Pitcher, Brooklyn
Superbas
Age: 29
1st season
with Superbas
Bats – Right,
Throws – Right
Height: 5’11” Weight: 206
Prior to 1900:
The son of an
Irish immigrant coal miner, McGinnity was an Illinois native. His family moved
often and his father died in an accident when the boy was eight. McGinnity and
two of his brothers began working in the mines. Following a move to Decatur,
Illinois, McGinnity was introduced to baseball. In 1889, the family moved once
again to McAlester in Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. There, he helped to
create a town baseball team that traveled around the area. Following a mine
explosion that killed several of his friends, he began to see baseball as a
means to pursuing a less dangerous career. He made some money pitching for a
team in Van Buren, Arkansas prior to signing with the Montgomery Colts of the
Southern League in 1893 where he posted a 15-20 record. Playing for the Kansas
City Cowboys of the Western League in 1894 he went 8-9 until he was released in
midseason. Returning home to Illinois he began to develop what would become his
signature pitch, a rising curveball thrown from an odd sidearm or underhand
motion that had his fingers nearly scraping the ground as he completed the
pitch which consistently confused hitters. Previously a fastball pitcher with a
fair breaking pitch thrown from a standard overhand motion, McGinnity developed
“Old Sal” while playing for amateur and semipro teams. With command of his new
pitch, he joined the Peoria Distillers of the Western Association in 1898 and
produced a 9-5 record which earned him a contract with the National League’s
Baltimore Orioles in 1899. The 28-year-old major league rookie caught the eye
of catcher Wilbert Robinson, who would become an accomplished developer of
pitchers, and who encouraged player/manager John McGraw to utilize McGinnity as
the club’s number one starter. He compiled a 28-16 tally and a 2.68 ERA with 74
strikeouts over 366.1 innings. Prior to the 1900 season the NL contracted from
twelve to eight teams and the Orioles merged with Brooklyn. The nickname “Iron
Man” took hold for McGinnity at this time. It originated from a newspaper
interview where he mentioned his new profession working in his father-in-law’s
iron foundry in Oklahoma but proved to be appropriate for his baseball
profession as well.
1900 Season Summary
Appeared in 46
games
P – 44, CF – 1
[Bracketed
numbers indicate NL rank in Top 20]
Pitching
Games – 44 [2]
Games Started –
37 [3, tied with Bill Dinneen, Noodles Hahn & Jack Powell]
Complete Games
– 32 [3, tied with Bill Carrick, Cy Young & Jimmy Callahan]
Wins – 28 [1]
Losses – 8
PCT - .778 [1]
Saves – 0
Shutouts – 1
Innings Pitched
– 343 [1]
Hits – 350 [4]
Runs – 179 [7]
Earned Runs – 112
[11]
Home Runs – 5 [18,
tied with five others]
Bases on Balls
– 113 [1]
Strikeouts – 93
[6]
ERA – 2.94 [7]
Hit Batters – 40
[1]
Balks – 1 [4,
tied with nine others]
Wild Pitches – 4
League-leading
wins were +8 ahead of five runners-up
League-leading
win percentage was +.009 ahead of runner-up Jesse Tannehill
League-leading
innings pitched were +1.1 ahead of runner-up Bill Carrick
League-leading
bases on balls surrendered were +2 ahead of runner-up Bill Kennedy
League-leading
batters hit were +18 ahead of runners-up Jimmy Callahan & Ed Doheny
Batting
PA – 151, AB – 145,
R – 18, H – 28, 2B – 4, 3B – 1, HR – 0, RBI – 16, BB – 1, SO – 17, SB – 4, CS –
N/A, AVG - .193, GDP – N/A, HBP – 0, SH – 5, SF – N/A
Fielding
Chances – 102
Put Outs – 15
Assists – 75
Errors – 12
DP – 4
Pct. - .882
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The Superbas
went 82-54 to win the NL pennant by 4.5 games over the Pittsburgh Pirates. The
pitching staff led the league in saves (4). Infused with young talent from the
defunct Baltimore franchise (including McGinnity), the Superbas put up solid
offensive numbers and moved into first place to stay with a 31-17 record during
a 9-game winning streak on June 21. A brief late September dip was not enough
to endanger their lead. A best-of-5 series was arranged between the Superbas and
Pirates in Pittsburgh, won by Brooklyn in four games with McGinnity winning the
first and deciding games. A silver punch bowl was awarded to the winner which
was engraved and presented to McGinnity by his teammates. After holding on to
the punch bowl for two decades, MGinnity presented it to the A.E. Staley
Company of Decatur, Illinois which, sometime later, gave it to the Baseball
Hall of Fame.
---
Aftermath of 1900:
In 1901 McGinnity jumped to a new Baltimore Orioles club in the NL’s rival, the American League, following his friends John McGraw and Wilbert Robinson and receiving a $2800 contract to do so. He led the AL in games pitched (48), games started (43), complete games (39), and innings pitched (382) while posting a 26-20 record and a 3.56 ERA with 75 strikeouts. McGinnity got off to a 13-10 start for Baltimore in 1902 before following McGraw back to the NL and the New York Giants. McGraw had feuded with AL president Ban Johnson over his rowdiness and umpire-baiting and had engineered his release from the Orioles along with McGinnity and other players and a move to the Giants as the new manager (The Orioles franchise would soon be shifted to New York to compete with McGraw’s Giants). As for McGinnity, he went 8-8 with a 2.06 ERA the rest of the season with New York. He was a pioneer in the art of maintaining a ledger of the tendencies of opposing batters, and despite his lack of formal schooling, took a very intelligent approach to pitching. Stoical and easygoing off the field, he was aggressive on the mound and followed the example of his manager McGraw in needling opponents and occasionally giving vent to his temper. He was adroit at quick-pitching hitters and brushing them back, leading to many hit batters (179 throughout his major league career). He sought to reduce strain on his arm by pacing himself and switching from overhand to sidearm (or underhand) deliveries. McGinnity was also an adroit fielder. In 1903 and now part of an outstanding pitching tandem with Christy Mathewson, he produced a 31-20 record with a 2.43 ERA while topping the league in games pitched (55), games started (a NL-record 48), complete games (44), and innings pitched (434) while striking out 171 batters. During the month of August “Iron Man” pitched and won both games of double headers on three occasions. The Giants won the NL pennant in 1904 and McGinnity contributed by topping the league in wins with his 35-8 tally and also led the circuit in ERA (1.61), games pitched (51), innings pitched (408), and shutouts (9). Along the way he started the season with a 14-game winning streak and won 12 of his last 13 decisions. Giants owner John T. Brush refused to participate in the World Series against the AL champion Boston Americans (now Red Sox) following the season depriving McGinnity and the rest of his team from potentially accruing additional glory in the postseason. The Giants again won the pennant in 1905, a somewhat lesser season for McGinnity who went 21-15 with a 2.87 ERA, a league-leading 46 games pitched, and 125 strikeouts over 320.1 innings. This time the Giants participated in the World Series against the AL’s Philadelphia Athletics. Mathewson was the hero for the Giants with his three wins in New York’s five-game triumph. McGinnity, in his only taste of World Series action, lost Game 2 due to Philadelphia’s three unearned runs but pitched a five-hit shutout to win Game 4. The Giants finished second to the Cubs in 1906 and “Iron Man” led the NL in wins with his 27-12 record and also by pitching in 45 games. He furthermore posted a 2.25 ERA and 105 strikeouts across 339.2 innings. He also was briefly jailed and suspended for 10 days for his role in an on-field fight in Pittsburgh, which drew the ire of the city’s mayor, who was in attendance. With his skills beginning to fade, he led the league one last time in games pitched in 1907 with 47 and finished with an 18-18 tally and 3.16 ERA. Although not an official statistic at the time, he also led the NL with 4 saves. He also went over 300 innings for the ninth time with 310.1 and compiled 120 strikeouts. His last year with the Giants was 1908 and as a part-time starter he recorded an 11-7 mark with a 2.27 ERA and was again the NL’s unofficial leader in saves with 5. Released in the offseason, he went on to become a minor league executive, manager, and pitcher. He made his last pitching appearance with Springfield of the Illinois-Indiana-Iowa (or Three I) League in 1925 at the age of 54. Along the way, in 1919 he worked for the aforementioned A.E. Staley Company to develop company-afffiliated sports teams, one of which was a football team that was the forerunner of today’s Chicago Bears of the NFL. His friend and former mentor Wilbert Robinson, now managing the Brooklyn Dodgers (aka Robins) hired McGinnity as a pitching coach in 1926 (he questioned why teams carried as many as 10 pitchers since to his mind four or five should have been sufficient – one wonders what he would say about modern pitching staffs and the limits placed on starters). For his major league career, he compiled a 246-142 record, with 465 games pitched, a 2.66 ERA, 314 complete games, 32 shutouts, 24 saves, and 1068 strikeouts in 3441.1 innings pitched. Smart and durable, he won 20 games on eight occasions, and 30 twice, while putting up league-leading totals in innings pitched on four occasions. McGinnity died of cancer in 1929 at the age of 58. “Iron Man” was posthumously inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1946.
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Highlighted Years feature players who led a major league
in one of the following categories: batting average, home runs (with a minimum
of 10), runs batted in, or stolen bases (with a minimum of 20); or pitchers who
led a major league in wins, strikeouts, earned run average, or saves (with a
minimum of 10). Also included are participants in annual All-Star Games between
the National and American Leagues since 1933. This category also includes Misc.
players who received award votes, were contributors to teams that reached the
postseason, or had notable seasons in non-award years.
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