Joe Cleary
189.00 ERA
Pitcher Joe Cleary of the Washington Senators established an MLB record back on August 4, 1945 that could be on the books for a very long time. Cleary came into a game from the bullpen to pitch one-third of inning against the Boston Red Sox and gave up seven earned runs before leaving. He never appeared again in another big league game, but his performance in that single contest career was statistically bad enough to leave him technically in possession of an ERA of 189.00, the highest ERA for any pitcher in MLB history. It remains too high for most second chance prospects, even for serious 2013 pitching candidates of the Houston Astros.
Writer David Margolick of the New York Time wrote an entertaining article back in 1999 on Joe Cleary and a few other one-game wonders in baseball history. They were players who all had only one game shots at the big time and they each celebrated the occasion in the best and worst ways.
Here’s a link that will take you that nice little contact with the Moonlight Graham Club:
Remember Moonlight Graham? He was the guy characterized by Burt Lancaster in the movie, “Field of Dreams.” Graham got into one game with the 1905 New York Giants, but never got to bat. He supposedly spent the rest of his life mourning the fact that he had failed to reach the batter’s box at least once.
As for Joe Cleary, he died in 2004 at the age of 85. No chance now to search for any change in the rotten feelings Cleary expressed five years earlier to writer Margolick. According to Cleary, he and his manager, Ossie Bluege, almost came to blows after he returned to the dugout from his one-third inning of disaster delivered. “The short, unhappy life of Joe Cleary in the big leagues” was over, according to the battered 27-year old native of Cork, Ireland, Joe Cleary.
Think about it: the young man has one bad day, but like Bill Buckner much later, it becomes the only thing that’s remembered by most people about his baseball career. The difference here is obvious. Buckner actually had a career and, those who follow it haven’t forgotten that he was normally a good hitter and a slick fielder.
Joe Cleary, on the other hand, like all others who played only one game, had only a technical career. On day does not a career make. If it does, many of us are prepared to put in similar claims. i.e., As a young teenager, I once had a one-day career as a door-to-door advertising circular distributor. My only job instructions were to keep working until I had placed all 500 circulars given me on the doors of the houses in the neighborhood where the boss dropped me off. I finished in half the time expected by placing two circulars at each front door I approached. At the end of the day, the boss didn’t think much of my methodology so he cut my expected pay in half and fired me on the spot.
End of career. Start of a valuable work lesson: In honest work situations, do what the boss pays you to do. If you don’t like the work, do something else, but always take responsibility for clearly understanding what the boss wants – and just do it.
Back to baseball’s one-game wonders. As David Margolick notes, over sixty one-for-one 1.000 BA hitters exist on the books, but only John Paciorek of the 1963 Houston Colt .45’s ever celebrated a perfect 3-for-3 day in his only game as a big leaguer. For Paciorek, it happened on the last day of the season, September 29, 1963, in a game against the hapless New York Mets. Paciorek collected three singles and two walks in that game, but he never played again because of a severe back problem he developed prior to the next season. It’s nice to know that someone from Houston once achieved perfection, if only for a day.
Tags: baseball's one game wonders, Joe Cleary, John Paciorek, Moonlight Graham
The Pecan Park Eagle 
January 9, 2013 at 3:59 pm |
“Once Around the Bases” by Richard Trellis is a book on the same subject. Terrific chapter on Paciorek, especially what he says about Jim Wynn.
January 9, 2013 at 4:00 pm |
Cleary didn’t have the highest ERA, but on closer reading, I see that the Margolick article was saying that Cleary had the highest CALCULABLE ERA. That may indeed be the case. The following three pitchers had higher ERA’s.
On April 25, 1961, Fred Bruckbauer yielded 3 hits and a walk for three earned runs. He didn’t get anyone out before he was yanked from his only big league appearance, so he ended up with an ERA of Infinity. His team was the Minnesota Twins.
Likewise, Gordon Sundin chalked up an infinite ERA for the Baltimore Orioles on September 19, 1956 in his sole major league appearance.
So too with Mike Palagyi of the Washington Senators on August 18, 1939.
I didn’t check the 19th century records, so there may have been others whose careers ended with ERA’s standing at infinity.
January 9, 2013 at 4:19 pm |
Thanks for the clarification, William. Those “infinity” ERAs are pretty hard to figure, aren’t they?