Pity the poor pitchers

In 1876, the National League of Professional Baseball played its first season. The league’s eight teams were: Boston Red Stockings, Chicago White Stockings, Cincinnati Red Legs, Hartford Dark Blues, Louisville Grays, Philadelphia Athletics, Brooklyn Mutuals and St. Louis Browns.

Cincinnati had fielded a professional team since 1869, but history meant nothing to the rest of the league. The Red Stockings finished in last place in the league’s inaugural season, with a record of 9 wins and 56 losses. Yep. Nine (9) wins.

The Red Stockings had three starting pitchers that year – Dory Dean, Cherokee Fisher and Dale Williams. Each was victim of bad fielding, and maybe a bit of karma for the team's 65 wins, 0 losses season in 1869.

Dean was the team’s No. 1 pitcher, starting 30 games and completing 26. His won-lost record of 4-26 might have been a reason he never pitched in the major leagues after 1876. Bad pitching was not Dean’s main downfall. His earned run average was 3.73, but a total average, counting unearned runs as well, was 9.21. In other words, Dean gave up nine runs for every nine innings pitched. Bad fielding hurt Dean, with 159 of those runs unearned.

Fisher started 24 games for Cincinnati and completed 22. His record of 4-20 also indicates that the Red Stockings were not a good team. Fisher’s earned run average was 3.02, with 77 of his 202 runs earned. Or, 125 unearned runs. Fisher pitched one game for the Louisville Grays in 1878, posting an 0-1 record and a 4.00 earned run average. He pitched nine total innings that game and gave up 12 total runs.

Williams, the third starter, like Dean, played only the 1876 season in the bigs. Williams started and completed nine games. His record was 1-8, with an earned run average of 4.23. Of his 75 runs, 39 were earned.

Other pitchers for the Red Stockings that year included: catcher Dave Pierson (0-1 with an infinity earned run average – 2 earned runs, but he didn’t get any batters out); infielder-outfielder-catcher Amos Booth (0-1, ERA 9.31); outfielder Bobby Clack (0-0, ERA 4.50); and infielder/outfielder Charlie Gould (0-0, ERA 0.00.)

Statistics at baseball-almanac.com