Erik Visits an American Grave, Part 1,929

This is the grave of Old Hoss Radbourne (often spelled without the “e” at the end, but I am keeping it for this post).

Born in 1854 in Rochester, New York, Charles Radbourne grew up in Bloomington, Illinois, where his family moved the year after his birth. He was a working class kid and worked with his father as a butcher and then as a brakeman for trains. But what Radbourne really loved was baseball. He was a very good pitcher and there were plenty of opportunities for a kid who wanted to play to do so, if they didn’t care about making any money. He joined the Peoria Reds in 1878. In whatever league this was, the rules were you could not substitute players, so when Radbourn wasn’t pitching, he played right field and in fact he was doing that most of the time, working as a reliever when he was on the mound, or a “change pitcher” as it was known at the time. He moved up pretty quickly, playing for a team in Dubuque in 1879 and then the Buffalo Bisons in 1880, which was a National League team. He got hurt that year, but was playing a pickup game when a scout for the Providence Grays saw what he could do on the mount and immediately signed him after the Bisons had released him. Good call.

Like most teams, the Grays relied on just one or two pitchers and so the innings thrown were just fantastical. They immediately threw Radbourne into the fire and his first year, he threw a mere 325 innings, which did not lead the league. He was excellent already, worth 4.5 WAR according to Baseball Reference’s stat. That’s very good. But the next few years, he was a phenom, one of the greatest players in major league history. Granted the game was so different then, but still, these numbers are amazing. In 1883, Radbourne started 68 games and pitched in 76 total. That added up to 632.1 innings. He went 48-25 and led the league with a mere 13.1 WAR. That was nothing compared to 1884. In that year, he started 73 games and pitched in 75 total. The innings? Oh just a slight 678.2. He went 60-12 and had a WAR of 19.2, with an ERA of 1.38. These numbers are so mind-boggling as to be simply incomprehensible. Again, it was just a completely different game. He led the Providence Grays to the pennant that year.

Radbourne had an absolutely iron arm and he had complete contempt for anyone who could not throw all day, every day. He also knew he had a sweet job. When asked if he would ever get sick of baseball, he replied, “Tire out? Tire out tossing a little five-ounce ball for two hours a day? Man, I used to be a butcher.  From 4 in the morning until 8 at night I knocked down steers with a 25-pound sledge.  Tired of playing 2 hours a day for 10 times the money I got for 16 hours a day?” Fair enough!

Of course the game was so different that it’s hard to even compare it to today’s game at all. I mean, when Radbourne started, the mound was 50 feet from the plate and pitches threw underhanded. In fact, he continued to pitch underhand even as pitchers started transitioning to overhand throwing. I have wondered if there’s a future someday in a pitcher who steals a style from softball with a ball that actually does rise. Probably not and plus who in baseball–a sport dominated by a very right-wing culture that makes football look woke–would dare borrow from a women’s sport?

Even Radbourne’s arm couldn’t do those things every year. So in 1885, he pitched a far more moderate 445 innings, going 28-21 with a 2.20 ERA and a WAR of 7.4. He was also suspended for the last weeks of the season for possibly throwing a game, but that also may have been a way to just not pay him, as the Grays disbanded due to lack of funds at the end of the season. In fact, he moved toward mediocrity fairly quickly. By 1887, he was 24-23 after pitching 425 innings with a 4.55 ERA, which led to a WAR of only 2, making him barely above replacement player despite all those innings. He did have something of a return to form in 1890 with the Boston Reds, when he managed a 8 WAR based on a 27-12 record and 3.31 ERA in 343 innings. His last year, in 1891, he was with the Cincinnati Reds and started to fall apart. He might have had enough in the tank to pitch once more in 1892, but he retired.

Over his career, Radbourne went 310-194, pitching 4527 innings over 527 games. Do the average–that’s nearly a complete game per outing.

Meanwhile, Radbourne was one of the great rounders of all time. He is the first person in history to be photographed flipping off the camera, in an 1886 photo, so there’s that. Here it is!

We should use this image on the blog more often. He was a crusty dude who had contempt for the media. He was often hungover while pitching, admitting to his drinking sessions. There are at least some claims at the time that he pitched with both hands, though hard evidence for this is fleeting. Maybe he tried it. He often feuded with his own teammates, sometimes over money, which he did not get enough of, though who really did in that era.

After he retired, Radbourne moved to Bloomington, Illinois, where he ran a billiards hall and saloon. He was shot during a hunting accidnet shortly after his retirement. He lost an eye and never really recovered his health. But there was another issue there too–his untreated syphilis. That is probably what did him in. That happened in 1897. He was 42 years old. In 1939, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

I would also be remiss in not mention the Old Hoss Radbourne account on former Twitter. Run by a guy who knows way too much about the Gilded Age (in fact, he’s a historian though not of the US), it was and occasionally still is a wonderful combination of Gilded Age references, discussions of laudanum, and talking about how modern pitchers are huge wusses for only pitching 6 innings while not even being drunk. I don’t think the account even exists anymore–there is one with the pitcher’s name but it’s just about crazy stats. But really, that was the kind of unique fun that social media could provide before it all became useful for destroying American civic life.

Old Hoss Radbourne is buried in Evergreen Memorial Cemetery, Bloomington, Illinois.

If you would like this series to visit other pitchers, you can donate to cover the required expenses here. According to Baseball Reference’s JAWS stat, Radbourne is the 36th best pitcher of all time, which seems about right given his very short career as a dominant player. Jim McCormick, another dead ball era guy who is 35th, is in Totowa, New Jersey. Ed Walsh, who is 37th and played in the early 20th century, is in Pompano Beach, Florida. Previous posts in this series are archived here and here.