Russ Ford

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For the Australian field hockey player see Russell Ford (field hockey)

Russ Ford baseball card

Russell William Ford (born April 25, 1883 in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada – died January 24, 1960 in Rockingham, NC) was a baseball pitcher during the dead-ball era of the early 1900s.

He is known as the creator of the emery ball, a pitch that was thrown with a ball that had been scuffed with a piece of emery. Ford won 26 games in his rookie season of 1910, becoming only the third player in major league history to win 20 games and strike out at least 200 batters in his first season. (Christy Mathewson and Pete Alexander are the others)

Ford was elected to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 1989.

Brother Gene Ford also played in the major leagues, pitching in seven games for the Detroit Tigers in 1907