Charles "Old Hoss" Radbourn, Pitcher

Old Hoss was a native of Rochester, N.Y, and arrived in the majors with Buffalo in 1880, where he played six games in the outfield and second base.  Providence grabbed him in 1881 and made him a pitcher, which worked out pretty well.  He went 25-11 that year, leading the league in winning percentage.  In 1882, he went 31-19 and led the league in strikeouts.  In 1883, he went 49-25, breaking the all-time record for wins in a season. 

Going into 1884, Radbourn was 29 years old and already well established as a great pitcher.  He had problems with a sore arm in spring training, though, and shared the team's pitching duties with hard-throwing Charlie Sweeney.  Sweeney was regarded as something of a golden child at the beginning of the year, and Radbourn watched from the bench as Sweeney pitched opening day.  Hoss pitched well in his first few starts, and hit even better.  He knocked in all three runs in a 3-1 victory over Buffalo (May 9), and went 5 for 7 against Detroit (May 14).  By mid-May, he was playing at first base or in the outfield when Sweeney was due to pitch, and batting third or fourth in the lineup.  On May 16, he was spiked in the hand while running home, and had to be hidden out in center field to complete the game.  He got his first shutout on May 21 in a pitcher's duel versus Monte Ward of New York.  He was suffering from rheumatism and "severe lameness" in his leg on May 30, but was still summoned out to pitch two complete games in a weird doubleheader: a morning game versus New York, and an afternoon game versus Philadelphia.  He won both games and pitched a ten-inning victory the next day, for good measure.  However, his next start out, he was bombarded for twelve runs against New York (June 3), and for good measure was fined $10 by the umpire for his "overheated remonstrance."  At this point, over a month into the year, Sweeney was racking up spectacular games, and Radbourn was looking old and over-rated.

On June 6, first-place Boston came to town for the first time.  The press was surprised that "Providence, contrary to general expectation, placed Radbourn in the points."   He gave up one run in a 16-inning gem of a game, and Providence settled for a tie due to darkness.  Old Hoss proved wrong all those who thought that "his right arm had lost its cunning", and showed himself a "dangerous rival to the long-armed Californian [i.e. Sweeney]."  However, Sweeney topped this with a 19-strikeout game the next day.  On June 9, Sweeney was given a basket of flowers by management; Radbourn played first base and made two big errors to lose the game.  Radbourn watched June 10 from the bench.  The next day it was noted that "Radbourn was not in good condition to pitch, and the Bostons hit him freely" in a 4-1 loss.  Some of the Grays were then disciplined for "not keeping to the terms of their contracts"; we can assume Radbourn was one of them.  This controversy might refer to the temperance pledge the Grays had signed in spring training on April 5.

On June 14, Radbourn won a big 15-inning game against Boston, and began rebuilding his reputation.  He followed this up with two straight one-hitters, a two-hit shutout and a 14-inning 1-0 shutout victory.  He was on his first real hot streak of the year.  Sweeney's arm went sore around this time, and Radbourn began pitching every game.  After six more straight complete games, Radbourn's arm "partially gave out" in the sixth inning on July 7, but he hung on for a 14-9 victory.  He lost two of his next three games, and was shelled in a 9-6 victory over Boston on July 14. 

Finally, a season of frustrations boiled over for Radbourn on July 16.  Headed into the eighth inning of a big game with Boston, the score was tied at 2-2.  He then grew upset over a balk call by the umpire, and "promptly began to throw the ball with reckless haste and wildness, giving little Gilligan false signs and seemingly striving to break up the little fellow."  Three runs scored, the game was lost, and Radbourn was suspended by the management for his intentionally poor pitching.  He was rumored to be headed for the Union Association, and was summoned to a meeting to "answer certain pungent conundrums touching his peculiar conduct for the past three weeks."  The Journal approved this move, insisting that Radbourn "has been coaxed and petted beyond all reason to seek to carry the nine to victory; it is high time that more compulsory measures were undertaken."  On July 19, the Journal came out with more concrete accusations.  They had heard "on perfectly reliable authority, that within three days Radbourn of Providence would probably be on his way to St. Louis, after having signed a contract with the St. Louis Unions", for an unheard-of $5000.  This explained why "his conduct in recent Boston-Providence games has been such that suspicion was at once aroused, that he was not acting honorably toward his club, and he was acting under some influence other than for the best interests of his team."  It was half-way through the season.  Radbourn was considered old, sore-armed, had been accused in the press of virtually throwing games, was on suspension for intentionally bad pitching, and was rumored to have signed another contract.  If somebody suggested at that time that Radbourn would not only lead the Grays to the pennant, but finish with the best season by a pitcher ever, they would have been regarded as completely crazy.

It turns out that the rumor was a bit distorted.  In the fourth game after Radbourn's suspension, his rival, Charley Sweeney, was banned from the league for walking off the field in mid-game.  It was Sweeney who then signed a big contract from St. Louis.  Radbourn was reinstated out of desperation.  He offered to pitch every game for the rest of the year if he could receive Sweeney's pay on top of his own.  He came back on July 23, and was greeted with applause by the desperate fans.  He beat New York 11-5 that day, and fans had faith that "his bad turn has permanently disappeared, and that he is determined to be independent of outside influence, and abide by the terms of his contract."  The Grays won six straight games, with Radbourn pitching most of them, and took the lead from Boston.  However, he lost a tough 2-1 game to New York in extra innings on August 6, and the Grays slipped back into second.  When he won the next day, Providence took the lead for good.

However, the race was far from over.  On August 9, the Grays opened a four-game series with Boston, clinging to a one-game lead.  Their offense collapsed during this series, but Old Hoss pitched through the whole series, and only gave up one run.  It was a brilliant piece of clutch pitching.  He won 1-0 (in extra innings), 3-1, 4-0 and 1-0.  The Grays finished the series with a comfortable five-game lead and kept building on it.

Radbourn was granted a day off on August 20 after leading the team to eight straight victories.  Well, he played shortstop that day, but at least he didn't have to pitch.  It would be his last day out of the box for a month.  The team kept winning every day as the weaker western teams came to Providence on a big homestand.  Radbourn had a couple of rough games in late August when Gilligan (his personal catcher) was out hurt, but he kept winning.  On September 6, the Grays won their twentieth straight game.  Radbourn had pitched in eighteen of those victories, one of the great hot streaks of all time.  The twentieth game was a shutout of Cleveland; "Radbourn pitched with his old-time effectiveness, giving no indication of weakening, as might be looked for after his continuous work in the points."

The win streak came to a close on September 7, when the Grays were shut out 2-0 by Buffalo's Pud Galvin (who later joined Radbourn in the Hall of Fame).  Both Buffalo runs supposedly came on bad calls by the umpire.  Radbourn, unfazed, came back to win eight more consecutive games.  On September 13, before the last home game of the year and an adoring crowd of 3019 Grays fans, he was "presented with a huge bouquet and a large envelope containing lawful currency of the United States" in a pre-game ceremony.

He finally lost again on September 20 to last-place Detroit, wrapping up an incredible streak in which he had gone 31-2 since Sweeney's defection.  The Grays had a 9.5 game lead over Boston, and Radbourn could take almost complete responsibility for it.

He lost the next game as well, and with the pennant pretty much in hand, the management decided to give him a day off on September 25.  He had pitched every inning of the Grays' past 22 games, covering more than a month, and he had played in every game since being reinstated in July (counting three games out in the field).  He came back on the 26th to beat Chicago and officially clinch the pennant.  He pitched four more meaningless October games before the season was over, finishing with 59 or 60 wins (depending on how you count), only 12 losses, and two ties.  He finished up with a three-game sweep of New York in an interleague championship series.  It was easily the best record ever by a pitcher, and will undoubtedly remain so.  Perhaps too much has been made of the "iron-man" aspect of his season.  Many pitchers in the nineteenth century approached his totals for games and innings pitched.  The important thing was that he pitched so well.

This great season apparently took something out of Radbourn's arm, though.  He lasted seven more years in the majors, and continued to rack up large numbers of innings, but he was essentially a .500 pitcher for the rest of his career.  He only had one more outstanding season, in 1890, when he rejoined his old shortstop Arthur Irwin on Boston of the Player's League and led them to the pennant with a 27-12 record.  He left the majors after 1891, and died in Bloomington, Illinois in 1897.  When nineteenth-century players were first chosen for the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939, Old Hoss Radbourn was right there on the short list as one of the greatest players of his day.

copyright Rick Stattler 2002

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