Hugh Daily and the Strikeout Record

Baseball records are often qualified by era.  Dead-ball, live-ball, and steroid are the three we’ve come to know.  The live-ball is simple, it’s when your dad’s favorite players played and Babe Ruth is generally credited with its advent.  The steroid era is when your favorite players played, and you can draw your own conclusions as to who ushered that one in.  The dead-ball era though, is a bit more nebulous.  Probably because the game then was alien to the one we’re accustomed to watching on our HD-TVs.  The dead-ball era takes us back to a time when reporting, rules, and really everything down to the core of the game was very, very different.  For instance, in 1884, what was then considered the Major Leagues implemented a rule change that allowed pitchers to throw overhand.  I told you things were different back then.

One of the more impressive records in baseball lore was accomplished that same year by Hugh Ignatious “One-Arm” Daily.  In 1884 Daily played  for the Washington Nationals and a Chicago/Pittsburgh team that finished 6th in Union Association.  Anyway, old One Arm’s record was for strikeouts.   He set the single season mark at 483.  Though that was broken one year later, it still stands as the third best single season tally in history.  What Daily really had going though was his K/9.  His rate of 8.68 stood as the single best mark for 72 years.  And there’s one little stat I forgot to mention. One Arm Daily had exactly that: one (1) arm.

Daily is as fascinating a character as there is in the history of the game, and it’s not just for being the first Jim Abbot (star pitcher in the 90’s who also famously had one hand).  Legend has it that Daily lost his in some sort of accident around the age of 17.  Reports vary, but one account has him a victim of an errant gunshot thanks to a play prop, while another account has him spilling chemicals on the famously absent left hand before losing it.  By all accounts, Daily was an absolute jerk.  Various independent sources describe him as surly, uncommunicative, sour, abusive, and down-right mean.

One Arm made due in the late 19th century with one arm by wearing a leather pad over the stub pinning thrown balls between the padded stub and his body.  Apparently, the stub frequently became quite tender.  After his catcher Tom Dolan had thrown a few too many balls with some zip back at Daily, One Arm told him to “Arch ’em, Tom, Arch ’em.”  After Dolan kept firing the balls back, Daily called his catcher out to the mound and promptly clubbed him with his left stub.  Evidently this wasn’t a one time incident.

Daily was a favorite amongst fans for his “gamecock battling against umpires and rival players.”  He was ultimately black listed and out of the Major Leagues after six seasons because managers, fellow players, and owners could not stand his surly attitude.

But let’s get back to the significance of “eras.”  In Daily’s day, pitchers pitched from 50 feet and were allowed to “move freely around a pitchers box” (I picture the current fast-pitch softball set up).  While many pitchers (legally) took several steps before delivering the ball, Daily did not, and his delivery would be quite similar to that of the modern stretch.  It has been theorized that Daily threw from a very low arm angle (think Chad Bradford) as he was dominant before the rule change allowing overhand pitches.  He was however, frequently called for balks, but I suppose that could just be a product of him being a total jerk.  In all, 1884 was a good year for Hugh Daily.  He hit .214 in 201 at bats, and was the beneficiary of another rule change that helped pave the way for his duo of single season records: the number of balls allowed before a walk was raised to 7.

While the rules were different back then, Daily’s strikeout totals were still very impressive.  His 8.9 K/9 stood for 72 years before Herb Score broke it in 1955.  Only two other pitchers even cracked the 8’s in that span, and thrice the league leader’s mark was in the 3’s.  For some context, Roger Maris’ home run record stood for 39 years.  George Sisler’s single season hits record stood for 84 years.  Cy Young has held the wins record for 106 years.  And the Cubs haven’t won the World Series in 104 105 years. In no way is this list comprehensive, but Daily’s 72 year reign as the K/9 king fits right in there.

Oh yeah, Hugh “One Arm” Daily is still tied for one record: 20 strikeouts in a 9 inning game.  Some reports even say the big righty did it twice in that famed 1884 season.  So if we’re counting (and I am) that’s 128 years holding a record.  I’m not sure, but that’s gotta be a record in its own right.

Stat of the Day.  Its a good one…. but ya gotta click here.

-Sean Morash