Most of us have heard where Elmore Leonard got his nickname, but I had no idea how good a pitcher Dutch Leonard was. Watching ESPN’s Baseball Tonight this evening, I saw a graphic showing the 4 best all time 10 game season starts for ERA. In first place was the reason for the graphic, Chris Young of the San Diego Padres and his numbers for this year. In second was the great Walter Johnson. I can’t recall who was third because the #4 guy caught my eye, one Dutch H. Leonard. I missed the year and the numbers but looking his record up I found his ERA for 1914 with the Red Sox was an eye-popping 0.96 (!) so that was likely to have been the season (he went 19-5) that they were talking about. He was a left-handed spitballer (that was legal in those days). He had a good fastball and a good curve, a “mean” guy who was apt to knock you down. He played for the Sox from 1913 to 1918 and for Detroit from 1919 to 1925. He had a career record of 139-112 with an ERA of 2.76. Unfortunately his best years were with Boston. He started in, won and completed a game in both the 1915 and 1916 World Series. He was born in Birmingham, OH in 1892 and died in Fresno in 1962.
