Art Nehf

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Arthur Neukom Nehf (July 31, 1892 - December 18, 1960) was a mostly starting pitcher in Major League Baseball in the 1910s and 20s. He played for the Boston Braves (1915-1919), New York Giants (1919-1926), Cincinnati Reds (1926-1927), and the Chicago Cubs (1927-1929). He was left-handed, and only 5 foot, 9 inches and 176 pounds when he made his debut in 1915.

1 Career overview
- 1.1 Batting
2 Highlights
3 External links

[edit] Career overview

Nehf was born in Terre Haute, Indiana and attended the Rose Polytechnic Institute in Terre Haute. He entered the Major Leagues and was notable for accumulating 184 wins and a 3.20 ERA in his 15-year career.

Nehf came up with the Braves in 1915, and frequented the leaderboards throughout his time with them; he led the league in complete games with 28 in 1918, and showed up in the top 10 in wins, three times, including the year that he was traded to the Giants mid-season. In 1917, Nehf had what is generally thought of as his best season with the Braves, when he went 17-8 with a 2.16 ERA, pitching very consistently, and completing 17 of his 23 starts, with 5 shutouts, while also finishing 7 games on the year. He also had his career-high in strike outs that year with 101, the only time he had more than 100 strike outs.

Nehf was traded to the Giants for four players and cash on August 15, 1919. He won a career-high 21 games in 1920, his first full year with the Giants. Playing with the Giants in the early 20's had Nehf playing in a number of World Series, including 1921, 1922, 1923 and 1924. In 1924, he beat Walter Johnson in 12 innings in the WS opener, but the Giants lost the series to the Washington Senators that year. The Giants won in '21 and '22 with the help of Nehf, who had an all-time postseason record of 4-4 with an ERA of 2.16 in 12 games, and 9 starts. 6 of his starts were complete games. He had 28 strike outs all-time in the World Series. Nehf also participated in the 1929 World Series with the Cubs in his last year, and didn't pitch well as the Cubs lost the series to the Philadelphia Athletics.

Nehf won 107 games with the Giants, while he lost only 60. After many solid, and sometimes great, seasons with the Giants and then being traded to Cincinnati, and then to Chicago, most thought Nehf's career was virtually over. But he managed to put up one more very good year in 1928 with the Cubs. He went 13-7 with a still very low, 2.65 ERA. That year, he was also involved in a very strange and controversial play against his former team, the Giants. With the Giants in a tight pennant race against the St. Louis Cardinals, their loss in the 1st game of a doubleheader on September 27, 1928, was made all the more controversial. New York's Shanty Hogan hit a ball back to Nehf who threw to third base to get the runner, but the runner Andy Reese was off with the crack of the bat and was already at home plate, knocking over catcher Gabby Hartnett. Hartnett grabbed the runner to keep from falling, and as Hartnett held him, Reese was tagged out by the Cubs third baseman. The Giants bench erupted, but umpire Bill Klem ruled Reese out. The subsequent protest was turned down despite clear pictures showing Reese being held back. The Giants went on to lose the pennant to the Cards by 2 games. Coincidentally, the Cubs were 2 games behind that.

Some years, he pitched as a starter only, and some as a relief pitcher and a starter, but he was always solid in both roles, earning a reputation around the Majors as an always-consistent pitcher, and never a risk to put stock in.

Besides finishing with a 184-120 record and a 3.20 ERA in 451 games, he had 182 complete games and 28 shutouts (30 if you count postseason) in 319 starts. He had 13 career saves and also picked up a total of 844 strike outs in 2707 and 2/3 innings pitched.

When he was 68, Nehf died in his home in Phoenix, Arizona. The cause was cancer.

[edit] Batting

Nehf had a .210 career batting average with 8 home runs and 76 RBIs. Of his 8 HR's, 2 came in one game in 1924. It was his only multiple home run season. He had 5.

[edit] Highlights

Top 5 in the National League in ERA, twice (1922, 28), and in the top 10 one more time (1917)
Top 10 in wins, six times (1917, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
Top 10 in winning percentage, six times (1917, 19, 20, 21, 24, 28)
Led the league in complete games in 1918 (28), and made the top 10, four more times (1919, 20, 21, 22)
Top 10 in strike outs, twice (1918, 24), and top 10 in strikeouts per nine innings, twice (1924, 25)