The Worst Baseball Pitchers of All Time: Bad Luck, Bad Arms, Bad Teams, and Just Plain Bad

Everyone has heard of the superstars,like Cy Young, Walter Johnson, Bob Gibson, Nolan Ryan. But the truly bad hurlers? John Ewing, who was 6-30 in 1889? Howie Hudson, 1-14 in 1949. How about-surprise!-Don Larson, who bounced back from a dismal 3-21 record in 1954 to pitch the only perfect game in World Series history two seasons later? Divided into premodern, dead-ball, long-ball, postwar, and expansion eras, the book determines the hurler who was arguably the worst in each season since 1876. The authors also compare players of different eras.

A father-son research team chronicles the major leagues's greatest losers, using the statistical indexes of John Thorn and Pete Palmer ( Total Baseball , Warner, 1991. 2d ed.). The Kaufmans offer the worst hurlers from five different major league eras, for the 20th century, and for all time. They bestow their nominees with Skunk Stearns Awards, in honor of Bill Stearns, an early victim. In addition to citing the big losers for each year, they ironically include both Hall of Famers and Cy Young Award winners who had their share of bad seasons. While the heavy use of statistics may discourage casual readers, this should attract attention in large sports collections.
- Morey Berger, St. Joseph's Hosp. Medical Lib., Tucson
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.