George Watt McQuillan was born May 1, 1885 in Brooklyn, New York.
McQuillan enjoyed one of the best rookie seasons in history, going 23-17 for the mediocre Phillies with a sparkling 1.53 Earned Run Average. An unusually fast worker even in an era of briskly paced games, McQuillan pitched with “supreme self-confidence” becoming known as the brightest young pitcher in the game. Within three years, however, his career came crashing down in a sordid web of alcoholism, sexual escapades, and financial troubles.
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 40 of the 2010 baseball season
In the first inning let’s take a look at This Week in Baseball History for the 4 week of September.
September 29
1907 Phillies’ freshman hurler George McQuillan begins his major league career with 32 shutout innings establishing a rookie record.
George Watt McQuillan was born May 1, 1885 in Brooklyn, New York.
McQuillan enjoyed one of the best rookie seasons in history, going 23-17 for the mediocre Phillies with a sparkling 1.53 Earned Run Average. An unusually fast worker even in an era of briskly paced games, McQuillan pitched with “supreme self-confidence” becoming known as the brightest young pitcher in the game. Within three years, however, his career came crashing down in a sordid web of alcoholism, sexual escapades, and financial troubles.
After playing outfield for his high-school team in Paterson, New Jersey, McQuillan got his start in professional baseball in 1904 with Paterson’s minor-league team in the Hudson River League.
Abandoning the outfield for the pitcher’s mound, McQuillan put together impressive minor-league stints before joining the Phillies in 1907.
He pitched well, posting a 4-0 record and 0.66 Earned Run Average in six games and set one of the longest-lived records in major league history when he pitched 25 innings before giving up the first earned run of his career. Although others have pitched more consecutive innings without an earned run, until July 2008 no one had gone longer without prior major league experience. The record stood for 101 years before being broken by Oakland Athletics reliever Brad Ziegler, who extended the record to 39 1/3 innings.
McQuillan’s extraordinary success as a rookie was no fluke: he would go on to post a 1.69 Earned Run Average in his first four seasons, comprising more than 800 innings pitched.
By almost any measuring stick, McQuillan was the second-best pitcher in the National League in the 1908 season, inferior only to Christy Mathewson. Baseball Magazine said he had “enough inherent ability to make him a worthy rival of Mathewson.” He also bore a striking physical and facial resemblance to the great Giant pitcher. “Big Mac” McQuillan was intimidating. As one writer put it, “he looms up on the landscape like the head boss of a gang of lumber jacks or a scene shifter in a stone quarry.” Thanks largely to McQuillan, who pitched in 48 games, the Phillies led the league in team Earned Run Average at 2.10.
McQuillan spent the winter of 1908-09 pitching in the Cuban Winter League. However, the team he pitched for was mired in last place with a 3-36 record and folded in mid-season. The free-spending McQuillan, who had been counting on a full season’s paycheck, was left penniless and stranded in Havana. He borrowed $25 from a friend for passage back to the United States, a debt the friend was still trying to collect three years later.
Shortly after returning from Cuba, McQuillan came down with what the media called a case of jaundice, but which probably was a venereal disease contracted in Havana. He still managed to pitch almost 250 innings in 1909, posting a 13-16 record despite a 2.14 Earned Run Average.
By that time George had become an alcoholic. While never overtly mentioning his alcoholism, sportswriters constantly criticized his “refusal to take care of himself”; one writer said his “careless disregard of training rules” had made him “undependable,” while another said he “failed to keep in condition.”
McQuillan’s unreliability limited him to 152 innings in 1910, and the frustrated Phillies decided to get rid of him even though he posted a league-leading 1.60 Earned Run Average. After the season the Phillies sent McQuillan to the Reds in a mammoth deal involving eight players, all of them major-league regulars.
Almost immediately after becoming property of the Reds, McQuillan hit rock bottom. On November 24, 1910, he reported to a medical clinic in Hot Springs, Arkansas, the Reds’ spring training site. He was diagnosed with secondary syphilis, an advanced but not serious stage of the disease.
Reds owner Garry Herrmann reluctantly agreed to pick up the tab for the treatment. McQuillan’s doctor in a letter Hermann wrote, “He must let alcohol alone and stick to his treatment and if he will do that he will come out all right. He has made up his mind thoroughly to abstain from alcohol in all forms and this will be of great value to him the coming year. I will outline a course of treatment for him to follow during the summer which will in no way interfere with his work and, I feel sure, will keep him in A-1 condition. [We] will take good care of him and see that he behaves.”
Though Dr. Forbes had assured Herrmann that his pitcher would be as good as new by the start of spring training, McQuillan in 1911 bore no resemblance to the promising pitcher of a few years before. After watching him post a 2-6 record and 4.68 Earned Run Average in half a season, the Reds, according to one report, “jumped at the chance to let him slide to the minors when the opportunity presented itself.” The Reds felt that “McQuillan’s persistent refusal to take care of himself and to lead the simple life ruined a most promising career.” They sold his contract to Columbus of the American Association.
The move seemed to wake up McQuillan, and he became determined to make it back to the majors. He told Baseball Magazine, “I won’t be there long, let me tell you. They can’t keep me down in the sticks.” That statement is ironic in hindsight, for McQuillan spent the rest of his life in the Ohio capital–it remained his permanent home until his death.
In the three seasons he pitched for the Columbus Senators, McQuillan compiled a 34-30 record with a 2.34 Earned Run Average.
In 1913 he was hit on the head by a line drive, an injury that at first was believed to be career-threatening. He recovered quickly, however, and had a 12-4 record in July 1913 when he returned to the majors with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
McQuillan had three average seasons with Pittsburgh before being sold back to the Phillies for the waiver price in mid-1915.
He pitched relatively well and helped the Phillies win the 1915 National League Pennant. He is still the Philadelphia Phillies Career Leader in Earned Run Average with a mark of 1.79.
Philadelphia let him go during the1916 season.
After a brief stint with Cleveland in 1918, McQuillan’s major-league career was over. His career won/loss record stood at 85 wins and 89 losses. However, his career earned run average was a very good 2.38.
He played in the minors until 1924, pitching for Kansas City, Peoria, Nashville, New Orleans, Rock Island, and Columbus, the latter two of which he also managed.
George McQuillan died on May 30, 1940 in Columbus Ohio.
A large part of this biography comes from the SABR Baseball Biography Project written by Eric Enders. It can be found online at http://bioproj.sabr.org
In this inning we’ll open up the Baseball Dictionary
Under the letter: B
Batboy
A young man employed by a team to take care of its players’ personal equipment before, during, and after games. Traditionally, the most important responsibility of the job is to retrieve each players bat from home plate where it has been dropped or tossed and put it back in its proper place in the bat rack.
The batboy is also responsible for keeping the home plate umpire supplied with baseballs.
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Well, that’s it for today’s game of Baseball History Podcast. I’ll see you later at the ballpark.
