Edward Augustine Walsh (May 14, 1881 – May 26, 1959) was a
Major League BaseballMajor League Baseball is the highest level of play in North American professional baseball. Specifically, Major League Baseball refers to the organization that operates the National League and the American League, by means of a joint organizational structure that has developed gradually between...
pitcherIn baseball or softball, a starting pitcher is the pitcher who delivers the first pitch to the first batter of a game. A pitcher who enters the game after the first pitch of the game is a relief pitcher....
. He holds the record for lowest career
ERAIn baseball statistics, earned run average is the mean of earned runs given up by a pitcher per nine innings pitched. The ERA tells the average number of runs a pitcher would surrender over the course of a full game had he been kept in for the full nine innings...
, 1.82.
Born in
Plains Township, PennsylvaniaPlains Township is a township in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in the greater metropolitan area of the city of Wilkes-Barre. The population was 10,906 at the 2000 census...
, Walsh had a brief though remarkable major league career. He made his major league debut in with the
Chicago White SoxThe Chicago White Sox are a Major League Baseball team based in Chicago, Illinois. The White Sox play in the American League's Central Division. Since , the White Sox have played in U.S. Cellular Field, which was originally called New Comiskey Park and nicknamed The Cell by local fans...
and pitched his first full season in , going 17-13 with a 1.88 ERA and 171
strikeoutIn baseball or softball, a strikeout or strike out occurs when a batter receives three strikes during his time at bat. A strikeout is a statistic recorded for both pitchers and batters. Pitchers with a greater number of strikeouts are often praised, while batters with a greater number of...
s. From this season through , Walsh averaged 24
victoriesIn baseball, the win-loss record is the number of wins and losses a pitcher has accumulated either in his career or a single season....
, 220 strikeouts and posted an ERA below 2.00 five times. He also led the league in saves five times in this span. His finest individual season came in when he went 40-15 with 269 strikeouts, 6 saves and a 1.42 ERA. In , he posted the lowest ERA (1.27) for a pitcher with at least 20 starts and a
losing record.
In 1910, the White Sox opened White Sox Park, which was soon nicknamed
Comiskey ParkComiskey Park was the ballpark in which the Chicago White Sox played from 1910 to 1990. It was built by Charles Comiskey after a design by Zachary Taylor Davis, and was the site of four World Series and more than 6,000 major league games...
by the press in honor of team owner
Charles ComiskeyCharles Albert "The Old Roman" Comiskey was a Major League Baseball player, manager and team owner. He was a key player in the formation of the American League and later owned the Chicago White Sox...
. The name would be officially changed to Comiskey Park in 1913. A story, perhaps apocryphal, states that
Zachary Taylor DavisZachary Taylor Davis was the architect of several major Chicago buildings, including Old Comiskey Park , Wrigley Field , Mount Carmel High School , and St...
, the architect who would later design
Wrigley FieldWrigley Field is a baseball stadium in Chicago, Illinois, United States that has served as the home ballpark of the Chicago Cubs since 1916. It was built in 1914 as Weeghman Park for the Chicago Federal League baseball team, the Chicago Whales...
across town, consulted Walsh in setting the park's field dimensions. Choosing a design that would favor himself and other White Sox pitchers, rather than hitters, Walsh not only made Comiskey Park a "pitcher's park" for its entire 80-year history, but he can be said to be the man who "built" Comiskey Park.
Interviewed for
Lawrence RitterLawrence S. Ritter was an American writer whose specialties were economics and baseball.Ritter was a professor of economics and finance, and chairman of the Department of Finance at the Graduate School of Business Administration of New York University. He also edited the academic periodical...
's book
The Glory of Their TimesThe Glory Of Their Times: The Story Of The Early Days Of Baseball Told By The Men Who Played It is a book, edited by Lawrence Ritter, telling the stories of early 20th century baseball. It is widely acclaimed as one of the great books written about baseball...
, Hall-of-Famer
Sam CrawfordSamuel Earl Crawford , nicknamed "Wahoo Sam", was a Major League Baseball player who played outfield for the Cincinnati Reds and Detroit Tigers. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1957....
referred to Walsh's use of a pitch that would later be outlawed: "Big Ed Walsh. Great big, strong, good-looking fellow. He threw a
spitballA spitball is an illegal baseball pitch in which the ball has been altered by the application of saliva, petroleum jelly, or some other foreign substance....
. I think that ball disintegrated on the way to the plate, and the catcher put it back together again. I swear, when it went past the plate, it was just the spit went by".
In 1912, after pitching 42 innings over 10 days during the World Series, Walsh reportedly requested a full year off to rest his arm. Nevertheless, he showed up for spring training the following season, contending, "The White Sox needed me—implored me to return—so I did". As baseball historian William C. Kashatus observed, "It was a mistake".
Walsh's playing time began dwindling in 1913. It has been claimed that he came into spring training in poorer physical shape than other members of the White Sox pitching staff, and his pride led him to try to keep up with the other pitchers in terms of pitch speed before getting into adequate shape, thereby causing damage to his pitching arm. "I could feel the muscles grind and wrench during the game, and it seemed to me my arm would leap out of my socket when I shot the ball across the plate", Walsh later recalled. "My arm would keep me awake till morning with a pain I had never known before". He pitched only 16 games during the 1913 season, and a meager 13 games over the next three years.
By 1916 his arm was dead. He wanted a year off, but
Charles ComiskeyCharles Albert "The Old Roman" Comiskey was a Major League Baseball player, manager and team owner. He was a key player in the formation of the American League and later owned the Chicago White Sox...
released him instead. He attempted a comeback with the Boston Braves in 1917, but was let go, ending his major league career. He later did some pitching in the
Eastern LeagueThe Eastern League is a minor league baseball league which operates primarily in the northeastern United States, although it has had a team in Ohio since 1989. The Eastern League has played at the AA level since 1963. The league was founded in 1923 as the New York-Pennsylvania League...
and gave umpiring a try, after which he was a coach for the White Sox for a few years. He retired with 195 wins, 126 losses and 1736 strikeouts. His career 1.82 is the lowest major league ERA ever posted, but is unofficial since ERA was not an official statistic in the
American LeagueThe American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, or simply the American League , is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league based in the Great Lakes states, that eventually aspired to major league...
prior to 1913.
Walsh died on May 26, 1959. That night,
Harvey HaddixHarvey Haddix, Jr. was a Major League Baseball left-handed pitcher who played with the St. Louis Cardinals , Philadelphia Phillies , Cincinnati Redlegs , Pittsburgh Pirates and Baltimore Orioles . Haddix was born in Medway, Ohio, located just outside of Springfield. He was nicknamed "Kitten" in St...
of the
Pittsburgh PiratesThe Pittsburgh Pirates are a Major League Baseball club based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They play in the Central Division of the National League, and are five-time World Series Champions, in addition to the distinction of playing in the first modern World Series. The Pirates are also often...
pitched a
perfect gameA perfect game is defined by Major League Baseball as a game in which a pitcher pitches a victory that lasts a minimum of nine innings and in which no opposing player reaches base. Thus, the pitcher cannot allow any hits, walks, hit batsmen, or any opposing player to reach base safely for any...
for 12 innings before losing to the Milwaukee Braves in the 13th inning.
Walsh was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in
1946Elections to the Baseball Hall of Fame for 1946 were conducted by methods refashioned and then fashioned again during the year. As in 1945 the Baseball Writers Association of America voted by mail to select from recent players and elected no one...
. In 1999, he ranked Number 82 on
The Sporting NewsSporting News is an American-based sports magazine. It was established in 1886, and it became the dominant American publication covering baseball — so much so that it acquired the nickname "The Bible of Baseball"...
list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was nominated as a finalist for the
Major League BaseballMajor League Baseball is the highest level of play in North American professional baseball. Specifically, Major League Baseball refers to the organization that operates the National League and the American League, by means of a joint organizational structure that has developed gradually between...
All-Century Team.
See also
External links