Can One Bad Pitch End It?

Today is the birthday of Hall of Fame pitcher Jack Chesbro, born in North Adams, Massachusetts, 1874.

Over the course of his 1904 season, pitching for the New York Highlanders — the team that would later become known as the Yankees — Chesboro started 51 games, won 48, and threw 454 and two-thirds innings. But for the rest of his life, fans would mostly just ask him about one bad pitch.

Born the fourth of five children to a cobbler in western Massachusetts, Chesbro worked his way into the majors by pitching for semi-pro and minor league teams. At one point, he played for a mental health hospital team called The Asylums. It was there that a patient gave him his nickname ‘Happy Jack’. But what made him stand out wasn’t his cheer. It was his spitball.

With that pitch, along with a ‘slow ball’, Chesbro dominated the American League with in 1904 and helped lead the Highlanders into a pennant race with Boston.

In his eighth start in 15 days, he held Boston scoreless through six innings. But in the seventh, things began to unravel. Two fielding errors let Boston tie the game. Then, with a 2-2 count on Freddy Parent, Chesboro threw a wild pitch. As the ball bounced off the backstop, Lou Criger sprinted home with the go-ahead run. The Highlanders would lose the pennant.

Chesbro never fully recovered from his 1904 season. His arm, damaged by the torque of his delivery and his refusal to rest, was diminished. In the years that followed he alternated between threats of retirement, demands for higher pay, and claims of having invented a new, unhittable pitch. He played pro and semi-pro ball into his fifties, but he never again touched the height of 1904.

So he turned his attention to his businesses and his farm in Conway. And it was there, in November of 1931, that he walked up a hill to fix an irrigation pipe, had a heart attack, and died. Fifteen years later, he’d be elected to the Hall of Fame — not for the one bad pitch, but all the others.

An Homage to Nolan Ryan, Lawyering Up, and Diamond Heroics

• Right in the Kisser — George Kirby took a 102.7 mile-an-hour drive to the face off of Baltimore’s Ramon Urias’ bat yesterday. The pitcher, who was in his third start since returning from the IL, caught half of the pitch with his hand, and is ok. As far as we’re concerned, it’s a badge of pride.

• Losing It — A Houston Police investigation into death threats made against Astros starter Lance McCullers Jr. and his family found that the culprit was an inebriated, frustrated bettor living overseas.

• Clark Lawyers Up — Major League Baseball Players Association head Tony Clark has hired his own lawyers while under investigation by the Eastern District of New York. While no charges have been brought, and the investigation is still ongoing, it’s likely an unwelcome wrinkle as the MLBPA and owners gear up for the new Collective Bargaining Agreement in 2026.

• Ten Cent Beer Night — Yesterday as the anniversary of Ten Cent Beer night, an infamous promotion ran when the Indians hosted the Rangers in 1974. With no drink limits, the crowd got rowdier and rowdier until, in the ninth inning, a full riot broke out.

• Diamond Heroics — Luisangel Acuña framed up a foul ball…in the dugout. Wyatt Langford made a wild hurdle to avoid a tag at first. Chris Sale notched his 2,500th career strikeout. And Alejandro Kirk hits a walk-off single for a Blue Jays win over the Phillies.

6/5/2025

Drysdale Shuts Out the Cubs

• 1957 — Don Drysdale of the Brooklyn Dodgers pitches the first shutout of his major league career, leading his team to a 4-0 win over the Chicago Cubs. He’d pitch three more that season, and 49 total across his career.