Henry Washington Wyse (March 1, 1917 – October 22, 2000) was an American

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

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 ...

. Between 1942 and 1951, Wyse played in

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), ...

for 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 ...

(1942–47),

Philadelphia Athletics The Philadelphia Athletics were a Major League Baseball team that played in Philadelphia from 1901 to 1954, when they moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and became the Kansas City Athletics. Following another move in 1967, the team became the Oaklan ...

(1950–51) and Washington Senators (1951). A native of Lunsford, Craighead County, Arkansas, he was listed as tall and and he batted and threw right-handed.

Baseball career

control pitcher In baseball, a control pitcher, also known as a finesse pitcher, is a pitcher who succeeds mostly by using accurate pitches, as opposed to a power pitcher who relies on velocity. By issuing a below average number of bases on balls he exhibits go ...

, Wyse was a sinkerballer and a

curve In mathematics, a curve (also called a curved line in older texts) is an object similar to a line (geometry), line, but that does not have to be Linearity, straight. Intuitively, a curve may be thought of as the trace left by a moving point (ge ...

specialist. Wyse was nicknamed "Hooks" in acknowledgment of his curveball, described by Wyse biographer Gregory Wolf as "knee-buckling". Wyse suffered a spinal injury that kept him from serving in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. As a result, he wore a corset at times to pitch. Wyse debuted for the Chicago Cubs on September 7, 1942, and would remain a Cub thru the 1947 season. Wyse also pitched in the

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league ...

with the

and Washington Senators for parts of two seasons, playing his final game in the major leagues on June 14, 1951. In his eight-season

MLB 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), ...

career, Wyse posted a 79–70 won–lost record with a 3.52

ERA An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth. Comp ...

, 362

strikeout 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, 11

shutouts In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usuall ...

, eight saves, and 1257

innings An innings is one of the divisions of a cricket match during which one team takes its turn to bat. Innings also means the period in which an individual player bats (acts as either striker or nonstriker). Innings, in cricket, and rounders, is bot ...

in 251

games pitched In baseball statistics, games pitched (denoted by Games G in tables of only pitching statistics) is the number of games in which a player appears as a pitcher; a player who is announced as the pitcher must face at least one batter, although except ...

, 159 as a starter.

1945 Season

His most productive season came in 1945, when he helped the Cubs win the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

pennant after going 22–10 with a 2.68 ERA. During that season he was, for his first and only time, selected as an All-Star and pitched a one-hitter on April 28 against the

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...

. His potential

no-hitter 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 ...

was broken up by

Bill Salkeld William Franklin Salkeld (March 8, 1917 – April 22, 1967) was an American professional baseball player, a catcher in the Major Leagues from – 50 for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Boston Braves and Chicago White Sox. A native of Pocatello, Idaho ...

, who singled in the 8th inning with one out. He would finish seventh in the 1945 National League Most Valuable Player vote. Wyse would pitch and be credited with a loss in the second game of the

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...

. He relieved in Games 6 and 7. Until

Jon Lester Jonathan Tyler Lester (born January 7, 1984) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Boston Red Sox, Oakland Athletics, Chicago Cubs, Washington Nationals and St. Louis Cardinals. ...

pitched in the first inning of the

2016 World Series The 2016 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2016 season. The 112th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the National League (NL) champion Chicago Cubs and the American Leag ...

, Wyse was the last Cubs' pitcher to appear in a World Series game. The 1945 World Series would be Wyse's only

postseason The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

appearance.

Death

Wyse died in

Pryor, Oklahoma Pryor Creek or Pryor''Oklahoma Atlas & Gazeteer,'' DeLorme, 1st Edition, 1998, p. 36 is a city in and county seat of Mayes County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 8,659 at the 2000 census and 9,539 in the 2010 census. Originally ...

, at age 83. He would be posthumously inducted into the

Texas League Hall of Fame The Texas League Hall of Fame is an American baseball hall of fame which honors players, managers, and executives of the Double-A Texas League of Minor League Baseball for their accomplishments or contributions to the league in playing, administ ...

in 2009.

References

External links

Hank Wyse
- Baseballbiography.com * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wyse, Hank 1917 births 2000 deaths Baseball players from Arkansas Beaumont Roughnecks players Chicago Cubs players Kansas City Blues (baseball) players Los Angeles Angels (minor league) players Major League Baseball pitchers Moline Plowboys players People from Craighead County, Arkansas Philadelphia Athletics players Shreveport Sports players Tulsa Oilers (baseball) players Tyler East Texans players Washington Senators (1901–1960) players