Happy Birthday Vic Willis!

 Happy Birthday to the late and great Hall of Fame pitcher Vic Willis.

Career Statistics (1898-1910):

249-205 W-L, 2.63 ERA, 3,996 IP, 1.209 WHIP

            Vic Willis pitched for the Boston Beaneaters, now called Atlanta Braves, Pittsburgh Pirates, and St. Louis Cardinals, throughout his 13-year career. He was one of the better pitchers in the dead-ball era. He was an overhand throwing and a big strikeout pitcher in his career. He led the Majors with a 2.50 ERA in 1899 and Strikeouts in 1902 with 225. He won 20 or more games eight times. Willis proved himself as an excellent fielding pitcher. In 1904 he recorded 39 putouts, a modern NL record that stood for nearly a century. Most of his career occurred in Boston, but arguably the best part was in 1909 when he won 22 games with the Pirates and beat the Tigers in the 1909 World Series.

            It's a shame that guys like Vic Willis are forgotten. I understand they pitched in the Dead Ball Era, but back then, you were expected to pitch multiple times in five days and go the whole game. While Willis lost many games, it wasn't his fault. Between 1903-1905, the offense for the Beaneaters was poor. I've said this before, and I'll repeat it: very few pitchers log in 200 innings today; over a hundred years ago, pitchers were logging in over 300. 

Written & Published by Robert Dobek

Follow on Twitter @RobTheYankee

References:

1. Vic Willis Career Statistics via Baseball-Reference: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/willivi01.shtml

2. R. Levitt, Daniel. Vic Willis via SABR: https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/vic-willis/