All-Time Indians: Cinders O’Brien

Expanding the definition of what it is to be a member of the Cleveland Indians, for the sake of not leaving anyone behind, we will include all professional baseball teams to play in the city of Cleveland. Starting pitcher Cinders O’Brien was one of very few to play on three different pro teams (two franchises) in Cleveland.

Originally signed by the Cleveland Blues in 1888, O’Brien came out of nowhere (he has no recorded minor league statistics) to become the Blues second best starter in their second year of existent. Jersey Bakley was the ace and pitched most of the team’s games (2.98 ERA in 61 games and 532.2 IP), but there were still plenty of innings for O’Brien as he pitched 259 in his rookie year. His 3.30 ERA would be the best of his short career and the same is true of his 135 strike outs and 4.7 K/9. While that K/9 doesn’t seem impressive in the modern day, it was the best ever in a single season for a Cleveland pitcher from the Forest Citys in 1871 until Earl Moore‘s 1903 season (5.39) with the American League Cleveland Blues.

While the disparity of talent of the age allowed even mediocre pitchers to accomplish incredible feats, the simple fact that O’Brien pitched 259 innings in his first professional season is worth crediting. Another large change over the ages has been the coddling of pitchers and it is rare to see a team allow a top level rookie to throw more than 150 innings. While it now extends careers, the simple effort at the time is commendable. The simple fact is, he completed a modern starters work load (30 starts) without needing a reliever a single time during the entire season.

In 1889 the Blues changed to the Spiders and jumped from the American Association to the National League, but kept the majority of the players around, including O’Brien. That year, Bakley took a reduced role of “just” 34 starts and 304.1 innings with O’Brien taking over the ace spot after his tremendous rookie campaign. He increased his workload to the greatest it would ever be, 346.2 in 41 starts, 39 of which he completed. In addition to both those numbers, he also lead the team with 22 wins.

The Spiders used just six pitchers in 1890 and two combined for a total of 18 innings, so it was effectively a four man staff that pitched the entire season and O’Brien was the first into the fray. In addition to Bakley and O’Brien, Ed Beatin also threw more than 300 innings and was the best of the three in the end. In 1890, he would take over for O’Brien as the ace of the Spiders, throwing 474 innings in 54 starts, but that was largely because O’Brien was no longer with the Spiders.

That year, the players dissatisfaction with the financial situation in baseball (including low salaries and no leverage when negotiating future pay because teams controlled players as long as they wanted them), lead to a large group of them leaving the National League to form the shortly lived Players League. This short lived league would last just a single season, but featured enough Major League talent to be considered a competing league to the National League and the American Association. While Beatin didn’t jump, the rest of the four man rotation did as O’Brien, Bakley and Henry Gruber left to form 3/4 of the new Cleveland Infants rotation.

This would be his last season in Cleveland as, unlike Gruber, he would not return to the Spiders in 1891. It was another impressive one for O’Brien, finishing second to Gruber in innings with 206.1 in 25 starts, 22 of them complete games. He struck out just 54, but managed a 3.40 ERA, the best among the starters that now also included Willie McGill. The Infants finished seventh among the eight teams and were disbanded at the end of the season, unlike some of the other squads including the Philadelphia Athletics and Boston Reds who moved to the American Association.

It was with the latter team that O’Brien jumped to for the 1891 season, the last of the American Association as well. Still in his prime at 24 years old, he threw 268.2 innings in 30 starts and was also used as a reliever for the first time in his career, coming in from the bullpen ten times. His 3.65 ERA was impressive and even considering the shorter average career length in the 1800’s, he could have been expected to be a productive pitcher for years to come.

Instead, in March of 1892, just before the next season was to begin, Cinders O’Brien caught pneumonia and died at the age of 24. His was a promising career and life cut short by a disease that is now fairly easily treated with simple antibiotics. It is almost fitting as his whole career was inconceivable by modern standards.

In over 100 years of American League baseball, only 49 pitchers have matched O’Brien’s career mark of 812 innings pitched and certainly none of them did it in only three seasons and less than 100 total games pitched. Among pre-American League Cleveland teams, his short run still allows him to sit in the top five in total strike outs, K/9 and average against and in the top ten in almost every other major statistic.