| Pud Galvin | |||
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| Pitcher | |||
| Born: December 25, 1856 St. Louis, Missouri |
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| Died: March 7, 1902 (aged 45) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
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| MLB debut | |||
| May 22, 1875, for the St. Louis Brown Stockings | |||
| Last MLB appearance | |||
| August 2, 1892, for the St. Louis Browns | |||
| MLB statistics | |||
| Win–loss record | 365–310 | ||
| Earned run average | 2.85 | ||
| Strikeouts | 1,807 | ||
| Shutouts | 57 | ||
| Teams | |||
| Career highlights and awards | |||
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| Member of the National | |||
 Baseball Hall of Fame |
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| Inducted | 1965 | ||
| Election Method | Veteran's Committee | ||
James Francis Galvin (December 25, 1856 – March 7, 1902), nicknamed "Pud", "Gentle Jeems", and "The Little Steam Engine", was an American National Association and Major League Baseball pitcher. He was Major League Baseball's first 300-game winner. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1965.
A native of St. Louis, Missouri, Galvin played in an era where two-man pitching rotations were common - hence his 6,003 innings pitched and 646 complete games, both of which are second only to the career totals of Cy Young. Incredibly, he pitched over 70 complete games in both 1883 and 1884 and 65 in 1879. Galvin is the only player in baseball history to win 20 or more games in 10 different years without winning a pennant, finishing his career with a total of 365 wins and 310 losses.
Early life and career[edit]
Galvin grew up in Kerry Patch, an Irish neighborhood in St. Louis.[1] He debuted for St. Louis of the National Association in 1875, the franchise's inaugural season. He spent the next 6½ seasons with Buffalo in the International Association and later of the National League. On August 20, 1880, Galvin became the first major-league pitcher to throw a no-hitter on the road, leading his Buffalo Bisons to a 1-0 victory over the Worcester Ruby Legs. Galvin was traded to the Pittsburg Alleghenys midseason in 1885. He pitched for the Allegheny ballclub from 1885 to 1889, jumped to the Pittsburgh Burghers before the 1890 season, then returned to the Alleghenys (now named the "Pirates") after only one season. On June 14, 1892 Galvin was traded to the St. Louis Browns.
He retired after the 1892 season, though he apparently made a brief return to Buffalo (by this time a minor league franchise) in 1894. Galvin holds the record for most games started in a single season by a pitcher before 1893, 75, (tied with Will White). Upon his retirement, Galvin held all-time records in several pitching categories, including wins, innings pitched, games started, games completed and shutouts.[2]
The nickname "Pud" originated because Galvin was said to make hitters "look like pudding."[3] Galvin was also nicknamed "The Little Steam Engine," a tribute to his power in spite of his small size. He was sometimes known as "Gentle Jeems" because of his kind disposition.[4]
Later life and legacy[edit]
Galvin died poor at age 45 on March 7, 1902 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and, as a Roman Catholic,[5] is buried in Calvary Cemetery, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His election to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1965 was by the Veterans Committee. In honor of his achievements in Buffalo, Galvin was inducted into the Buffalo Baseball Hall of Fame in 1985.[6]
A 2006 NPR article refers to Galvin as "the first baseball player to be widely known for using a performance enhancer."[3] The Washington Post reported that Galvin used the Brown-Séquard elixir, which contained monkey testosterone, before a single game in 1889. However, no one seemed bothered by the use of the elixir, and the newspaper practically endorsed it after the game, saying that Galvin's performance was "the best proof yet furnished of the value of the discovery."[3]
In 2000, former Oakland Athletics pitcher Brian Kingman said that he was going to award himself a "Pud Galvin Memorial Trophy". In 1980, Kingman finished the season with an 8-20 win-loss record. He had learned that Galvin lost 20 or more games in each of his first ten years and was still elected to the Hall of Fame. (Galvin averaged 30 wins in those seasons, and twice he won 46 games.)[7]
See also[edit]
- 300 win club
- Top 100 winning pitchers of all time
- List of Major League Baseball leaders in career wins
- Top 100 strikeout pitchers of all time
- List of Major League Baseball no-hitters
- List of Major League Baseball player–managers
Notes[edit]
- ^ Achorn, Edward (2013). The Summer of Beer and Whiskey: How Brewers, Barkeeps, Rowdies, Immigrants, and a Wild Pennant Fight Made Baseball America's Game. PublicAffairs. p. 75. ISBN 1610392604.
- ^ "Galvin, Pud". Baseball Hall of Fame. Retrieved August 14, 2013.
- ^ a b c R. Smith, "A different kind of performance enhancer", NPR. Retrieved 11 December 2007.
- ^ Hausberg, Charles. "Pud Galvin". Society for American Baseball Research. Retrieved August 14, 2013.
- ^ Boehm, Emilia (Spring 2010). "Pud Galvin: Allegheny’s Forgotten Hall of Famer" (PDF). Reporter Dispatch. The Allegheny City Society. Retrieved 1 January 2014.
- ^ "Buffalo Baseball Hall of Fame". Retrieved 29 August 2012.
- ^ Holtzman, Jerome (2003). The Jerome Holtzman Reader: A Treasury of Award Winning Writing From the Official Historian of Major League Baseball. Triumph Books. ISBN 1623681634.
External links[edit]
- Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)
- Pud Galvin at the Baseball Hall of Fame
- Bio page
- Pud Galvin at Find a Grave
| Achievements | ||
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| Preceded by Larry Corcoran Larry Corcoran |
No-hitter pitcher August 19, 1880 August 4, 1884 |
Succeeded by Tony Mullane Dick Burns |
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