Timothy John “Tim” Keefe, nicknamed Sir Timothy, was born January 1, 1857 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
A superior submarine pitcher, Tim Keefe won 342 games in just 14 big league seasons. He ran off a record 19 straight victories during the 1888 season, twice won over 40 games and three times pitched his club to the pennant. He was the first pitcher to post three separate 300-strikeout seasons.
Welcome to the Baseball History Podcast: Featuring This Week in Baseball History, baseball dictionary and a tour of baseball cities. I’m your game announcer Bob Wright.
This is game 23 of the 2010 baseball season
In the first inning let’s take a look at This Week in Baseball History for the 1 week of June.
June 4
1890 Submariner Tim Keefe of the New York Giants franchise of the Players League defeats the Boston Reds, 9-4, to record his 300th win.
Timothy John “Tim” Keefe, nicknamed Sir Timothy, was born January 1, 1857 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
A superior submarine pitcher, Tim Keefe won 342 games in just 14 big league seasons. He ran off a record 19 straight victories during the 1888 season, twice won over 40 games and three times pitched his club to the pennant. He was the first pitcher to post three separate 300-strikeout seasons.
He was nicknamed “Sir Timothy” because of his gentlemanly behavior on and off the field.
Keefe was one of the iron-armed marvels of 19th-century baseball. His career spanned much of early baseball’s formative stages. He flourished in the days of two- or four-man pitching staffs, and threw mostly from 50′, although his rookie year was the last at 45′ and his final one the first at 60’6″.
Scarcely a season went by without an impressive, league-leading performance in one statistical category or another.
Keefe entered the major leagues in 1880 with the Troy Trojans. He immediately established himself as a talented pitcher, posting an astounding 0.86 Earned Run Average in 105 innings pitched, a record that still stands to this day. Despite the sterling Earned Run Average, he managed but a 6-6 record, pitching in 12 games, all complete games.
In 1883, after the Trojans folded, Keefe rose to stardom with the New York Metropolitans of the American Association under manager “Gentleman” Jim Mutrie and had one of the most dominating seasons in baseball’s early history. On July 4, he won a doubleheader against Columbus (OH), throwing a one-hitter in the morning game, a two-hitter after lunch. He went 41-27 over 619 innings pitched with a 2.41 Earned Run Average and 361 strikeouts.
His 1884 campaign was almost as dominant, winning 37 games, losing 17, and striking out 334.
Two years later, John B. Day, who owned both the Mets and the Giants, shifted Keefe and manager Mutrie to the National League team. Here, Keefe joined future Hall of Famers Buck Ewing, Monte Ward, Roger Connor, Mickey Welch, and “Orator” Jim O’Rourke to form an outstanding team that finished with a great 85-27 record. Keefe went 32-13 with a 1.58 Earned Run Average and 227 strikeouts.
In 1887 he had a nervous breakdown after hitting a batter in the head with a fastball.
He had arguably his greatest season in 1888, when he led the league with a 35-12 record, 1.74 Earned Run Average and 335 strikeouts. He won 19 consecutive games that season, a record that stood for 24 years.
The Giants played the St. Louis Browns of the American Association in a postseason series and Keefe added four more wins to his tally.
Shoulder-high overhand pitching was now permitted and coming into vogue. Keefe had his doubts about the effectiveness of full overhand pitching, but was strong for fundamentals, first of all control. He threw a fastball, curve, and a change-up.
Keefe moved to the Philadelphia Phillies mid-season 1891 and retired after the 1893 season. He retired with 342 wins, a 2.62 Earned Run Average, and 2562 strikeouts. His strikeout total was a major league record at the time of his retirement. He was also the first pitcher to achieve three 300-plus strikeout seasons. Interestingly, he still holds the record for having a win in the most ballparks, 47.
His 1889 contract paid him $4,500, more than any other Giant. Yet for all his star status, Keefe fought actively for ballplayers’ welfare. He helped his brother-in-law Monte Ward to establish the Players League and served as secretary for the Brotherhood. He protested player salary ceilings and was among those who won court tests of the reserve clause.
With the collapse of the Brotherhood, he signed with the Phillies for his final three years.
Finished as a player after 1893, he umpired in the National League for two years, then left the game for the real-estate business and occasional coaching duties at Harvard, Princeton, and Tufts.
He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1964.
Tim Keefe died April 23, 1933, at the age of 76, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
In this inning we’ll open up the Baseball Dictionary
Under the letter: C
Call for the ball
To yell a claim to a ball to prevent a misplay or a collision. When two players are headed for the same batted ball, one or the other, usually the one in the best position, takes command and claims it.
The first use was from a1888 publication by John Montgomery Ward, called Base-Ball: How to Become a Player. The publication states: “The necessity of ‘calling’ for a fly hit applies with particular force to the centre fielder. As soon as he has seen that he can get to a hit and has decided to take it, he calls out loudly so that every one must hear, ‘I’ll take it,’ and all other fielders near him respond, ‘Go ahead.’”
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