Player of the Day: Earl Whitehill
10/16/14

So I'm going to write about each of the players whose 1933 Goudey cards that I do get.  The first player is Earl Whitehill, he of the 17 years pitched.  Whitehill was a touch on the tiny side - only 5'9" and 174 pounds.  Imagine a player like that in today's game!  It doesn't happen too often anymore; however, I'm sure he was normal sized for his time. 

Whitehill started off his career with the Detroit Tigers in 1923.  He pitched in 8 games that year, starting three, and went 2-0 for his first year, with a 2.73 ERA.  A year later, he went 17-9 with a 3.86, winning the MVP award.  From 1924-1936, Whitehill won 11 or more games every season, only having two losing seasons in those years, which is a pretty remarkable achievement.  In 1933, Whitehill was traded to the Washington Senators (for a guy named Firpo!) and had the best season of his life.  He went 22-8 with a 3.33 ERA, helping the Senators to the AL pennant while winning another MVP award.  The Senators lost the Series, but Whitehill pitched great, only giving up 5 hits while pitching a complete game and getting the win.  He pitched 5 more years, playing for the Senators through 1936, the Indians from 1937-1938, and the Chicago Cubs his last year in the major leagues.  As an interesting sidenote, Whitehill was personally responsible for 11 of Babe Ruth's 714 home runs.  He also hit 101 batters in his career, including when he led the league with 13 hit batmen in 1924.  Despite being a pitcher, Whitehill was not a half-bad hitter, batting .204 with 4 career home runs and 23 doubles.

Whitehill had 3 seasons where he pitched over 270 innings, which you would most definitely not see today.  He also only had a career strikeout per game average of 3.4, which would deem a prospect unplayable in today's world. 

Earl Whitehill died at the age of 55 (1899-1954).  He received Hall of Fame votes 4 years, but never got over 4 percent of the vote.  Baseball-Reference has Earl as the 228th best pitcher all time, right behind Fernando Valenzuela and Cliff Lee. 

http://www.famousbirthdays.com/people/earl-whitehill.html
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/whiteea01.shtml?redir