Quiz – Ewell Blackwell

Ewell Blackwell
Baseball-Reference.com

Sidearmer Ewell Blackwell was a top NL pitcher of the late 40s and early 50s (he may also possibly be a relative of Don “Ears” Mossi, don’t you think?). Nicknamed “The Whip” for his unusual delivery, Blackwell’s best season was 1947, when he led the senior circuit in wins and strikeouts, was the All-Star game starter and, in a close MVP vote, placed 2nd to Bob Elliott of the Braves. That season, Blackwell also nearly duplicated Johnny Vander Meer’s 1938 feat of consecutive no-hitters. After no-hitting the Braves on June 18, Blackwell took a no-hitter into the 9th inning against the Dodgers on June 22, only to be foiled by an Eddie Stanky single.

Blackwell is the subject of today’s quiz because of a peculiar singularity. He is the only pre-expansion pitcher in the game-searchable era to accomplish a particular feat.

What is it that Blackwell achieved, and that no other pitcher from 1918 to 1960 could duplicate?

Congratulations to Richard Chester! He identified that Ewell Blackwell in 1950 was the only pitcher from 1918 to 1960 to record more hit batsmen than wild pitches in a season with 10 or more of each.

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Lawrence Azrin

11 years ago

Six All-Star game appearances with less than 100 career wins? (he must’ve gotten off to great starts -he made the AS game with seasons of 9, 7, and 5 games won).

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

Lawrence,

This came up in a post a few months ago. At the time, we found several guys who had even fewer wins before their All-Star start. Mark Fidrych, Don Stenhouse and Jerry Walker are a few who had fewer wins (the first two started the A-S game as rookies, the third as a 20 year-old).

Lawrence Azrin

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

Doug, I didn’t think that was likely the answer, but this was the only time I could use my factoid in #1.

Matthew Glidden

11 years ago

A little contrived, but in 1946 he led the league in shut-outs, collected 100 Ks, and give up just 1 homer while posting a losing record. Related to your answer?

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to Matthew Glidden

A bit too contrived, Matthew.

You didn’t even need the Shutout bit. Blackwell was the only live-ball pitcher to do the other things, until Carlos Marmol in 2010 (Carlos had zero shutouts).

Insert Name Here

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

On a similar note, Blackwell is the only pitcher ever to have 5+ shutouts and 1 (or less) home run allowed while posting a losing record. This clearly isn’t the answer you’re looking for though, because then the “pre-expansion” tag wouldn’t be necessary.

Richard Chester

11 years ago

How about longest winning streak with all CG (in 1947).

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

Good thought, Richard. But, Blackwell places fifth on that list.

Here’s the link: http://bbref.com/pi/shareit/v6SkR

Author

Doug

11 years ago

None of those are related to the answer I’m looking for.

Uncle Leo

11 years ago

Only pitcher to sandwich a 20 win season between sub 10 win, losing seasons.

Uncle Leo

11 years ago

Reply to Uncle Leo

Probably not at all related to the question, but he also won 16 straight decisions over 17 starts in 1947, including the no hitter. All 16 were complete games and the streak included 7 wins in 8 June starts.

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Doug

11 years ago

Reply to Uncle Leo

Richard Chester identified much the same thing (See comment #3 and my response).

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to Uncle Leo

Not sure Leo, but I have to think that 20 win season between two losing ones has happened more than a few times.

Claude Hendrix did this in 1917 (10-12), 1918 (20-7), and 1919 (10-14).

Roger Wolff had a run of 4-15, 20-10, and 5-8 in 1944 to 1946.

ATarwerdi96

11 years ago

I don’t know if this has anything to do with it, but on 9/12/50 he got the loss in a start in which he allowed just 1 H and 0 ER, but gave up 3 R total. The only other time that happened in a complete game was on 5/15/65 by Dick Ellsworth.

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Andy

11 years ago

I feel like I read something about Blackwell and he was the first guy to do something against every other team…that would fit in with the concept of it being pre-expansion.

Doug

11 years ago

Atwerdi and Andy, Really good thoughtsn but those are not what I’m looking for. I’ll have to check that 3-run, 1-hit thing – this came up last week with Dickey’s back to back 1-hitters. I recall that Whitey Ford had a 1 hit game like this in the late 50s, but I’ll check.

Richard Chester

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

On 9-2-55 Ford pitched a one-hitter and was charged with two unearned runs. He won the game 4-2. An error by LF Irv Noren led to the unearned runs.

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

That was the one, Richard. And, 5 days latter, Ford pitched another one-hitter, and was again denied a shutout, but this time because of a bases-loaded wild pitch. Despite the consecutive one-hitters, Ford wasn’t particularly sharp with his control, allowing 10 walks over the two games.

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Don’t know if this will help anyone, but the accomplishment I’m looking for happened 35 times before 1918 and 48 times after 1960, but only once (by Blackwell) between those years.

Editor

John Autin

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

So can we conclude that it’s a seasonal achievement, since you know exactly how many times it happened before 1918?

Editor

John Autin

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

Or I guess it could also be a World Series game achievement. But I can’t see any particular achievement in his one WS game.

It is odd, though, that he started a WS game for the Yankees after being acquired on August 28 for 4 players and cash. Wasn’t there a trade deadline? He was having a horrible year with Cincinnati, so I guess he could have cleared waivers. It still seems odd.

Hartvig

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

I was going to guess leading the league in strikeouts, walks and HBP in the same season but there’s no way that happened that often in the other years.

And by the way, my avatars magnificent mug is far superior to Blackwell’s!

Hartvig

11 years ago

Reply to Hartvig

I meant HBP instead of walks. In fact, it might be more rare to lead in those 3 categories WITHOUT leading the league in walks than if you actually did.

Richard Chester

11 years ago

Dug: Does it have anything to do with “WHIP”, yuk,yuk?

Doug

11 years ago

Yes, a seasonal accomplishmentn JA.

Not related to WHIP, Richard.

Richard Chester

11 years ago

Does it have something to do with HBP and WP being greater than 10? It happened 4 times from 1918, but it happened many times before 1917 and after 1960.

Richard Chester

11 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

Make that it happened 4 times from 1918 to 1960.

Richard Chester

11 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

And more HBP than HB.

Insert Name Here

11 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

What are “HB”? Do you mean “HR”?

Richard Chester

11 years ago

Reply to Insert Name Here

Make that more HBP than WP. Thanks, INH.

Doug

11 years ago

Really close, Richard.

Insert Name Here

11 years ago

HBP and WP both greater than 10, but ERA+ greater than 130?

Doug

11 years ago

Richard has it. Blackwell in 1950 was the only pitcher to record more hit batsmen than wild pitches, in a season with 10 or more of each from 1918 to 1960.

As mentioned above, this occurred much more frequently both before and after this period. Any ideas on what might have changed from the 20s to the 50s? Or is this just a quirky coincidence?

Insert Name Here

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

Interestingly, this occurred an incredible 107 times from 1884 to 1899 (that’s 16 seasons – or about 7 pitchers a year).

It was also done 17 times by 12 Hall of Famers, including 4 times by Vic Willis, and twice each by John Clarkson and Walter Johnson.

Richard Chester

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

Doug:

My PI searches show 36 occurrences before 1918 and 47 after 1960.

Insert Name Here

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

I don’t know why it would happen more often during the Expansion Era, but it would make sense that it happened more often in the Deadball Era because pitchers pitched more games (especially in the late 19th Century, when this happened over 100 times in 16 seasons) and completed most of their starts. Blackwell pitched 40 games and completed 18 of his 32 starts in that 1950 season – although those numbers are significantly less than what you find from the 1880s through the 1910s.

Editor

John Autin

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

This doesn’t answer the question, but … In the period in question, both WP and HBP were at historically low levels (at least local lows), with HBP declining somewhat more relative to their starting point.

Both were under 0.20 per game most of the ’20s-’50s, then started trending upward in the late ’50s.

If forced to guess, I’d say the decline was due to the elimination of the spitball and the practice of keeping a cleaner, more visible ball in the game. And the later rise may have been due to the growth of night baseball.

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

Another thought is that moving from the dead ball to live ball era, the tactic of intimidating batters with close pitches was no longer an affordable luxury due to the increased importance of minimizing baserunners. When the second dead ball era occurred in the 1960s, perhaps this tactic was again seen as one worth employing (certainly Drysdale, Gibson and others thought so). Less clear why the higher incidence has remained since then other than pitchers seem to be throwing a lot more pitches, for various reasons (i.e. smaller strike zone, DH, batter proclivity to strikeout, tactical preference for working the… Read more »

Larry

11 years ago

Completely off topic but interesting. Aaron Hill of Toronto hit for the cycle for the second time in one season to become the second player to do so. The first time he did it was just 11 games ago…..didn’t mean to high jack the thread…

Editor

John Autin

11 years ago

Reply to Larry

Cool! Except, perhaps, for Blue Jays fans.

And it’s always good to give Babe Herman some press (the other guy with a same-season bi-cycle).

I’m bummed that Hill fanned in his 5th AB, though. He could have been the first with 2 “perfect” cycles in a season (no outs).

Richard Chester

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

His .381 BA in 1929 and .393 BA in 1930 were the two highest for a NL runner-up.

Editor

John Autin

11 years ago

Reply to Larry

According to my P-I search, Aaron Hill is the only player since 1918 to have 2 cycles with no other MLB cycle(s) in between.

Larry

11 years ago

Perhaps the introduction of batting helmets during the 50s to nearly universal use by the early 60s took some of the fear out of getting hit and of hitting someone with a pitch. Ray Chapman died after a HBP from Carl Mays In what, 1920, whIch had led to rules banning spit balls and the notion of keeping a fresh ball in play.

Tristram12

11 years ago

Reply to Larry

I’m currently reading “The Pitch That Killed”, which is an excellent book about Ray Chapman, Carl Mays and the 1920 AL pennant race. It is very well done and I highly recommend it. I think this has a big part of this not happening much after 1920, as this was a huge deal back then.

no statistician but

11 years ago

Reply to Tristram12

Would it be a big deal now? Or just fodder for the media?

Tristram12

11 years ago

Reply to no statistician but

I think it would be a tremendously big deal. Looking at age, position, OPS+, team success, etc., I would say the modern equivalent would be if Ian Kinsler got hit in the head by Carlos Zambrano and died that night. That wouldn’t be fodder for the media but an insanely big deal (i believe).

no statistician but

11 years ago

Reply to Tristram12

Fine. Your perhaps unintentional closing emphasis on “then” made me wonder.

Jason Z

11 years ago

Reply to Tristram12

I read that book years ago. It was great.

That tragedy also helped changed the policy
regarding balls. Before this the ball was
dirty and oddly shaped by the time it was
removed from play.

Larry

11 years ago

Interesting reading in Wikipedia. In the Ray Chapman article, he was described as one of the few players Ty Cobb considered a friend. In the Carl Mays article, a game was described where Carl Mays threw at Ty Cobb every at bat – eventually hitting him on the wrist. This incident gave Carl Mays the reputation of a head hunter several years prior to the Chapman tragedy. So perhaps there is a Ty Cobb connection there. I was not aware there was some suspicion that Carl Mays might have been involved in fixing the 1921 World Series.

Larry

11 years ago

Ray Chapman was probably going to retire after that season. He had married Katie who was the 17 year old daughter of a wealthy business family in Cleveland. At the time of Ray’s death she was expecting a daughter who was born in February. Ray was planning on working in the family business. Overcome with bouts of melancholy/depression she took her life by drinking cleaning fluid in 1926. Their daughter died of complications of a case of the measles in 1929.

Larry

11 years ago

The incident occurred at the Polo Grounds. I was under the impression that Chapman lost consciousness at the plate and was carried off by stretcher. Actually, he was attended to by two physicians from th stands and revived. The clubhouse at the Polo Grounds was way out there in CF past where Willie Mays made The Catch. A couple of his team mates were helping him make the walk of some 500 feet when he collapsed near second so they carried him the rest of the way. That must have been a horrific sight for the 20,000 in attendance. About… Read more »