There are several forgotten heroes from Yankees’ baseball prior to when the franchise started to win championships. Not that they didn’t have good years as a team in that time, but the pre-Babe Ruth years tend to blend together in a lot of fans’ minds.
One of those forgotten heroes was Al Orth, whose 1906 could be in the discussion for best seasons by a Yankee pitcher.
Albert Lewis “Al” Orth
Born: September 5, 1872 (Sedalia, MO)
Died: October 8, 1948 (Lynchburg, VA)
Yankees Tenure: 1904-09
While he
was born in Missouri, Al Orth lived much of his early life in Indiana. There’s not a ton out there about his early life other than that he eventually attended DePauw University in Greencastle, IN. At some point, he developed an ability for baseball and begins showing up in on minor league rosters at 22-years-old, playing for the Lynchburg Hill Climbers in 1895.
In Lynchburg, Orth very quickly began to catch the eye of major league teams. After 269 good innings in 1895, Lynchburg sold him to the Phillies later that season. He went on to debut and throw 88 more innings in Philly that year, and put up a very solid, for that year, 3.89 ERA.
Over the next several years, while he had his ups and down, Orth became a fixture on the Phillies’ roster, and a mostly solid one at that. Known as the “Curveless Wonder,” Orth got his success from just varying the speed of his pitches as opposed to getting great movement. With the exceptions of 1895-96 — when he was still breaking into the bigs — and 1899, Orth threw at least 250 innings every season in Philadelphia and also posted at least 14 wins in all except his debut 1895. However, the Phillies never really got all that close to a NL pennant in his time there.
Orth had his best year as a Phillie in 1901. That year, he went 20-12 with a 2.27 ERA (151 ERA+), and recorded a league high six complete game shutouts. However, something else also happened in 1901: the American League was founded. Many NL mainstays started making the jump over, and Orth did so too, joining the Washington Senators for a reported $3500.
Despite moving to the still developing league from the “Senior Circuit,” Orth struggled in Washington. In 84 appearances over three seasons with the Senators, ho posted a 4.21 ERA, which equated to a 79 ERA+, as baseball began to enter the “deadball era.” He dropped off even further in 1904, leading to a July trade that sent him to the New York Highlanders.
The move to the Highlanders led to a rejuvenation for Orth. He was much better over the rest of 1904 — helping New York nearly swipe the AL pennant — and was again solid in 1905. Then in 1906, he put together his best career season. In New York, Orth joined a pitching staff that featured “spitballer” Jack Chesbro. With help from Chesbro, Orth began to throw the spitball himself, leading to a standout 1906. In a league-leading 338.2 innings, Orth put up a 2.34 ERA (127 ERA+), with 27 wins. According to modern stats, Orth was worth 8.1 rWAR and 6.0 fWAR, putting him among the league’s best that season.
Orth was okay the next year, but the Highlanders fell way back in the standings, and Orth ended up leading the league in losses. It was the first time ever a pitcher went from having the most wins to the most losses in consecutive years. After an even worse year in 1908, Orth seemingly left the majors, moved to Virginia and was set to be a player-manager in the Virginia League.
However, new Highlanders’ manager George Stallings lured Orth back for 1909. He only threw three innings on the mound and instead filled a new role. Orth had always been a pretty solid hitter, and not even for just pitcher standards, with a career 92 OPS+. Stallings used Orth as a pinch-hitter and in a handful of games at second base, and he put up a 113 OPS+ for the year.
Following that season, Orth did leave the majors and played for a couple minor league teams, including back in his new home in Lynchburg. He then returned to the majors in 1912, albeit as an umpire. He was the home plate ump for a 1912 game where pitchers Hippo Vaughn and Fred Toney both had no-hitters through nine innings. Toney completed his in 10 innings, after his Reds’ teammates scored a run on two hits in the top of the 10th.
Orth was a NL ump through 1917, at which point he left that role. Back in Virginia, he had stints as the baseball coaches at Washington & Lee University and the Virginia Military Institute. He resided in the area until his death in 1948 at age 76.
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