by Bill Nowlin, SABR.org
If you were going to launch a whole new baseball franchise, what better pitcher to hand the game ball to for the very first game than someone named Win? That’s just what Boston Americans manager Jimmy Collins did when he asked Win Kellum to start the April 26, 1901, ballgame in Baltimore, facing Iron Man Joe McGinnity.
Win lost.
The final score was Baltimore 10, Boston 6. In the process of pitching the game, Kellum registered a number of firsts. As a pitcher, he holds the first start and the first complete game (as well as the first loss) for the Bostons. He allowed the first hit (leadoff batter John McGraw doubled to right field in the bottom of the first inning); the first run (the second batter up, Turkey Mike Donlin, followed McGraw’s double with a triple to right); and the first base on balls (Kellum walked Jimmy Williams, the third batter up in the first inning). He also record the first out – being a strikeout of Cy Seymour, it was also the first K. At bat, he collected the first hit by a Boston Americans pitcher, a scratch single in the eighth, and was the first pitcher lifted for a pinch-hitter (fellow Canadian Larry McLean, in the ninth, who doubled). Read more en cliquant ici
