My Favorite Character in Baseball History
On December 11th, 1854 Charles Gardner Radbourn, better known as Old Hoss Radbourn, was born in Rochester, New York. Shamefully I had never heard of him until his name popped up on my MLB birthday calendar. It turns out this Hoss may be one of the most colorful characters to ever disgrace a baseball field.
His accomplishments are many. In only 12 years of baseball (1880-1891 and 11 seasons as a pitcher) the 5 foot 9 inch righthander amassed 309 (or 310 depending on who you ask) wins and 195 losses. He never started less than 24 games in a single season, had an ERA of 2.65, and struckout 1830 batters.
The intrigue runs deeper with Old Hoss. In 1884 he was credited with 60 wins, the most ever by a pitcher. However there are discrepencies with some sources stating that Old Hoss actually only had 59 wins, while his Hall of Fame plaque in Cooperstown claims 62 wins.
Radbourne seems to have been quite the character. Roger Kahn quoted Radbourne in The Head Game as saying; "'Tired out tossing a little five-ounce baseball for two hours?' Radbourn asked incredulously. '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 from playing 2-hours a day for 10 times the money I used to get for 16 hours a day?'"
His colorful personality also lead him to such dubious recognition as; being the first person photographed giving the bird as shown in his 1869 team photo (look closely at the left side of the back row, to the right of the sitting players ear). Radbourne is also considered the namesake of the term Charley Horse for some reason and credited with being the first to actually use the curve ball as part of his arsenal of pitches.
Hoss even has his own myspace page on which an audio file claims he taught Clark Griffith how to throw the curve. Years later of course Griffith went on to own the Washington Senators eventually passing the team on to his son Calvin who moved the team to Minnesota.
Radbourne died in Bloomington, Illinois where he was born on February 5th, 1897 of paresis which in his day was symptomatic of untreated to syphilis. His gravestone is located about 150-200 feet east south-east of well known American politician Adlai Stevenson.
Talk about leaving a mark on the world.
His accomplishments are many. In only 12 years of baseball (1880-1891 and 11 seasons as a pitcher) the 5 foot 9 inch righthander amassed 309 (or 310 depending on who you ask) wins and 195 losses. He never started less than 24 games in a single season, had an ERA of 2.65, and struckout 1830 batters.
The intrigue runs deeper with Old Hoss. In 1884 he was credited with 60 wins, the most ever by a pitcher. However there are discrepencies with some sources stating that Old Hoss actually only had 59 wins, while his Hall of Fame plaque in Cooperstown claims 62 wins.
Radbourne seems to have been quite the character. Roger Kahn quoted Radbourne in The Head Game as saying; "'Tired out tossing a little five-ounce baseball for two hours?' Radbourn asked incredulously. '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 from playing 2-hours a day for 10 times the money I used to get for 16 hours a day?'"
His colorful personality also lead him to such dubious recognition as; being the first person photographed giving the bird as shown in his 1869 team photo (look closely at the left side of the back row, to the right of the sitting players ear). Radbourne is also considered the namesake of the term Charley Horse for some reason and credited with being the first to actually use the curve ball as part of his arsenal of pitches.
Hoss even has his own myspace page on which an audio file claims he taught Clark Griffith how to throw the curve. Years later of course Griffith went on to own the Washington Senators eventually passing the team on to his son Calvin who moved the team to Minnesota.
Radbourne died in Bloomington, Illinois where he was born on February 5th, 1897 of paresis which in his day was symptomatic of untreated to syphilis. His gravestone is located about 150-200 feet east south-east of well known American politician Adlai Stevenson.
Talk about leaving a mark on the world.
posted by Andy Johnson at 11:38 AM
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