Addie Joss, the forgotten pitching legend

Adrian “Addie” Joss throws warmup tosses prior to a start with the Cleveland Naps, where he played from 1902-1910. Photo by the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Jack Butler jbutle58@lakers.mercyhurst.edu

ERIE, Pennsylvania – Most hardcore baseball fans know Cy Young, Lefty Grove, Bob Feller, Bob Gibson, Sandy Koufax, Nolan Ryan, Greg Maddux, Randy Johnson, Roy Halladay, and Max Scherzer but not many know the great Addie Joss. The reason is there is hardly any film of him pitching and the spectators who witnessed Joss are already dead. Even though these two factors appear currently, arguably one of the most successful pitchers in the early twentieth century can gain more appreciation today.

On April 12, 1880, in Woodland, Wisconsin Adrian “Addie” Joss was born, the only child of Jacob and Theresa Joss. As Joss grew, he formed into a tall, skinny frame while spotting noticeably long arms. These physical characteristics would eventually garner him the nicknames the Human Hairpin and the Human Slat. When Joss was around 18 or 19, he joined the Oshkosh, Wisconsin, baseball team after being offered a $10 a week salary to play for them. Unfortunately, they disbanded the first Oshkosh club, then Joss supplemented another team to Manitowoc, Wisconsin, initially playing second base and later as a pitcher. Due to his success on the mound led to the Toledo Mud Hens of the Inter-State League giving him his first professional contract.

Joss started the Mud Hen’s opening day game on April 28, 1900, holding on to a 16-8 victory in his initial professional start. During his first campaign, he mustered a 19-16 record and followed it up with winning a stellar 25 games and striking out 216 hitters. These two years were good enough for the Cleveland Broncho’s of the American League to give him an invitation to spring training and his performance amazed Cleveland management which resulted in Joss earning a spot out of spring training.

At the young age of 22, Joss started his major league career with a bang by putting on one of the most spectacular pitching debuts in history. Almost two years to the day since being the opening hurler for Toledo, he faced the St. Louis Browns on April 26, 1902, and retired hitter after hitter while also taking a no-no into the sixth frame. Unfortunately, Jesse Burkett of the Browns’ hit a short bloop fly to right field in the sixth. Broncho outfielder Zara Harvey attempted to make a sliding catch, but home plate umpire Bob Caruthers ruled the play a base hit, which sparked heated disapproval from the Cleveland faithful. Joss only allowed the weak hit and defeated the Browns handedly, 3-0. “The Human Hairpin” won 16 more games during the regular season finishing 17-13, with 28 complete games, a 2.77 ERA and a league-leading five shutouts.

Joss continued to show advances in the 1903 campaign by winning 18 contests and lowering his ERA to 2.19 but his dominance on the pitching slab began the following year. In 1904 “the Human Hairpin” recorded a 1.59 ERA, which led the major leagues, in just his third season in the majors while also pitching 20 complete games out of the limited 24 starts due to an illness. Joss’s first of four consecutive 20-win seasons began in 1905 when he produced a 20-12 record with a 2.01 ERA and tossed three shoutouts. A year later, Joss had an ERA under two at 1.72 and won .700 percent of 32 starts for a record of 21-9. Then, Joss took an off-season job following the 1906 season at the Toledo News Bee as the journalists of a Sunday sports column. Joss penned his own sports column which he discussed serious issues of baseball, related entertaining stories from his personal experiences in the game and covered the Mud Hens and other local baseball clubs. The recognizable voice in the column helped give Joss improved fan support during his holdout for an increased salary prior to the start of the 1907 campaign. Joss settled for a contract worth $4,000.

1907 was Addie Joss’s best season of his short career as he won his first ten starts in a row leading to 27 victories which would tie for the American League lead. “The Human Hairpin” pitched phenomenally for the Naps in 1908 leading to earning his second ERA title, keeping them in a close three-team pennant race. Joss waited until October 2nd to shine the brightest when he faced off against the Chicago White Sox right-handed hurler Big Ed Walsh at League Park in Cleveland.

Entering the contest, Chicago was behind the Naps by a game, and Cleveland was a half-game behind the first-place Tigers. Joss and Walsh were throwing up zeros left and right in arguably the greatest pitchers duel of all time. During the third frame, a passed ball by White Sox catcher Osee Schrecongost allowed Naps outfielder Joe Birmingham to score the only run of the game. Joss kept Chicago in check and had a 1-0 advantage while also carrying a perfect game into the ninth inning. “The Human Hairpin” sent down the first two hitters, then pinch hitter John Anderson drilled a would-be double down the line that just went foul. Then, Anderson grounded weakly to third baseman Bill Bradley, who added to the pressure by bobbling the ball and then tossing it low, however first baseman George Stovall scoped up the toss to complete the second perfect game in the history of the American League. The most impressive feat of the game was that Joss only needed 74 pitches to out-muster Walsh and sent down all 27 Chicago batters.

The season ended in disappointment for the Naps as the Tigers won the pennant with a victory on October 6 over the White Sox, but the campaign ended in the closest Joss came to go to a World Series. Joss pitched 24 wins, his final 20-win season, and with his 1.16 ERA had the ninth-lowest ERA in baseball history.

During the 1908-1909 off-season, Joss spent it studying the engineering books, designing an electronic scoreboard that would give fans the ability to know the balls and strikes. He successfully marketed the scoreboard to Cleveland management, who installed the Joss Indicator on a new, bigger scoreboard at League Park, which also posted the starting nines of both teams on either side of the balls and strikes. Fatigue challenged Addie throughout the 1909 season which resulted in being put on the bench for most of September as Cleveland finished in sixth. Joss reclaimed his strength during the start of the 1910 campaign. On April 20 he threw another no-hitter, again versus the White Sox which was the last phenomenal performance of Addie Joss’s career as a torn ligament in his elbow ending his season in late July.

Even though in early 1911 Joss kept reporting arm trouble, he expected to be cleared to pitch by May following some rest. Unfortunately, before an April 3 exhibition game in Chattanooga, Tennessee, he passed out on the field while chatting with a friend, Chattanooga shortstop Rudy Hulswitt. Joss returned to Toledo as his condition continued to decrease, where his personal physician, Dr. George Chapman, diagnosed an attack of pleurisy. During the early hours of the morning of April 14, two days following his 31 birthday Joss died abruptly of tubercular meningitis.

On April 17 Joss’s funeral was held and later buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in Toledo, Ohio. Two months later, a group of all-stars from throughout the American League faced the Cleveland Naps in an exhibition game to help Joss’s widow, Lillian, and their two kids. Ty Cobb and Cy Young were the most notable players participating in the event. More than 15,000 tickets were purchased for the game which witnessed the all-star team win 5-3 in the unofficial all-star game: more importantly, the contest raised $12,914 for Joss’s family.

67 years after Joss’s unexpected death, the Veterans Committee of the Baseball Hall of Fame eluded the minimum ten seasons played rule and elected him into the Hall of Fame. Now when you talk about the great pitchers in baseball you cannot go without mentioning the wonderful Addie Joss.

Following Addie Joss’s death in 1911 he has held the lowest walks & hits per IP and the second-lowest ERA of all time. Also, 109 years after Joss's last game, there were only a total of 45 complete games thrown in 2019, while the “Human Hairpin” surpassed that total within his first two big-league seasons.

When Addie Joss passed away in 1911, the Human Hairpin had the second lowest career earned run average at 1.887 and the only pitcher lower is Big Ed Walsh who produced a stunning 1.816 ERA during a 14-year career. Graph by Jack Butler.

Addie Joss still has the lowest career walks & hits per innings pitched in 2020 at 0.9678, the closest is Big Ed Walsh with a 0.9996 WHIP. Graph by Jack Butler.

Even since 2000 there has been a significant decline in the amount of complete games thrown during a season. The highest was 234 in 2000 and the lowest occurred in 2018 with only 42. To take this in perspective, Addie Joss pitched nine years in the majors and tossed an astonishing 224 complete games. Graph by Jack Butler.

Sources

Alex Semchuck. Addie Joss. SABR, 2006.

Baseball Reference. (2020). Addie Joss Stats [Data File]. Retrieved from https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/j/jossad01.shtml

Baseball Reference. (2020). Career Leaders for Earned Run Average [Data File]. Retrieved from https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/earned_run_avg_career.shtml

Baseball Reference. (2020). Career Leaders for Walks & Hits per IP [Data File]. Retrieved from https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/whip_career.shtml

Baseball Reference. (2020). Major League Baseball Pitching Year-by-Year Averages [Data File]. Retrieved from https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/MLB/pitch.shtml