Slippery Elm Boy Update 1904:
Two of our wet wily whippers again sat out of organized baseball in 1904.
Bill Hart, now 38 who last played for Chicago two years ago, is probably done for his career while
Chick Fraser, formerly of Philadelphia, is still young enough (31) but perhaps still too stubborn to end his “holdout.” In Boston, the Pilgrims returned to respectability, perhaps in part due to the strong pitching of
Bill Dineen, who nearly claimed one-third of the team’s victories. He had a six-game winning streak at the beginning of June and perhaps pitched his finest game against on Independence Day in the nation’s capital with a 3-0 shutout and 7 strikeouts. Teammate
Long Tom Hughes was an average pitcher at best this year, but with a little less control and less run support, he nearly matched his career-high in losses.
Norwood Gibson was having a fine second season, allowing a .195 opponents batting average. He beat fellow Elm Boy
Earl Moore and eventual American League Champion Cleveland 2 to 1 in a 12 inning marathon. However, the team traded Gibson to Seattle of the Pacific Coast League (now aligned with the National Commission) for the versatile slugger Paul Stroh. Stroh hit as poorly as the rest of the Bostons while Gibson was nearly unhittable in California.
Norwood Gibson
Jack Chesbro again had a poor year, this time without the guidance of veteran
Clark Griffith, our mercurial hurler, now with Chesbro’s former team Pittsburg. One must believe that Chesbro was plagued by the Old Fox's double-cross, and labored to a 24-loss record. He was even pulled for a start on May 20 but still suffered the loss in relief. He started the next game however and lost 8-2 against Chicago, but came back and won his most impressive start of the year against St. Louis with a 4-hit shutout.
The accolades of Crossfire Earl Moore continued in 1904, enjoying his third straight 20 win season for Cleveland. He also finished second in the league in striking out batsmen. Moore’s success rubbed off on two other teammates who enjoyed breakout seasons.
Cy Morgan began the year with the St. Louis Browns who at the time were in second place behind the Naps. He was the best newcomer in the league in June where he won 5 games and whipped a 1.89 ERA but then was inexplicably traded to Cleveland in July for rookie third baseman George Stovall. Morgan proceeded to go 12-4 the rest of the season and won two masterful games against Philadelphia in the World’s Series.
Cy Morgan
Elmer Stricklett signed on with the White Sox but it was two of his pupils that earned great success with the parent club as Elmer toiled in the minors all year. After a short stint at Minneapolis, where he met Stricklett,
George “Sassafrass” Winter regained his starting position with the White Sox and found his groove with the saliva shoot in the summer months, where at one point he won 11 of 12 contests in the push to catch Cleveland. Another fellow minor leaguer,
Big Ed Walsh, 23 years old, took to Stricklett’s new fangled pitch and put his own bent on it. He simply dominated in his third year with the Millers, earning his third-straight 20-win season with a 26-5 record and a fantastic 0.83 ERA. Batsmen only hit .159 against the big hurler from Plains, Texas, and he carried a heavy fastball too, striking out 230 men in 282 innings. That performance earned him a call up to Chicago where he continued his absolute dominance, winning 7 against 2 losses, a 1.26 ERA and a 4:1 strikeout to walk ratio. Look for Walsh to be the craze of 1905!
George Winter 
Ed Walsh
Clark Griffith enjoyed a fine season in pitching friendly Pittsburg, where he reclaimed his first 20-win season since 1899. He didn’t falter down the stretch but it wasn’t enough to catch pennant winner Philadelphia, where our old friend
Frank Corridon failed to crack the big league team all year. Despite pitching effectively, he suffered an elbow injury and was out 2 months. Suddenly with the National League’s best pitching, it looks unlikely that he or
Fred Mitchell will escape the minor leagues.
Code:
Player Team W L SV ERA G GS IP HA BB K CG SHO
B. Hart - no team this year -
C. Fraser - no team this year -
B. Dineen BOS 23 15 0 2.27 40 40 373.0 330 84 165 35 3
T. Hughes BOS 12 24 0 2.41 38 38 336.0 312 104 179 30 3
N. Gibson BOS 7 7 0 1.73 14 14 120.0 85 48 50 10 1
J. Chesbro NYH 15 24 0 3.13 40 39 344.2 349 91 186 34 3
E. Moore CLE 21 17 0 1.95 39 39 354.2 269 91 240 37 4
C. Morgan CLE 23 14 0 1.95 37 37 337.1 248 94 192 34 4
E. Stricklett CHA - minor leagues -
G. Winter CHA 19 11 0 2.32 31 31 275.1 231 57 105 29 4
E. Walsh CHA 7 2 0 1.26 9 9 86.0 60 12 45 8 1
C. Griffith PIT 24 12 0 1.98 37 37 326.2 287 55 111 33 4
F. Corridon PHN - minor leagues -