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Wes and Rick Ferrell Photo Gallery
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Another Edition Of

“Baseball’s Forgotten Stars!”

 The Career of Wes Ferrell

I love going through the 1930s-’40s looking for stars who’ve been largely forgotten over the passage of time. And believe me, there’s plenty of them!

So whenever I have the chance to shine our baseball spotlight on one of them for a brief moment or two, I’m glad to do it. These are the guys who’ve been overshadowed by the likes of Ruth, Gehrig, Hornsby, DiMaggio, Williams, Greenberg, and Grove, to name only a few of the superstars from that Golden Era of baseball.

One outstanding player who’s largely been lost to time is Wes Ferrell, who played 15 seasons (1927-1941) for the Indians, Red Sox, Senators, Yankees, Dodgers, and Braves.

Wes Had Quite a Career!

Wes Ferrell is the only pitcher in major league history to win twenty games in each of his first four big-league seasons. Primarily a starting pitcher, the two-time All-Star compiled a 193-128 record (.601). He started 323 games, completed 227, leading the league four times in this category, and tossed 17 shutouts. He pitched 2623 innings over his career, topping 300 innings twice. He led the league three times in innings pitched, with a high of 322.1 in 1935. 

His career 4.04 ERA seems high to us, but baseball historian Bill James has noted that it must be viewed within the context of the heavy-hitting offensive era in which he played. Ferrell’s 4.04 ERA is well below the average American League ERA during his playing time of 4.54. 

In 1935, he led the American League in wins (25), and threw a no-hitter. He retired with the seventh-highest winning percentage (.601) among pitchers with at least 300 decisions. Plus he accomplished all this for largely mediocre second division teams, and was never on a pennant winner. An excellent fielder, he also finished with the fourth-highest fielding percentage for pitchers (.975) in baseball history.

Since obviously none of us saw him pitch, we can use Baseball Reference’s Similarity Scores to compare him to modern pitchers we’re familiar with. Wes Ferrell’s career compares favorably to Rick Sutcliffe and Dave Stewart, both very good pitchers from our era.

And Wes Could Hit!

In addition to his talents as a pitcher, Wes is recognized as one of the best-hitting pitchers in major league history. His nine home runs in 1931 and his career total of 37 are records that still stand [although soon to be broken, if they haven’t been already, by Shohei Ohtani]. Over his career, he collected 329 hits for a .280 lifetime batting average, with 57 doubles, 12 triples, 208 RBI, 175 runs, a .351 on-base percentage, and a .446 slugging average.

A Noted Baseball Hot-Head!

A case can be made that Wes Ferrell belongs in the Hall of fame, but his volatile temper often got in the way of his on-field accomplishments:

“On one occasion, Ferrell refused to be pulled from a game by his manager, and, as a result, was suspended ten days without pay for insubordination.  He was fined and suspended several times for refusing to leave a game, or for leaving it without permission. After being driven from the mound in one game, he punched himself in the face and began to slam his head into the wall. He had to be restrained by his team to stop him from continuing to hurt himself.”

The opinionated Wes Ferrell once commented that he thought his Hall-of-Fame credentials were better than his brother Rick’s—a claim not without some merit. In 1981, Lawrence Ritter and Donald Honig included him in their book, “The 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time,” in recognition of his being not just a star pitcher but also his hitting prowess, noting that Babe Ruth did most of his hitting when he was no longer a regular pitcher. Wes has been inducted into both the Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox Halls of Fame.

The Ferrell Brothers Involved in a Unique Game in Baseball History!

Brothers Wes and Rick were involved in a game played at Fenway Park between the Red Sox and the Indians in which something unique occurred. To my knowledge, it had never happened before and may never happen again.

On July 19, 1933, the two Ferrell brothers on opposite teams, Indian Wes and Red Sox Rick, homered in the same game. Brothers hitting home runs in the same game has happened (unofficially) 40 times in major league history.

But what made this one notable is that both long balls were not only hit in the same game and in the same inning, but Rick hit his homer off his brother, Wes, who was pitching for the Tribe!

Wes, true to his hot-head reputation, berated Rick as he rounded the bases: “How dare he hit a home run off his own flesh and blood!” When the umpire gave Wes a new ball, he immediately drop-kicked it into the stands!

Wes: A Noted “Heart-Throb”

Wes Ferrell has one other unique distinction: A noted heart-throb among the female baseball fans of his day, he was once voted “The Most Handsome Player in the Majors” as the featured photo above can attest. And let’s be honest: His brother Rick may have made it to the Hall of Fame and he didn’t, but he had little competition in this category from Rick!

Gary Livacari 

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Information: Excerpts and quote edited from Wes Ferrell Wikipedia page