Home > Baseball > MLB Hall of Famers > Charles Radbourn

Charles Radbourn

Baseball is an outdoor sport in which a pitcher pitches a hard, fist sized ball to the hitting area of a batter. The batter hits the hard ball with a tapered, smooth, cylindrical bat made up of wood or metal. The batsman scores by running counter-clockwise within the four markers called the bases arranged at the corners of a diamond. Baseball is sometimes called hardball to differentiate it from similar games such as softball.

Charles Radbourn was a well known baseball player. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1939. He was born on December 11, 1854, in Rochester, New Yorkand and died on February 5, 1897, in Bloomington, Illinois. He played for Providence Grays from 1881 to 1885, Boston Beaneaters from 1886 to 1889, Boston Reds in 1890 and Cincinnati Reds in 1891. Dubbed Old Hoss for his dependability and endurance, Radbourne was a sensation even in a period when teams usually used 2 starting pitchers. He was a unique pitcher in 1882 when he led the NL, National League in strikeouts and shutouts. In 1883, Radbourn won more games for Providence than for the full NL teams.

He made 68 starts in 1883, winning a league high in 49 games, including a no hitter over Cleveland on July 25. For the next season, Radbourne finished 73 of his starts, with 60 wins, 441 strikeouts, and a 1.38 in 678.2 innings. Radbourn also won 18 games and pitched 11 shutouts. After the season, Providence met the New York champions of the American Association in a forerunner to the present World Series. He joined the Boston team in 1886, but was not as efficient as he was in the Providence, often losing as many as his wins. In 1890, Radbourn led the Players' League in winning percentage for the Boston league champions, but in the mid 1891, he dropped out of baseball.

Charles Radbourn was the author of the winningest season in big league history with 60 victories in 1884. Though his career lasted just 11 seasons, he collected 310 victories and won 20 or more games for 9 times and came 484 of the 497 games he started. He had the ability of defeating the opponent easily by giving some extra hard work and efforts.

Back to MLB Hall of Famers