Have you ever heard of Charles “Old Hoss” Radbourn? Neither had I until driving to the airport last Saturday. While in the car, we were listing to an NPR reporter talking to author Edward Achorn about his new book Fifty-nine in ‘84, the story of a tough, moody, driven pitcher in the dawning age of baseball in 1884. He played for the Providence Grays, and the more Achorn talked about this guy, the more intrigued I became. Here’s a discription of Radbourn and the book:

In 1884, Providence Grays pitcher Charles “Old Hoss” Radbourn won an astounding fifty-nine games-more than anyone in major-league history ever had before, or has since. He then went on to win all three games of baseball’s first World Series.

Fifty-nine in ‘84 tells the dramatic story not only of that amazing feat of grit but also of big-league baseball two decades after the Civil War-a brutal, bloody sport played barehanded, the profession of uneducated, hard-drinking men who thought little of cheating outrageously or maiming an opponent to win.

It is the tale, too, of the woman Radbourn loved, Carrie Stanhope, the alluring proprietress of a boarding-house with shady overtones, a married lady who was said to have personally known every man in the National League.

Now, I consider myself a student of baseball, but this guy Radbourn I’d never heard of before. So I started doing some digging. In 1884, Radbourn pitched 678 2/3 innings, started 73 games and won 59 of them. As Achorn explained on NPR, 678 innings is more than three times as many innings pitched as even the toughest pitchers in today’s game.

Obviously, baseball was a different game back then. In fact, they didn’t even use gloves. Even the catcher only wore something to protect his palms, leaving his fingers exposed, if you can believe that.

Though baseball in 1884 was totally different than it is today, I thought it would be fun to compare some numbers to see just how different it was. Many consider 1968 to be one of the best years for pitching in the history of baseball. Seven pitchers had ERAs below 2.00, including Bob Gibson’s 1.12 ERA. So how does 1968 compare to 1884?

At first glance, you look at those numbers and think, “Wow! Those boys could pitch in 1884.” Well, not so fast my friend. Those raw numbers are inflated because 1884 pitchers started about twice as many games as pitchers in 1968. When you look at win-loss % and strikeouts per 9 innings pitched, things start to even out a lot more.

What’s the takeaway from all this? Well:

1. While the game has changed dramatically, pitchers in 1884 had to be pretty darn tough to start that many games in a season.
2. Strikeouts are a bigger part of the game today than they were in 1884.
3. Pitchers like the ones back in 1884 could probably have adapted pretty well to present-day baseball.

I’m definitely going to read Fifty-nine in ‘84 by Edward Achorn and come back with a review down the road.

If you want to find out more about the book, check out this video and this website.

By the way, in 1884, Radbourn started 73 games and finished every single one. In comparison, last year, American League Cy Young award winner Zack Greinke started 33 games and finished 6.