The Pecan Park Eagle

Old Hoss Radbourn left a salute from here to eternity in this photo. Check out the finger positioning on his left hand. It wasn't the only time he pulled this same stunt, but what's a club to do? Some 59-wins in one season pitchers are simply eccentric on the grumpy side..

In 1884, Old Hoss Radbourn almost singlehandedly pitched the Providence Grays to a 10.5 game edge over the Boston Beaneaters for the National League pennant. He won 59 games for a club that finished 84-28, .750. At a salary of $3,000 per season, plus gaining the balance of Charlie Sweeney’s $2,700 salary after Sweeney was first suspended and then left the club, Radbourn turned out to be the deal on a pitcher that any club owner ever bought.

In 1884, Old Hoss Radbourn finished the year with 73 complete games in 73 starts. He won 59 while losing only 12, and he registered an earned run average of 1.38.

How do you like those apples? Over his career, he produced an orchard of sweet baseball fruit. In eleven seasons of big league ball, Hoss Radbourn won 309 games, lost 195, and had an ERA of 2.67. Deservedly so, he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown in 1939.

In the incredible 1884 season, Radbourn was credited with 60 wins for about a hundred years. That figure changed late in the 20^th century when it was discovered by researchers that Old Hoss Radbourn had been given credit for a win in one game in which he entered in relief after his club had regained the lead.  That win was returned as credit to starter Cyclone Miller, even though Miller had pitched poorly and Radbourn had retired every man he faced in his three to four innings of work. The reasoning for the change was consistent with the current long-time policy on win assignments, even though Radbourn, like many relievers today, pitched more deservedly than the shaky starter he replaced, he wasn’t in the game when Providence took the lead that they never again surrendered.

Now let’s do the simplest math on the bargain that was Old Hoss Radbourn. When you combine his $3,000 salary with the approximate $2,000 he picked up from defector Sweeney’s salary, that still only a season income of about $5,000. Big by the standards of those times, but barely meal money on a short road trip for today’s big leaguers.

For $5,000, the ownership of the 1884 Providence Grays bought 59 wins at cost of about $84.75 per “W”.

Now there’s a baseball bargain that will never again be matched. Would you agree, Drayton?