Thomas Edgar Cheney (October 14, 1934 – November 1, 2001) was a Major League Baseball player. Cheney, a right-handed pitcher from Morgan, Georgia, played for the St. Louis Cardinals,

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 ...

and Washington Senators in a span of eight seasons from 1957 to 1966. Cheney is most notable for striking out the highest number of batters in a Major League Baseball game. He did so on September 12, 1962, when as a

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

, struck out 21 Baltimore Orioles in 16 innings en route to a 2–1 victory.

Professional career

St. Louis Cardinals

Cheney was signed as an amateur free agent by the St. Louis Cardinals prior to the start of the baseball season. After spending a few years in the minor leagues, he was called up by the Cardinals in , and made his Major League Baseball debut with the team on April 21, 1957. Cheney pitched in four games during the season, starting in three of them. He posted an 0–1 record with a 15.00 earned run average in 9 innings of work, giving up 6

hits Hits or H.I.T.S. may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''H.I.T.S.'', 1991 album by New Kids on the Block * ''...Hits'' (Phil Collins album), 1998 * ''Hits'' (compilation series), 1984–2006; 2014 - a British compilation album se ...

, while walking 15 batters and striking out 10. The following year, , Cheney did not play in baseball, as he was serving in the United States military. Cheney returned to baseball for the season with the Cardinals, primarily serving as a relief pitcher in the 11 games he pitched during the season. Cheney again had issues with his control and accuracy. He walked 11 men in just innings of work. He was 0–1 for the season, with a 6.92

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. Compa ...

, along with giving up 17 hits and striking out 8 batters.

Pittsburgh Pirates

On December 21, 1959, in the midst of the off-season, Cheney was traded by the St. Louis Cardinals with his teammate, outfielder

Gino Cimoli Gino Nicholas Cimoli (December 18, 1929 – February 12, 2011) was an American professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Brooklyn / Los Angeles Dodgers, St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh ...

, to the

in exchange for relief pitcher

Ron Kline Ronald Lee Kline (March 9, 1932 – June 22, 2002) was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a right-handed pitcher over parts of seventeen seasons (1952, 1955–1970) with the Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Lou ...

. The

Pirates Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...

hoped to make Cheney the starting pitcher with control and accuracy that they could depend on. Cheney progressed as a pitcher that season, and put up improved stats that season, pitching a 2–2 record in eleven games (eight as

starting pitcher In baseball (hardball or softball), a starting pitcher or starter is the first pitcher in the game for each team. A pitcher is credited with a game started if they throw the first pitch to the opponent's first batter of a game. Starting pit ...

) with a decent 3.98 earned run average. Cheney only gave up 44

while walking 33 men and striking out 35 in 52 innings of work. As a pitcher, Cheney improved remarkably in his transition from the Cardinals to the

. The

team went on to the World Series after posting an impressive 95–59 record in the regular season. The

defeated the New York Yankees four games to three games, winning the franchise's 3rd overall World Series, and first since . The series was decided by a walk-off home run in the 9th inning of Game 7, when Bill Mazeroski took a 1–0 pitch and crushed it over the left-field fence, giving Pittsburgh the championship. Cheney served as a relief pitcher in the World Series and pitched four innings in three games (Game 2, 3, and 6), giving up four hits and two earned runs while only walking one batter and striking out six. In , Cheney started off with a terrible performance, giving up 4 earned runs and walking 4 batters in less than a third of an inning.

Washington Senators

Cheney was traded to the Washington Senators on June 29, 1961, in exchange for pitcher Tom Sturdivant. He served as both a starting pitcher and relief pitcher for the remainder of the season with the Washington Senators. He did not fare well, and he again showed signs of lack of control with his pitching. He posted a 1–3 record in 10 games, 7 of which he started. He put in innings of work and gave up 32 hits and 29 earned runs. He walked 26 batters and struck out 20. His earned run average ballooned to 8.79, giving him an

of 10.00 for the season. Nonetheless, Cheney was on the roster for the Washington Senators in . Cheney pitched in 37 games in total, starting 25 of them. He pitched to a 7–9 record with four

complete game In baseball, a complete game (CG) is the act of a pitcher pitching an entire game without the benefit of a relief pitcher. A pitcher who meets this criterion will be credited with a complete game regardless of the number of innings played—pitche ...

s and three shutouts and showed drastic improvement in all aspects of his pitching. He pitched stellarly in innings, giving up only 134 hits while walking 97 and striking out 147. His

for the season was a career-best 3.17. Cheney finished second in the American League in both strikeouts per nine innings and hits allowed per nine innings. was perhaps Cheney's best remembered season. On September 12, 1962, Tom Cheney set the Major League Baseball record for strikeouts in a regular-season game. Cheney pitched brilliantly in 16 innings of work, giving up only one run while striking out a record 21 Baltimore Orioles. Cheney had 13 strikeouts through nine innings. Senators manager Mickey Vernon later wanted to make a change, reportedly asking the pitcher: "Your arm okay? You sure you don't want me to take you out?", to which Cheney replied . . "I told him I didn't want to come out", Cheney said. "Back in those days, you finished what you started." Cheney wound up pitching eight straight hitless innings near the end. With his 228th and final pitch, he slipped a called third strike past pinch-hitter Dick Williams, who went on to become a major league manager. It was not until the bottom of the 16th inning that teammate

Bud Zipfel Marion Sylvester "Bud" Zipfel (born November 18, 1938) is a retired American professional baseball player who appeared in 118 games over two seasons in Major League Baseball for the 1961–1962 Washington Senators. Born in Belleville, Illinois, ...

hit the game-winning home run off Orioles pitcher Dick Hall giving the Senators a hard-fought 2–1 victory and Cheney a win and a major league record that still stands. Roger Clemens,

Kerry Wood Kerry Lee Wood (born June 16, 1977) is an American former baseball pitcher who played 14 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, and New York Yankees. Wood first came to prominence as a 20-year-old rooki ...

, and Max Scherzer came close to Cheney's record, but all three failed, each striking out 20 men in their respective 9-inning regulation games. Teammate

Don Lock Don Wilson Lock (July 27, 1936 – October 8, 2017) was an American professional baseball player and outfielder in the Major Leagues from 1962 to 1969 for the Washington Senators (1962–66), Philadelphia Phillies (1967–69), and Boston Red ...

says of his gifts: Six days after his great performance, on September 18, 1962, Cheney suffered a setback at

D.C. Stadium Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, commonly known as RFK Stadium and originally known as District of Columbia Stadium, is a defunct multi-purpose stadium in Washington, D.C. It is located about due east of the U.S. Capitol building, near the w ...

. Cheney gave up two home runs to Mickey Mantle and lost the game 7–1 to

Ralph Terry Ralph Willard Terry (January 9, 1936 – March 16, 2022) was an American baseball player who played as a right-handed starting pitcher for twelve seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played for the New York Yankees, Kansas City Athletics, ...

and the New York Yankees (who would go on to win the

1962 World Series The 1962 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1962 season. The 59th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff There are a number of formats used in various levels of competition in spor ...

).Tom Cheney
- Baseballbiography.com Cheney again pitched skillfully in , a season that is probably considered his best season during his 8-year major league career. Cheney only pitched half the season, but finished with career-bests in

wins WINS may refer to: *WINS (AM), an all-news radio station in New York City *WINS-FM, a radio station in New York City *World Institute for Nuclear Security *Windows Internet Name Service *WINS (solution stack), a set of software subsystems *Wireles ...

s, shutouts, and

. Cheney pitched in a total of 23 games that season, serving as the starting pitcher in 21 of them. He posted an 8–9 record, a 2.71 ERA along with 7 complete games and 4 shutouts. Tom gave up just 99 hits in innings of work and dominated batters by walking only 40 and striking out 97. However, in July 1963, Cheney suffered a devastating elbow injury that played a major role in prematurely ending his major league career just after he was starting to appear as one of the premier pitchers in the American League. Cheney played minimally with the Washington Senators in and . He pitched in his last game on May 9, 1966. His daughter Terri Cook says of his career:

Career stats and death

In his career, Cheney started 71 games and came in for relief in 44 more. He finished with a 19–29 record, a 3.77

, 13 complete games, 8 of which were shutouts. He picked up 2 saves, once in and again in . Tom Cheney pitched in a total of 466 innings, giving up just 382 hits, while walking 245 and striking out 345. Tom Cheney died at the age of 67 on November 1, 2001, in

Rome, Georgia Rome is the largest city in and the county seat of Floyd County, Georgia, United States. Located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, it is the principal city of the Rome, Georgia metropolitan area, Rome, Georgia, metropolitan statisti ...

.Record-holder Cheney dies at 67
/ref>

References

External links

Tom Cheney
at SABR (Baseball BioProject)
Tom Cheney
at Baseballbiography.com

at Historic Baseball

at The Deadball Era * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cheney, Tom 1934 births 2001 deaths Albany Cardinals players Baseball players from Georgia (U.S. state) Columbus Cardinals players Columbus Jets players Fresno Cardinals players Hawaii Islanders players Major League Baseball pitchers Omaha Cardinals players People from Calhoun County, Georgia Pittsburgh Pirates players St. Louis Cardinals players Washington Senators (1961–1971) players York White Roses players