It’s time again for Baseball Roundtable’s Trivia(l) Tidbit Tuesday. I hope you are enjoying this weekly presentation of baseball occurrences that for some reason caught The Roundtable’s eye. (I’m particularly fond of unexpected performances and statistical coincidences.) These won’t necessarily be momentous occurrences, just events, statistics or coincidences that grabbed my attention. I’m also drawn to baseball “unicorns,” one-of-a-kind MLB accomplishments or statistics.
This week, we are looking at a couple of “almost unicorns” – the only two MLB pitchers to win twenty games in a season in which they logged an earned run average of 5.00 or higher. They are Bobo Newsom of the 1938 St. Louis Browns (20-16, 5.08) and Ray Kremer of the 1930 Pirates (20-12, 5.02).
Let’s take a look at their twenty-and-five+ seasons and MLB careers.
Bobo Newsom
In 1938, when Bobo Newsom went 20-16, 5.08 he was a workhorse, leading the league in starts. complete games and innings pitched. He also led the AL in hits allowed (334), home runs allowed (30) and earned runs allowed (186). His 5.08 earned run average – the highest ever for an MLB 20-game winner, however, was not that far above the American League overall ERA of 4.79.
Newsom got solid support from his offense. In the games Newsom started, the Browns scored 5.4 runs per contest, while in games not started by Newsom, they averaged 4.6 runs per game. And, in Newsom’s 20 victories, the Browns tallied 131 runs (6.6 per game). Times were, of course, different then. Consider: In the first game of a doubleheader on June 19, Newsom took the mound (in St. Louis) versus a tough Yankees’ lineup (led by the likes of Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig and Bill Dickey). Newsom went the distance, giving up nine runs on nine hits and eight walks – and earned a win, as his Browns prevailed 10-9. (No pitch counts available.) The Yankees, by the way, used three pitchers in the matchup against Newsom.
Another stat The Roundtable found of interest: 16 pitchers recorded decisions for the Browns in 1938, and every one but Newsom lost more games than they won.
In 1938, Bobo Newsom’s 20 wins ranked second in the American League (the only other AL pitcher with at least 20 victories was Red Ruffing, with a 21-7, 3.31 record for the eventual 1938 World Series Champion Yankees). Newsom’s 5.08 earned run average ranked 25th among American Leaguers qualifying for the ERA title. Ruffing’s 3.31 ranked second.
Newsom’s 5.08 ERA was the highest of his 20-season MLB career (excluding his 1921 debut season, when he only pitched 9 1/3 innings). He followed up that 1938 season, with a 20-11, 3.58 campaign for the Browns and Tigers. A true “journeyman,” in his MLB career, Newsom took the mound for the Nationals, Browns, Athletics, Robins (Dodgers), Tigers, Red Sox, Yankees, Giants, and Cubs – going 211-222, 3.98 in 600 appearances (483 starts) with 246 complete games and 31 shutouts.
Bobo Newsome was a three-time 20-game winner (twenty wins in 1938 and 1939 and 21 wins in 1940) and also a three-time 20-game loser (twenty losses in 1934, 1941 and 1945). He led his league in losses four times.
A couple of other Newsom tidbits:
- On September 18, 1934 Newsom pitched nine no-hit innings in a start for the Browns against the Red Sox (he had given up one run on two walks and an error in the second). The game was tied 1-1 after nine and Newsom lost the no-hitter, and the game, on two walks and single in the tenth.
- In the 1940 World Series (Tigers versus Reds), Newsom, pitching for the Tigers, went 2-1, 1.38, pitching three complete games. He won Game One 7-2; pitched a three-hit shutout to win Game Five’ and, in Game Seven, on one days rest, went the distance in a 2-1 loss.
- Newsom is one of only two pitchers in MLB history – and the only one who pitched entirely in the Modern Era – with at least 200 wins and more losses than wins. (The other is Jack Powell, who went 245-255, 2.97 from 1897 through 1912.
———————————————————
Ray Kremer
Ray Kremer’s path to the majors was a challenging one. But once he got there, he made the most of it – including two 20-win seasons and a victory in Game Seven of a World Series. But, I’m getting ahead of the story here.
Kremer was a California native (that will come into play later) who was considered a big-time prospect and began his professional career in 1914 (as a 19-year-old) with the Sacramento Wolves of the Pacific Coast League before being signed by the New York Giants and making his way to his first MLB Spring Training in 1916. Unfortunately, health concerns (reportedly rheumatism) derailed his career and, after making an off-and-on recovery, Kremer was back in his home state and in the Pacific Coast League in 1917, where he developed into a durable and effective starter (winning 61 games between 1921 and 1923). Still, major-league scouts had concern about his past health issues and as Gregory Wolf reports in his Society for American Baseball Research Kremer bio, “Kremer acquired a reputation as a ‘warm weather’ pitcher, which deterred major league teams from offering him a chance in spring training.”
Finally, in 1923, the Pirates made a deal with the Oakland Oaks and (long story short), Kremer made his MLB debut on April 18, 1924 (about a month shy of his 30th birthday). That first MLB season, MLB rookie Kremer made the Pirates’ decision look good (and pitched like a veteran) – going 18-10, 3.19 and leading the NL in appearances 41 (30 starts) and in shutouts with four. In the six seasons from 1924 through 1929, Kramer went 107-55, 3.46, leading the league once in wins, once in winning percentage and twice in earned run average.
Then came that (then unicorn) 1930 season, when he went 20-12. 5.02, becoming the first pitcher to win 20 games with an earned run average of 5.00 or higher. That year, he led the NL in wins (tied), starts and innings pitched, as well as in hits and home runs allowed. There were some extenuating circumstances. That season six of the eight NL teams hit over .300 and the league had an overall .303 average. In fact, Kremer’s 5.02 ERA was pretty close to the league average of 4.97. Also , the Pirates hit .303 as a team and Kremer won nine games in which he gave up five or more runs. Overall, in the games Kremer started, the Pirate scored 6.6 runs per game, as opposed to 5.5 in the games he didn’t start. Still, while Kramer tied for the league lead in wins, his ERA was 25th among NL qualifiers. By comparison, Dazzy Vance had a 2.61 ERA (lowest among qualifiers), but went 17-15.
After his 20-win, 5.02 season (his age-35 season), Kremer’s fortunes seemed to decline. From 1931 through 1933 (his final MLB season), he went 16-18, 3.96. In his first seven MLB seasons, Krm,er went 127-67, 3.72 (averaging 18 wins a season), He finished with a career line of 143-85, 3.76, in 308 appearance (247 starts), with 134 complete games and 14 shutouts.
In the 1925 World Series, won by the Pirates (over the Nationals four games-to-three), Ray Kremer went 2-1, 3.00. He started and lost Game Three giving up four runs in a complete-game 4-3 loss. He then pitched a complete game, six-hitter for a 3-2 win in Game Six and came back on one day’s rest to pitch four innings (one run) to pick up the win in Game Seven (a 9-7 Pirates’ victory).
Primary Resources: Stathead.com; Ray Kremer Society for American Baseball Research bio, by Gregory H. Wolf; Bobo Newsom, Society for American Baseball Research Bio, by Ralph Berger.
Baseball Roundtable – Blogging Baseball Since 2012.
Baseball Roundtable is on the Feedspot list of the Top 100 Baseball Blogs. For the full list click here.
I tweet (on X) baseball @DavidBaseballRT. Follow me there for post notifications and links.
Follow Baseball Roundtable’s Facebook Page here.
Member: Society for American Baseball Research (SABR); Negro Leagues Baseball Museum; The Baseball Reliquary.
P 1182
Speak Your Mind