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Home > Baseball > MLB Hall of Famers > John Clarkson
John Clarkson
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.
It is a popular game in North America, parts of Latin America, the Caribbean and East Asia. The modern game initially developed in the United States from an early bat-and-ball game called rounders, and now it has become the national sport of United States.
John Clarkson was born on July 1, 1861, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Clarkson was 20 years old when he broke into the big leagues on May 2, 1882, with the Worcester Ruby Legs. Although never considered the premier pitcher of his day, Clarkson was highly regarded by teammates and opponents alike. He is still among the all-time leaders in wins, winning percentage, complete games, innings pitched and several fielding categories.
Starting in an era of two-man rotations, Clarkson led the NL, national league in wins, appearances, starts, complete games, innings, and strikeouts in 1885, 1887, and 1889, in shutouts in 1885 and 1889 and in strikeouts and ERA, earned runs average in 1889. As a result, the teams he pitched for during this period, the Chicago White Sox and the Boston Beaneaters were consistently in contention, winning two pennants each. He accounted for 53 of the White Sox' 87 wins in 1885 and 49 of Boston's 83 victories in 1889. His win totals in those two years rank second and fourth on the all-time season list. On July 27, 1885, Clarkson hurled a no-hit, no-run game against the providence grays.
His contemporaries considered him a calculating, scientific pitcher who carefully analyzed every hitter's weaknesses. Peering out from deep-set dark eyes, his long, lean fingers cradling the ball, he had a slow, assured pace to his delivery, and he may well have dominated some hitters by intimidation alone.
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