The "300 Wins" Club and Other Miscellaneous Baseball Notes

For some reason baseball has been on my mind this weekend. I suspect that something caused me to think about Nolan Ryan, the Astros hurler whose fastball was clocked at 108 miles per hour. That's little more than the blink of an eye when you're in the batter's box. 

One of the amazing things about Nolan Ryan was his longevity. He was still throwing overpowering fastballs in his forties, retiring at age 46. In addition to being a Hall of Famer with 5714 strikeouts, he was also a member of the "300-win club," a distinction reached by only 24 pitchers in Major League Baseball history. (Ryan retired with 324 wins.)

Reading that stat brought to mind memories of a couple other members of that elite club whom I actually saw pitch, Early Wynn and Tom Seaver. I saw Wynn in Cleveland in 1963 as he was chasing his 300th win. I was 10 going on 11. We had box seats a stone's throw from the Cleveland dugout. It was a sunny afternoon, the stadium packed in hopes of witnessing hisory and the grass was very green. I remember thinking he looked old and a bit stocky, not like the lean younger players I'd seen. The Indians lost that day but Wynn captured he's 300th in Kansas City within weeks and hung up his cleats. He'd achieved his milestone.

Tom Seaver of the New York Mets was another member of the 300-win club whom I saw. The Mets were one of the new expansion teams created in the Sixties, notoriously inept in their first years, but loved by their fans. I remember painting a banner for one of their many Banner Days. Their transformation from a comic opera to World Series Champions by the end of the decade was quite stunning. Tom Seaver was a major factor in the Mets' success with 25 wins and a 2.21 ERA, which is pretty much golden.

The game I saw him pitch was a double-header against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Pirates were a favorite team of mine due to the fact that their rightfielder, Roberto Clemente, was my favorite player. The Puerto Rican Clemente was an exceptional man as well as an exceptional ballplayer, and the tickets we purchased for the game were intentionally down the right field line so Clemente could be in my direct line of sight. But since we're talking about pitchers, I seem to have digressed.

Tom Seaver pitched the first game, going head-to-head with Bob Veale of the Pirates, who was himself a formidable pitcher. Standing 6'6" Veale was one of the National League's strikeout leaders in the 60s, and top dog in strikeouts in 1964. Needless to say it was a boring game as far as action goes, and the home team won one to nothing. No problem with that. It was a double-header and the second game was full of action. Final score: 11-9.

Other pitching greats coming to mind now include Cy Young, Sam McDowell and Catfish Hunter. Cy Young's stats defy comprehension. Each year the Baseball Writers' Association of America select one pitcher from each league (American and National) to receive the Cy Young Award in honor of Young, who pitched from 1890 to 1911 and racked up an insurmountable pile of winning games during his 21 year career, 511 in all.

Today, starting pitchers seldom go beyond the 7th inning. Decisions are made by pitch counts. In baseball's early years hurlers would keep pitching till the game was over, which might take 15 or 20 innings. In 1920, Joe Oeschger of the Braves and Leon Cadre of Brooklyn pitched 26 innings before leaving a 1-1 tie on the scoreboard. They didn't have lights light today, so when it was too dark to see they had to call it. It was the longest game ever. 

The Cleveland Indians were a team with many pitching greats, among them Hall of Famers Bob Lemon and Bob Feller. When "Sudden Sam" McDowell joined the Indians in 1961 expectations ran high. He was a 6'5" fireballer who in high school pitched 9 no-hitters and once struck out all 27 batters he faced in a single game. He was precisely what the bumbling Indians needed to recover a measure of dignity and hope for fans. Unfortunately it was too weighty of a load for the young "potential" star. As we all know, when expectations run high, not everyone can handle the pressure, and in McDowell's case he succumbed to alcoholism. An unfortunate injury also contributed to his failure to live up to expectations. On one occasion he was pitching a fastball so hard that he cracked three ribs. (You have to know a little about the mechanics of pitching to understand how that could happen.) At the time of his retirement, his strikeout rate of 8.86 per nine innings was bested by only two pitchers: Nolan Ryan and Sandy Koufax.   

Jim "Catfish" Hunter will be the last pitcher in my spotlight today. A Hall of Famer, and Cy Young Award winner with a stellar career, he was the only pitcher since 1915 to win 200 games by age 31. He has the distinction of being baseball's first "big money" free agent. At 33 his career was shortened by arm troubles. In 1987, after being diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's Disease (ALS) he died within a year. Bob Dylan wrote a tribute song to Catfish that still lives on.

Related Link
It Happens Every Spring: Baseball and Duluth Dylan Fest 2026

Important Dates in Baseball History -- July (For Those Who Are Missing Their Favorite Game)

These notes were assembled by the late Robert Lookup, a very special person whom my wife and I befriended for the last 10 years of his life.  Links to important April and May dates can be found at the end of this entertaining collection of baseball trivia.

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IMPORTANT DATES -- JULY

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Roberto Clemente, right fielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates

July 1, 1997
Tiger's Bobby Higginson homers in first inning against the Mets to become 23rd Major League player since 1900 to homer in four consecutive At Bats over two games.

(EdNote: I remember listening to a Pittsburgh Pirates game in which Roberto Clemente hit three home runs in his first three at bats, and being bummed with his fourth at bat was a long fly that caromed six inches from the top of the wall and he only got a double. The greatly respected Puerto Rican all star was my favorite player in the second half of the 60s.)

July 4, 1905
Ossie Schreckengost caught all 29 innings in a Double Header vs. the Red Sox, without shin guards.

July 5, 1993
Ricky Henderson of the A's opens both games of a Double Header with a Home Run to become the first player to do this in 60 years.

July 8, 1918
Babe Ruth hits a Home Run but loses it to the antiquated rule that an extra inning game can only be won by one run. (Previous to 1920 an extra inning home run was recorded as a single if a man was on base.)

Hall of Fame pitcher Cy Young

July 12, 1901
Cy Young of the Red Sox records his 300th win, besting the A's 5-3. (EdNote: His lifetime win-loss record was 511-315.)

July 13, 1963
Early Wynn records his 300th win, Cleveland besting the A's 7-4. (EdNote: Early Wynn was the name of one of my teddy bears, named after the Cleveland Indians starting rotation when I was born in September, 1952. The week before, my family went to see him pitch in Cleveland, in hopes that he would achieve this career milestone. I can still remember our box seats just to the right of the Indians dugout and watching him stand on the mound facing the plate.)

July 16, 1920
Babe Ruth hits 30th home run, breaking his record of 29. The Yankees beat the Browns 5-2. Ruth goes on to hit 54 home runs in 1920.

July 17, 1941
Joe DiMaggio's hitting streak of 56 games is stopped by Al Smith and Jim Bagby of Cleveland, in Cleveland.

July 17, 1990
Twins become the first team in Major League history to pull off two triple plays in one game. The Red Sox still manage a win, 1-0.

July 18, 1970
Willie Mays gets 3000th hit off Montreal Expos' Mike Wegener to become the first Giant to accomplish this feat. He is still the only Giant in this esteemed club.

July 18, 1987
Don Mattingly ties Dale Long's 31-year-old Major League record when he homers for the 8th straight game in a 7-2 loss. Ken Griffey Jr would later tie this record in 1993.

July 18, 1918
Frank Baker is last player to lose a home run to the antiquated rule that said extra inning games could only be won by one run. It was labeled a single.

Ty Cobb, the Georgia Peach

July 19, 1927
Ty Cobb of the Philadelphia A's doubles for the 4000th hit of his career.

July 20, 1998
Brian Hunter of Detroit goes 0-13 in a 26 inning double header against the Yankees.

July 25, 1941
Lefty Grove wins 300th and last game, beating Cleveland 10-6.

July 30, 1980
Astro pitcher J R Richard has a stroke during a workout at the Astrodome. Doctors removed a blood clot behind his right collarbone.

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"On many summer day, I played baseball starting at 8 in the morning, running home at noon for a quick meal, and again with fielding and batting until it was too dark to see the ball."--Carl Sandburg

"Baseball suits the character of this democratic nation. Democracy is government by persuasion. That means it requires patience; that means it involves a lot of compromise. Democracy is the slow politics of the half-loaf. Baseball is the game of the long season where small incremental differences decide who wins and who loses particular games, series, seasons. In baseball, you know going to the ballpark that the chances are you may win, but you also may lose. There's no certainty, no given. You know when a season starts that the best team is going to get beaten a third of the time; the worst team is going to win a third of the time. The argument, over 162 games, is that middle third. So it's a game you can’t like if winning is everything. And democracy is that way, too."--George Will

Related Links
Historic Interview with Roberto Clemente
Important Dates in Major League Baseball for the Month of April
Important Dates in Major League Baseball for the Month of May
Important Dates in Major League Baseball for the Month of June

Important Dates in Major League Baseball for the Month of May

Photo by Daiji Umemoto on Unsplash

By now every fan knows that Major League Baseball has postponed the start of its 2020 season due to the corona virus.  Whether we'll see baseball in May waits to be seen. I know for certain that a whole lot of people will be sorting out the fallout for this decision. When players with contracts in the mega-millions are sitting idle, and tickets aren't being sold, I'm curious what kinds of contracts have been created to address this force majeure. And do season ticket holders get refunds?

In the meantime, this here is a continuation of February 25 blog post highlighting important dates in baseball history for April.

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IMPORTANT DATES -- MAY

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May 1, 1920
Joe Oeschger of the Braves and Leon Cadre of Brooklyn pitch 26 innings in a 1-1 tie. Longest game ever.

May 2, 1939
Lou Gehrig did not play against the Tigers at Briggs Stadium, ending his streak of 2,130 consecutive games played. (EdNote: This "Iron Man" record was surpassed 56 years later by Cal Ripken, Jr. who went on to set the current record by playing in 2,632 consecutive games.)

May 3, 1936
Joe DiMaggio plays his first game.

May 3, 1963
Pete Rose hits his first Home Run.

May 3, 1964
Tommy John pitches his first victory.

May 4, 1904
Cy Young (Red Sox) hurls a Perfect Game against the A's, besting Rube Waddell 3-0.

May 7, 1917
Babe Ruth (Red Sox) allows two hits in a 1-0 victory over Walter Johnson. Ruth knocks in the lone run with a sacrifice fly.

May 11, 1917
Pete Schneider of Vernon, CA (Pacific Coast League) hits five homers and a double, driving in 14 runs.

May 12, 1955
Sam Jones of the Cubs pitches no hitter after walking three Pirates in the ninth and striking out three to get the win.

May 14, 1920
Walter Johnson wins his 300th game with a 9-8 win over the Tigers.

May 14, 1988
Jose Oquendo (Cards) becomes the first non-pitcher in 20 years to get a decision, a 7-5 loss to the Braves, when Ken Griffey knocked in two runs with two outs in the 19th inning.

May 17, 1979
Phillies beat the Cubs 23-22 in ten innings at Chicago when Mike Schmidt hits his second home run of the game.

May 30, 1904
Frank Chance, first baseman for the Cubs, is hit five times by Cincinnati pitchers in a double header, a record. The two teams split.

Related Links
Some Things Have Changed, Some Haven't
Reflections on The Natural
Important dates in baseball history for April.

Who Was Cy Young?

His birth name was Denton True Young, but his legacy name is Cy. There are many players in various sports who set records that eventually fall, from Babe Ruth's 60 home run season to the Olympics' "fastest human," but Cy Young's 511 career wins is a record we'll never see broken. Another is his record of 749 complete games. Wow.

The game of baseball has changed. Instead of going out there and pitching a complete game, today's pitchers have their pitches being counted to preserve their arm strength for the next game. Nolan Ryan, who had an even longer career than Cy Young, only pitched 222 complete games. Ryan's run ran from the 60s to 1993. The top 21st century pitchers will have even fewer complete games. Roy Halladay, whom some would rank best in the past two decades, only pitched 67 complete games. In contrast, Cy Young pitched more than ten times as many as Roy Halladay (whose career was shorter) and three times as many as Nolan Ryan.

Cy Young had more than 30 wins in a season five times,. In his stellar season of 1892 he pitched in 55 games with an ERA of 1.92, 9 shutouts and 36 wins. He was 25 and must have been intimidating. Lifetime he pitched three no-hitters and one prefect game. His lifetime ERA was a stellar 2.63. On one occasion he pitched 25 1/3 consecutive innings without allowing a hit.

Cy Young began his career in Cleveland, whom I will be rooting for again in this year's post-season clashes. Back then it was the Cleveland Spyders. (Today Spyders is an index fund that follows the S&P 500.)

The Cy Young Award was created the year after Cy Young passed in 1955. A number of Cleveland pitchers have won the award, and tomorrow afternoon two-time Cy Young winner Corey Kluber will be on the mound in Houston going head-to-head with another former Cy Young winner, Justin Verlander. The heat is on.

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"Take me out to the ball game..."

Great story, fine film... good memories.

Hall of Fame Cleveland centerfielder Tris Speaker had a .345 lifetime avg

and still hold major league record for career doubles at 782.
His first year with Cleveland he hit .386, led the league in hits (211)

and had an on base percentage of .470. In other words, nearly half the time

he walked to the plate he got on base. Pretty good numbers in any era.

Related Links
Baseball Pitchers and Stuff
A Few Baseball Quotes
Play Ball

Go Tribe!