Chuck Turley
Superstar 
Posts 233
Registered 10-22-2003 Member Is Offline Mood:
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 posted on 11-8-2003 at 10:28 PM |
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Gene Bearden
Time for a new post. After being wounded in the Big War, Gene Bearden came back to baseball and had a dream season:
"The knuckleballer was a rookie sensation in 1948 when he went 20-7 and led the AL with a 2.43 ERA. His 20th win was the Indians'
pennant-deciding playoff versus Boston. In the WS, he had a win and a save without giving up a run. He never again approached his rookie record; he
winked at training rules, suffered a lingering thigh injury in 1949, and batters learned to lay off his nasty knuckler." (Jane Charnin-Aker,
BaseballLibrary.com)
Bearden was a lefthanded knuckleballer, and a pretty good hitter, too - he drove in 14 runs in '48, and he had two hits in the Series. He hung
around until 1953, but was never again effective; his lifetime record was 45-38. Overall, the shape of his career was very comparable to Mark Fidrych.
Since Bearden was such a high-profile pitcher for a few years, I wonder if the sudden implosion after his rookie season contributed to the atmosphere
of mistrust that surrounds knuckleballers.
As for Joe McCarthy's curious choice of Galehouse over Parnell in the 1948 playoff, did he have a hunch like Connie Mack in the '29
Series? Mack started the washed-up Howard Ehmke over Lefty Grove and George Earnshaw in the first game against the Cubs. It worked for Mack, but,
Curse Of The Bambino being what it is, didn't for McCarthy.
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