Happy Birthday Addie Joss!

 Happy Birthday to the late and great Hall of Fame pitcher Addie Joss!

Addie Joss Career Statistics (1902-1910):

160-97 W-L, 1.89 ERA, 2,327.0 IP, 0.968 WHIP

Addie Joss pitched his entire career for the Cleveland Bronchos/Naps, now Guardians. His nine-year pitching career is among the best of all time. Of all the pitchers who've thrown at least 1,000 Innings, his lifetime 1.89 ERA is ranked second all-time, and his lifetime 0.968 WHIP is the lowest. Joss was known as an exceptional control pitcher with a deceptive pitching motion. The right-hander operated a corkscrew delivery while in motion he'd turn his back entirely to the hitter and then fire a sidearm motion that confused most hitters. He had four 20-win seasons, two ERA titles, and threw two No-Hitters and a Perfect game during his career. His final season in 1908 was one of the greatest pitching performances ever. He combined a 24-11 W-L record and led pitchers with a 1.16 ERA and 0.806 WHIP over 325 Innings Pitched.

    After spending the last two seasons on and off the DL due to arm troubles, he entered the 1911 season, hoping to pitch later on after extra rest. Unfortunately, he fainted on the field on April 3rd while talking to a teammate. He was ill and would spend the next week and a half in and out of hospital care and would later die on April 14th at the age of 31 due to tuberculous meningitis. 

Written & Published by Robert Dobek

Follow on Twitter @RobTheYankee

References:

1. Addie Joss Career Statistics via Baseball-Reference: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/j/jossad01.shtml

2. Semchuck, Alex. Addie Joss via SABR: https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/addie-joss/