If Big Pappeeeee can’t hit it that far, the skinny kid certainly couldn’t

David Ortiz doesn’t believe Teddy Ballgame hit a 502-foot home run in Fenway.

“Ortiz said hitting a ball with enough power for it to land 37 rows up in right field, as Williams allegedly did on June 9, 1946, simply is not possible, even for a hitter of Teddy Ballgame’s caliber.”

Ortiz: “I remember a day game, I hit a ball in that tunnel. But still, I crushed one and it wasn’t even close to that.”

http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/story/david-ortiz-doesn-t-believe-story-of-ted-williams-record-hr-071315

Or, “If I, David Ortiz, cannot hit a baseball as far as the red seat, what makes anyone believe that guy Williams could?”

One thing leads to another. In this case, the another occurred during a check of Ortiz’s lifetime stats vs. those of Williams.

At www.baseball-almanac.com while going through the W’s to get Williams’s numbers, I saw the name Gus Weyhing, who pitched for nine teams in his 14-year major league career, May 2, 1887-Aug. 21, 1901. Weyhing was a hurler for the Philadelphia Athletics, Brooklyn Wonders, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, Louisville Colonels, Washington Senators, St. Louis Cardinals, Brooklyn Superbas, Cleveland Blues and Cincinnati Reds.

Weyhing’s won-lost record was 264-232, with an ERA of 3.89. Not great, especially the 232 losses. But Weyhing pitched at a time when MLB teams had one or two starting pitchers. That meant those pitchers put up yearly innings pitched in he range of 300 to almost 500. Weyhing’s high mark was 469.2 in 1892. The year before, he pitched 450 innings. His rookie year, Weyhing totaled 466.1 innings pitched.

In 14 years, the Louisville, Ky., native pitched 4,324.1 innings.

By contrast, Pedro Martinez, among this year’s Hall of Fame inductees, in 18 years pitched 2,787 innings. Martinez’s won-loss record is 219-100, and his lifetime ERA is 2.93.

Gus Weyhing’s younger brother John also pitched in the major leagues. John’s record was 3-4, with a 1.62 ERA. In 1888, at age 19, John started eight games for Cincinnati. He completed seven games. In 65 innings, he allowed nine earned runs. Overall, John Weyhing gave up 26 runs, but in the early days of baseball, games with five or more errors for each team were not unusual.

John pitched in one game in the 1889 season. He contracted tuberculosis and died on June 20, 1890, four days before his 21st birthday.

Back to Ortiz: Don’t be surprised to see him backing away from his own statement, lest, as is said these days, “someone was offended.”