Baseball Way Back: Fan makes pitch for pre-Wrigley Cubs hurler
Even the most die-hard Cubs fans might be stumped at mention of the name Ed Reulbach.
Yet the 6-1, 190-pound right-hander was a dominant pitcher for the Cubs during the glory years when they won back-to-back World Series in 1907 and 1908.
Indeed, there was a time when the Cubs were a bona fide dynasty and would have matched the Bulls' three-peats were it not for the Hitless Wonders from the South Side in 1906.
Reulbach was an iron man on the staff for that dynasty, posting records of 19-4, 17-4 and 24-7, respectively, in 1906, 1907 and 1908.
On Sept. 26, 1908, he pitched both ends of a doubleheader against the Brooklyn Superbas and blanked the Brooklynites in both games, 5-0 and 3-0. He remains the only pitcher in MLB history to toss a doubleheader shutout.
Other feats of endurance included a 20-inning effort in a 2-1 win on Aug. 24, 1905 against Philadelphia.
From 1905 through 1917, Reulbach compiled a 182-106 record, with a 2.28 ERA. In 300 starts, he completed 200 of them, with 40 shutouts. He was an innings eater, piling up 2,632⅓ innings and throwing 1,137 strikeouts.
Reulbach's WHIP is 1.1431 which ties him for 63rd on the list with another Cub you might find more recognizable - Greg Maddux.
Despite his dominance, Reulbach received nary a vote for the Hall of Fame.
Southampton, Pa., baseball fan Edward Monastra wants to change that.
He recently sent me a 15-page missive stating his case for Reulbach's induction, urging, "Please, please, please do not summarily dismiss what I am advocating," despite, he said, what others have seen and dismissed.
His case is, by necessity, a statistical one. There is no Ed Reulbach highlight reel. Only black-and-white photos and the colorful, hyperbolic word pictures painted by such scribes as the Chicago Tribune's Charles Dryden.
On Sept. 27, Dryden described Reulbach's double-dip triumph in Brooklyn, reporting the presence of a fife and drum corps.
He marveled at the "grace, style, endurance, and speed of Mr. Reulbach," adding, "He put the locals away so easily in the curtain raiser that (Cubs Manager Frank) Chance granted his request to go in and bring them in again."
In the nightcap, he wrote, "The big chap was even better in the second go and his speed fairly blinded the dizzy young men of this town."
Glimpses are also provided by recollections from his contemporaries.
In a 1967 interview, catcher Chief Meyers compared Reulbach, with his high leg kick, to the Giants' Juan Marichal.
According to an article by Cappy Gagnon, writing for the Society for American Baseball Research, Reulbach employed the technique of "shadowing," or hiding the ball, during his windup.
He also possessed a devastating curveball.
If he had a weakness, it was a tendency toward wildness.
He revealed the cause, a weak left eye, to sports writer Hugh Fullerton in 1920.
"Lots of times the sweat and heat would affect the good eye and I'd have to figure out where the plate was," he said.
Monastra builds a strong case by comparing Reulbach to 12 Hall of Fame pitchers from the "Early Baseball Era" (pre-1950), Ed Walsh, Addie Joss, Rube Waddell, Chief Bender, Hal Newhouser, Jack Chesbro, Lefty Gomez, Dazzy Vance, Dizzy Dean, Rube Marquard, Stan Coveleski and Jesse Haines.
The pitchers, he writes, won between 150 games (Dean) and 215 games (Coveleski). Reulbach won 182.
These dozen hurlers also lost as few as 83 games (Dean) and as many as 177 (Marquard). Reulbach lost 106.
Only two of the 12, Gomez and Dean, have winning percentages higher than Reulbach's .632.
How about lifetime ERA? Only three of the 12 pitchers (Walsh, Joss and Waddell) have a lifetime ERA lower than Ed Reulbach's 2.28.
Reulbach threw two 1-hitters, six 2-hitters, and 13 3-hitters.
He also surrendered fewer hits than innings pitched in each of his 13 seasons, a feat unmatched by any Hall-of-Famer.
Over a two-year span, 1906 to 1907, Reulbach would win 17 consecutive games.
He also set an NL record with 44 consecutive scoreless innings in 1908.
He led his league in winning percentage 1906-1908, a feat equaled only by Lefty Grove, another Hall of Famer.
And in 1909, he had a 14-game winning streak.
Reulbach and the Cubs would enjoy one more World Series appearance in 1910.
In 1913, he was traded to Brooklyn, after which he moved to the Federal League's Newark Peppers in 1915. His final two years in the majors were spent in the National League with the Boston Braves.
His post-baseball life fell short of his diamond glory. According to an article from 1937, he became commissioner of labor in a Jersey shipyard in 1917, then from 1920 to 1928 manager of a piano manufacturers' association in New York.
From 1928 to 1931, he was in Switzerland with his son, who suffered a spine injury that proved fatal.
After working as a tire merchant in Maplewood, N.J., he retired. He died in 1961 in Glens Falls, N.Y.
Monastra, who has visited the Hall of Fame five times, said he plans to go back. Perhaps one day, he will find that the group of 12 Hall of Fame pitchers he mentioned has become a baker's dozen.
• Reach Steve at szalusky@dailyherald.com