Candy Cummings
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William Arthur "Candy" Cummings (October 18, 1848 - May 16, 1924) was a 19th-century professional baseball pitcher in the National Association and National League.
During a 6 year career which lasted from 1872 until 1877, Cummings compiled a 145-94 career record and 2.49 ERA while playing for five different teams. Among other records, Cummings was the first player to record two complete games in one day: September 9, 1876 when he beat the Cincinnati Reds 14-4 and 8-4.[1]
He is often credited with being the first pitcher to throw a curveball, which he reportedly threw at a game in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1867 while playing for the Brooklyn Excelsiors, with other sources saying the Brooklyn Stars. Cummings says that he discovered the idea of the curveball while studying the movement sea shells made when thrown. After noticing this movement, he began to attempt to make the same motion with a baseball, thus creating the curveball.
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| Candy Cummings is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame |
Another pitcher to lay claim to inventing the curveball is New Haven, Connecticut-born Fred Goldsmith, who is credited for giving the first publicly recorded demonstration of the curveball (to legendary sportswriter-baseball historian Henry Chadwick) on August 16, 1870, at the Capitoline Grounds in Brooklyn, New York.[2]
But it was Cummings who was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939, the same year that former major-leaguer Goldsmith died in Berkley, Michigan.
In 1877, Cummings left the National League after pitching only 19 games with the Cincinnati Reds to become the president of the new International Association for Professional Base Ball Players.
Candy Cummings was born in Ware, Massachusetts on October 18, 1848 and died May 16, 1924 in Toledo, Ohio.[3]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Nemec, p. 134.
- ^ Legendary sportscaster Bill Stern also credits Goldsmith with inventing the curveball, p. 87.
- ^ Baseball-Reference.com.
[edit] References
- Broughton, Howard (1939) Fred Goldmsith Invented The Curve Ball (Assistant Sports Editor), The London Free Press, June 21, 1939.
- Nemec, David (2004) Great Baseball Feats, Facts, & Firsts (2004), Signet Books, New York.
- Stern, Bill (1949) Bill Stern's Favourite Baseball Stories, Blue Ribbon Books, Garden City, New York.
[edit] External links
- Baseball Hall of Fame biography
- Baseball-Reference.com - career statistics and analysis
Categories: Baseball Hall of Fame | Baltimore Canaries players | Cincinnati Reds players | Hartford Dark Blues players | New York Mutuals players | Philadelphia White Stockings players | Major league pitchers | 19th century baseball players | People from Massachusetts | Major league players from Massachusetts | 1848 births | 1924 deaths | Irish-American sportspeople
