Baseball Player Won-Loss Records
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Cincinnati Reds at Pittsburgh Pirates, Forbes Field, Pittsburgh, PA
May 29, 1922

Introduction

For the next installment in my series of random game stories, we go farther back than I have gone before: back 98 years to May of 1922 and a battle between the Cincinnati Reds and the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The hometown Pirates entered play in second place in the National League with a record of 21-15. Their starting pitcher in the game was Whitey Glazner. Glazner had come somewhat out of nowhere in 1921 as a 27-year-old to go 14-5 with a 2.77 ERA in 234 innings pitched for the Pirates, the ERA good for third in the National League. In 1921, Glazner had led the NL in fewest hits per 9 innings (8.2) and was second in WHIP (1.16). So far, Glazner's 1922 season had not gone so well. He entered play with a record of 1-3 and a 4.34 ERA.

The visiting Reds, three years removed from winning the World Series, entered play in fourth place, with a record of 21-21. Their starting pitcher was a 21-year-old sensation in his first full season. After a respectable rookie season in 1921 (7-6, 3.35 ERA in 118.1 IP), Donohue had been a revelation so far in 1922, entering play on May 29th with a record of 6-2 and a sterling 1.63 ERA (the second-best in the NL so far in the 1922 season).

First Inning

Glazner got the leadoff hitter to fly out. But Jake Daubert smashed a triple to right-center field and Greasy Neale singled him home. But Neale was thrown out trying to stretch his hit into a double and when George Harper grounded out the inning was over.

But the Reds had an early 1-0 lead with their young ace pitcher on the mound.

Unfortunately for the Reds, their young ace started a little shaky. Future Hall-of-Famer Rabbit Maranville singled to left field. Future Hall-of-Famer Max Carey doubled to left field. And (non-Hall-of-Famer) Carson Bigbee was hit by a pitch to load the bases with nobody out.

Donohue settled down from there and retired the next three batters. But Maranville scored as Cotton Tierney was flying out to right field and Carey (having taken third on Tierney's fly out) scored as future Hall-of-Famer Pie Traynor was grounding out to the shortstop.

And so the Pirates led 2-1 after one inning.

Second - Third Innings

The teams traded 1-2-3 second innings.

In the top of the third, the Reds managed two hits, singles by Babe Pinelli and George Burns, with both runners advancing into scoring position with two outs. But Greasy Neale couldn't replicate his first-inning success. This time, he hit a ground ball to second baseman Cotton Tierney, who threw him out to end the inning.

The bottom of the third, meanwhile, was Donohue's second consecutive 1-2-3 inning giving him nine consecutive batters retired.

Fourth Inning

The Reds got their leadoff hitter on base for the second consecutive inning to start the fourth inning. This time, their leadoff hitter made it into scoring position as George Harper doubled to right field. Ivey Wingo flew out to left field for the first out. But Sam Bohne walked and the Reds looked like they might be able to get something going. But Ike Caveney hit into a 4-6-3 double play and just like that, the inning was over.

Donohue opened the bottom of the fourth inning by retiring his tenth consecutive batter, Cotton Tierney, on an infield pop. The next batter, Pie Traynor, hit a fly ball into deep left-center field. Left fielder Greasy Neale got his glove on the ball but dropped it. Traynor ended up on third base on the play which was ruled an error by Neale. Walter Mueller singled to center field to score Traynor with an unearned run.

Charlie Grimm popped out for what should have been the third out of the inning. Unfortunately for Donohue and the Reds, it was only the second out.

• Johnny Gooch singled to right field, sending Mueller to third.
• Glazner singled to right, scoring Mueller and sending Gooch to third.
• Maranville singled to right, scoring Gooch.
• Glazner, however, was thrown out trying to take third on Maranville's single.

And the inning was finally over. But not before the Pirates had scored three (unearned) runs and extended their lead to 5-1.

Fifth Inning

The Reds made some noise in the top of the fifth inning. With one out, pinch hitter Rube Bressler walked. With two outs, Jake Daubert singled Bressler to third. But Greasy Neale couldn't get him home, a fly out to right field ending the inning.

Bressler had pinch hit for Donohue whose day ended after only four innings. Donohue's day had included retiring 10 consecutive batters at one point. Unfortunately, Donohue's day began with three straight baserunners and ended with five of six batters reaching base. All of which added up to five runs (only two earned) on six hits. Donohue allowed no walks and had no strikeouts - results which were not as unusual in 1922 as they would be nearly a century later.

The new Reds pitcher was Karl Schnell. Schnell was a 22-year-old rookie whose major-league career would last almost exactly one year - he made his MLB debut on April 24, 1922 and his final MLB appearance came on April 19, 1923 - and 11 games, all in relief.

Schnell started out strong, getting Carey to ground out to first baseman Daubert unassisted. Schnell got Bigbee to hit a comebacker to the mound for what should have been an easy second out. But Schnell bobbled the ball allowing Bigbee to reach first base (the only error of Schnell's brief major-league career). Bigbee, however, was immediately caught trying to steal second base, so no harm was done.

With two outs, the Pirates finally seemed to figure Schnell out as Tierney and Traynor had back-to-back singles, putting runners on first and second. But Mueller hit into a force play and the inning was over.

Sixth - Eighth Innings

For the next three innings, Glazner and Schnell traded goose eggs.

Charlie Grimm walked to lead off the bottom of the sixth but was caught stealing.

Max Carey beat out an infield single with one out in the bottom of the seventh. But he was out trying to steal second while Schnell still had the ball (the out going pitcher to shortstop). Two walks followed, but the inning ended when Pie Trayner hit the ball to his third-base counterpart, Babe Pinelli, who stepped on third base for the inning-ending force play.

Charlie Grimm doubled with one out in the bottom of the eighth inning but could get no farther.

Meanwhile, Glazner pitched three consecutive 1-2-3 innings (giving him a total of 10 consecutive batters retired) which included two strikeouts.

Ninth Inning

In 1922, pitchers were expected to finish what they started. In the 1922 NL, starting pitchers completed 606 of 1,240 games started. Keeping in mind that there are two starters in every game, that works out to almost exactly one complete game per game played (606 CG in 620 games). In that context, there was little question but that Whitey Glazner would stay in to pitch the ninth inning. After all, through eight innings, he had held the Reds to one run on six hits and he had retired the last 10 batters he had faced.

Glazner's string of consecutive batters ended at ten. The inning opened with George Harper's second double of the game. Wingo grounded out and while Harper got to third on the play, that's a tradeoff that Glazner and the Pirates were glad to take. Sam Bohne shot a single up the middle scoring Harper, but the Pirates still led 5-2. And, having given the Reds a glimmer hope, Glazner bore down and snuffed that glimmer out, getting Ike Caveney and Babe Pinelli on infield pops and the game was over.

Pirates win, 5-2.

Game Summary

This game turned out to be something of an aberration in a number of respects. While the Pirates beat the Reds in this game, solidifying their hold on second place, that hold proved tenuous. The Pirates ended the season tied for third place with a record of 85-69. Finishing in second place, one game ahead of the Pirates, were the Cincinnati Reds.

The winning pitcher in this game was Whitey Glazner. He finished the 1922 season with a record of 11-12 with a 4.38 ERA. This was a step down from 1921 when he won 14 games. Unfortunately for Glazner, the trend continued. He won 9 games in 1923, 7 games in 1924, and was out of major-league baseball.

Pete Donohue, meanwhile, bounced back from this game to finish the 1922 season with a record of 18-9 with a 3.12 ERA, which was good for third in the NL. He followed that up with seasons of 21-15, 3.38; 16-9, 3.60; 21-14, 3.08; and 20-14, 3.37. His career kind of fizzled after that - likely the price of leading the league in games started and innings pitched the last two of those seasons (38 and 36; 301 and 285.2) and having complete games by season over this five-year stretch of 19, 19, 16, 27 (which led the NL in 1925), and 17 (with a league-leading 20 wins and 5 shutouts in 1926). But for his career, Donohue pitched over 2,000 innings and won 134 games. If you're like me, he might be one of the best pitchers that you may never have heard of.

On the other hand, the offensive stars of the game were a pair of Hall-of-Famers: Rabbit Maranville and Max Carey. Maranville ended up having a fine 1922 season with 198 hits, including 15 triples, and 115 runs scored. In fact, his .295 batting average and .355 on-base percentage in 1922 were the best of his career (outside of his 11-game 1918 season, before he joined the U.S. Navy for World War I) and his .378 slugging percentage was his third-best (one point below his .379 slugging percentage in 1921). Of course, Maranville isn't in the Hall of Fame for his batting; he's in their for his fielding (and his clowning). Although he also had a fine defensive game here.

The 1922 season was also one of Max Carey's finest. He ended the season with a batting line of .329/.408/.459 and he led the NL in stolen bases (51) and walks (80) while collecting 207 hits (4th in the NL) and scoring 140 runs (2nd in the NL).

So the game wasn't a complete aberration. A couple of Hall-of-Famers played like Hall-of-Famers which is always nice to see.

Details of the game are shown below. First, I show Player won-lost records for all of the players who participated in the game. Baseball Player won-lost records are constructed so that the players on the winning team earn two pWins and one pLoss in the game while the players on the losing team earn one pWin and two pLosses. I also show expected wins and losses, eWins and eLosses, which are context-neutral. Full play by play details of the game are shown below the won-lost tables. My Player won-lost records are described in more detail in this article and throughout my website.

Retrosheet Box Score and Play-by-Play