, Managers, and Umpires from Northeast Pennsylvania''. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. . *Smiles, Jack. (2007) ''Big Ed Walsh: The Life of a Spitballing Hall of Famer'' Jefferson, NC: McFarland.External links
SABR Biography Project
* : {{DEFAULTSORT:Walsh, Ed 1881 births 1959 deaths American League ERA champions American League strikeout champions American League wins champions American people of Welsh descent Baseball players from Pennsylvania Bridgeport Americans players Chicago White Sox coaches Chicago White Sox managers Chicago White Sox players Major League Baseball pitchers Meriden Silverites players Milwaukee Brewers (minor league) players Minor league baseball managers National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees Newark Sailors players People from Luzerne County, Pennsylvania People from Pompano Beach, Florida Wilkes-Barre/Mount Carmel players