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Wes Ferrell:

The 1930s Version of Ohtani!

“I didn’t see any big deal in being a good hitter as well as a good pitcher.” -Wes Ferrell

In looking over The National Pastime website today, I ran onto something pretty interesting: 

“On July 22, 1935, the Red Sox end a game for the second consecutive day with Wes Ferrell hitting a walk-off home run. As a pinch-hitter yesterday, his round-tripper beat the Tigers, 7-6, and today, as a starter, his game-ending homer gives Boston a 2-1 victory against the Browns.” (1)

Wes Ferrell may very well be one of the best players not in the Hall of Fame. As you will see, he was an outstanding pitcher and one of the best-hitting pitchers in major league history after Babe Ruth, who did most of his hitting when he was no longer a regular pitcher, and until the arrival of Ohtani (although this is not to imply that he was anyway near the class of these two great superstars). Not only that, he was considered a great fielder, too, with a career .975 fielding average.

Wes Ferrell Had Quite a Career

The 6’2″, 195-lb. Greensboro NC native played 15 seasons in the major leagues  (1927-1941) for the Indians, Red Sox, Senators, Yankees, Dodgers, and Braves. He’s the only pitcher in major league history to win twenty games in each of his first four seasons, and he topped the 20-win total six times. A two-time All-Star, he compiled a 193-128 record with 323 starts, 2623 innings pitched, 227 complete games, and 17 shutouts.

His 4.04 ERA seems high to us, but, as baseball historian Bill James has noted, it must be viewed from the perspective of the heavy-hitting 1930s. His 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. Four times he led the league in complete games, and three times in innings pitched. 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. Can you imagine what his stats would look like if he had played for the Yankees in his prime?

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 38 are records that still stand. Five times he hit two home runs in a single game. 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, while topping the .300 mark three times. 

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.” (2)

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. Wes never hesitated to mention that he had more home runs than his brother. In 1981, Lawrence Ritter and Donald Honig included him in their book, The 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time, in recognition of his all-around versatility. Wes has been inducted into both the Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox Halls of Fame. 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”!

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

Ninety years ago this summer, 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 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.

So today we gladly shine our baseball spotlight on an overlooked star from the 1930s, Wes Ferrell. 

Gary Livacari 

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Information: Quote (1) from the NationalPastime.com website; Quote (2) from the Wes Ferrell Wikipedia page.