Jake Arrieta’s Connection to 19th Century Baseball!

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Pub Gavin, Larry Corcoran Photo Gallery
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Jake Arrieta And His  Connection To 19th Century Baseball!

The Cubs’ Jake Arrieta throws his second no-hitter, and he’s being compared to…Nolan Ryan, perhaps? How about Sandy Koufax or Bob Gibson? Cy Young maybe?

Nope…The names I heard being mentioned in the same breath with Jake Arrietta are none other than 19^th-Century stars Pud Gavin and Larry Corcoran! Of course, being the baseball history buff that I am, my mind immediately starts spinning, thinking this could make a great post on Old-Time Baseball Photos.

And why, you are probably asking, is Arrieta being mentioned with Gavin and Corcoran? It turns out that with the Cubs winning 16-0, this was the first time a team scored as least 16 runs and no-hit the opponent since Pud Gavin, pitching for the Buffalo Bisons, beat the Detroit Wolverines 18-0 on August 4, 1884. And as for Corcoran, Arrieta joins the ranks of Corcoran and Holtzman as the only Cubs with multiple no-hitters. Corcoran actually leads the trio with three (two in 1880 and another 1884).

Of course, this gave me a reason to read up a little bit about these two stars from a by-gone era, and I was in for quite a surprise. Pub Gavin was quite a pitcher! He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1965 with good reason. Check out his career numbers. Some are “off the charts!”

Over a 15-year career, James “Pud” Gavin played for the St. Louis Brown Stockings (1875), Buffalo Bisons (1879-1885), Pittsburgh Alleghenies (1885-1889), Pittsburgh Burghers (1890), Pittsburgh Pirates (1891-1892), and St. Louis Browns (1892). The nickname “Pud” originated because Galvin was said to make hitters “look like pudding.” He posted a career 365-320 record, with a 2.85 ERA and 1807 strike outs. Most notable is that he was the Major Leagues’ first 300 game winner. On August 20, 1880, he also became the first Major Leaguer to throw a no-hitter on the road, leading his Buffalo Bisons to a 1-0 victory over the Worcester Worcesters.

 Galvin played in an era in which two-man pitching rotations were the norm.  That explains his 6,003 innings and 646 complete games, both of which are second only to Cy Young. At retirement, Galvin held all-time records in wins, innings pitched, games started, games completed and shutouts. He’s the only player in history to win 20 or more games in 10 different years without winning a pennant. I’d say he was Hall-of-Fame material!

As for Larry Corcoran (177-89, 2.36 ERA), while not as accomplished as Pud Gavin, he had some pretty good career highlights too. He won 43 games in 1880 as a rookie, leading the Chicago White Stockings (later the Cubs) to the National League championship. Cap Anson alternated him with pitcher Fred Goldsmith, giving the White Stockings the first true pitching “rotation.” In addition to his three no-hitters – a record that stood until 1965, when Sandy Koufax threw his fourth –  he led the National League in wins (1881), ERA (1882), and strike outs (1880). He is also famous for being one of baseball’s very few “switch-pitchers,” and is the only player in Major League history whose batting-throwing combination was “Bats left, Throws both.”

It turns out that Jake Arrieta being mentioned with Pud Gavin and Larry Corcoran actually puts him in some pretty good company!

-Gary Livacari

Photo Credits: All from Public Domain

Information: Excerpts edited from the Pud Gavin and Larry Corcoran Wikipedia pages.

Statistics from the Pud Gavin page on Baseball-Refernce.com

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