Sothoron broke into the major leagues when the spitball was still legal. His best season came in 1919,when he posted a 20–13 record with a 2.20 earned run average for the Browns,finishing fifth in the American League in wins and ERA. After the spitball was outlawed following the 1919 campaign,Sothoron at first was not permitted to throw it,then in mid-1920 he was added to a list of 17 spitballers in the majors who were allowed to continue using the banned pitch. [1] But he was never able to match his 1919 numbers. His pitching career ended in St. Louis with the National League Cardinals,where he played for his first MLB manager,Branch Rickey,and led the NL in shutouts with four in 1924,despite a mediocre 10–16 (3.57) record. During his MLB career,he appeared in 264 games pitched,and allowed 1,583 hits and 596 bases on balls in
Team | Year | Regular season | Postseason | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Games | Won | Lost | Win % | Finish | Won | Lost | Win % | Result | ||
SLB | 1933 | 8 | 2 | 6 | .250 | interim | – | – | – | – |
Total | 8 | 2 | 6 | .250 | 0 | 0 | – |
Burleigh Arland Grimes was an American professional baseball player and manager, and the last pitcher officially permitted to throw the spitball. Grimes made the most of this advantage, as well as his unshaven, menacing presence on the mound, which earned him the nickname "Ol' Stubblebeard." He won 270 MLB games, pitched in four World Series over the course of his 19-year career, and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1964. A decade earlier, he had been inducted into the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame.
A spitball is an illegal baseball pitch in which the ball has been altered by the application of a foreign substance such as saliva or petroleum jelly. This technique alters the wind resistance and weight on one side of the ball, causing it to move in an atypical manner. It may also cause the ball to "slip" out of the pitcher's fingers without the usual spin that accompanies a pitch. In this sense, a spitball can be thought of as a fastball with knuckleball action. Alternative names for the spitball are spitter, mud ball, shine ball, supersinker, or vaseline ball. A spitball technically differs from an emery ball, in which the surface of the ball is cut or abraded. Saliva or Vaseline smooths the baseball, while the emery paper roughens it. The general term for altering the ball in any way is doctoring.
Jesse Cail Burkett, nicknamed "Crab", was an American professional baseball left fielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1890 to 1905 for the New York Giants, Cleveland Spiders, St. Louis Perfectos / Cardinals, St. Louis Browns, and Boston Americans.
The following are the baseball events of the year 1981 throughout the world.
The following are the baseball events of the year 1982 throughout the world.
The following are the baseball events of the year 1969 throughout the world.
The following are the baseball events of the year 1967 throughout the world.
The following are the baseball events of the year 1965 throughout the world.
The following are the baseball events of the year 1964 throughout the world.
The following are the baseball events of the year 1939 throughout the world.
The following are the baseball events of the year 1959 throughout the world.
The following are the baseball events of the year 1946 throughout the world.
William Lavier Killefer, nicknamed "Reindeer Bill", was an American professional baseball player, coach, and manager. He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher from 1909 to 1921 for the St. Louis Browns, Philadelphia Phillies, and Chicago Cubs. Killefer, who was nicknamed "Reindeer Bill" due to his speed afoot, is notable for being the favorite catcher of Hall of Fame pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander and, for being one of the top defensive catchers of his era. After his playing career, he continued to work as a coach and a manager for a Major League Baseball career that spanned a total of 48 years.
Nelson Thomas Potter was an American professional baseball player and right-handed pitcher who appeared in 349 games in Major League Baseball over a dozen seasons between 1936 and 1949, most notably as a member, in 1944, of the only St. Louis Browns team to win an American League pennant. He also played for the St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Athletics, Boston Red Sox and Boston Braves. Potter's repertoire featured the screwball.
Frederick Meloy Frankhouse was an American baseball pitcher who played 13 seasons in Major League Baseball from 1927 to 1939. His specialty pitch was "the old roundhouse curve", and he was often referred to as a "spitballer" during his career as a pitcher. Frankhouse played in the National League for the St. Louis Cardinals (1927–1930), the Boston Braves (1930–1935), the Brooklyn Dodgers (1936–1938), and the Boston Bees (1939) In 1928, Frankhouse went to the World Series with the Cardinals but never got a chance to pitch. He did, however, receive a World Series ring with the rest of his team. In 1934, Frankhouse was a member of the All-Star roster. He made his major league debut on September 11, 1927 for the St. Louis Cardinals, and played his last game September 25, 1939 vs. New York Giants as a pitcher for the Boston Bees.
Henry William "Heine" Meine, sometimes "Heinie" Meine, was a professional baseball player. Meine was a right-handed pitcher who played for the St. Louis Browns in 1922 and for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1929 to 1934. He was given the nickname "The Count of Luxemburg" on account of his operating a speakeasy/tavern in the Luxemburg section of St. Louis. He led the National League in wins and innings pitched in 1931 and compiled a 66–50 record in seven seasons of Major League Baseball.
The 1939 major league baseball season began on April 17, 1939. The regular season ended on October 1, with the Cincinnati Reds and New York Yankees as the regular season champions of the National League and American League, respectively. The postseason began with Game 1 of the 36th World Series on October 4 and ended with Game 4 on October 8. The Yankees swept the Reds in four games. The Yankees became the first team to win the World Series four years in a row.
Frank Victor Shellenback was an American pitcher, pitching coach, and scout in Major League Baseball. As a pitcher, he was famous as an expert spitballer when the pitch was still legal in organized baseball; however, because Shellenback, then 21, was on a minor league roster when "trick pitches" was outlawed after the 1919 season, he was banned from throwing the pitch in the major leagues.
John Mahlon Ogden was an American Major League Baseball pitcher. He played five seasons in the majors, between 1918 and 1932, for the Cincinnati Reds, New York Giants, and St. Louis Browns. He played several seasons with the then minor league Baltimore Orioles, became a baseball executive and a scout after his retirement and is a member of the International League Hall of Fame.
The St. Louis Cardinals, a professional baseball franchise based in St. Louis, Missouri, compete in the National League (NL) of Major League Baseball (MLB). As the game of baseball garnered interest in the United States in the 19th century, professional baseball in St. Louis became rooted chiefly in one disestablished Major League club – named the Brown Stockings, the same as the Cardinals' earliest name – which is loosely connected, but does not fall within the scope of, today's Cardinals. The Brown Stockings became St. Louis' first fully professional baseball club when they gained accession in the National Association (NA) in 1875. However, the NA folded after that season. That winter, with five other former NA teams, St. Louis established a new, eight-team league called the National League (NL) and began play the next season. Despite early success, Brown Stocking players were found to be connected to game fixing scandals, which forced bankruptcy and the club's expulsion from the NL. This scandal also abrogated their professional status but some members maintained play as a semi-professional team, primarily operated by outfielder Ned Cuthbert, until 1881.