Red Ruffing's Rise To HOF Status At One time Seemed Highly Improbable

[Philly-brownsfan]

The transformation of Red Ruffing (1904-1987) into the Yankees Staff Ace and an eventual Hall Of Famer is one of he greater "Turnaround" stories in Baseball or Professional Sports for that matter.
Ruffing was born in 1904, and reached the majors just shy of his 20th birthday with the Boston Red Sox in 1924. He pitched for some terrible Red Sox teams and compliled a woeful 39-96 record in Boston before an early season 1930 trade brought him to the New York Yankees. Ruffing's years with the Red sox yielded such low points as 9-18, 10-25, and 9-22 seasons in 1925, 1928 & 1929 respectively. Ruffing's fortunes changed instantly after his trade to New York. After going 0-3 in the early days of the '30 campaign with Boston, he rebounded to go 15-5 in his new surroundings with New York for the remainder of the '30 season. Ruffing was about to embark on a run of 14 of 15 winning seasons with the Yankees, where he would win a at least 20 games per season during a then-record run of four consecutive Worlds titles between 1936 and 1939. He would win 231 games with the Yankees and be 107 games over .500 with them. He also compiled 1987 career strikeouts which was a very good total for that era. Indeed, probably the only thing that stopped him from winning 300 games was
the loss of two and a half seasons to World War Two military service (all of 1943-1944, plus part of 1945).
The Hall Of Fame began electing candidates in 1936. Four years worth of classes were elected before the actual Baseball Hall Of Fame & Museum building opened in 1939. The concept of a Hall Of Fame had been around for decades, but in the late 1930s one was actually beginning to take shape. At that point Ruffing's chances of actually being anything more than a visitor to the newly established Hall still seemed remote. Through 1937 Ruffing was still a losing pitcher career-wise.
After his second consecutive 20-win season in '37 he was still just at 172-177 lifetime. A 21-7 mark in '38 put him above the .500 mark for the first time at 193-184. By the end of the 1940 season he was up to 229-203. By the end of 1942 and the start of his military service Ruffing was 258-216 lifetime.
He continued in a part-time capacity after returning in 1945. By the end of the '46 campaign he had reached the end of his days as a Yankee, but not before extending his career games over .500 to the highest point in his career - 50 games over .500 at 270-220.
He finished out his career at age 43 with one year with the Chicago White Sox going 3-5 in 1947.
Ruffing was a perfect example of a borderline Hall Of Famer. He was elected by a small margin to The Hall in 1967, in his last year of eligibility by the Baseball Writers Of America in 1967. If he had failed to get the required 75 percent of the votes that year Ruffing would have had to wait until his candidacy went to the Veterans Committee six years later in 1973.
Certainly some will argue that Ruffing is one player whose name could be removed from the Hall Of Fame roster. He did have a great dynasty backing him up that extended from teammates in the early '30s like Ruth, Gehrig, Dickey, to Di Maggio in the late 30s, and Ruffing was even around for the Post-War 1946 MLB debut of Yogi Berra. I didn't start this thread to take sides in that debate one way or the other. Those against him can argue that he pitched for the dynastic Yankees and that his career ERA of 3.80 isn't particularly great and may even be among the highest of all Hall Of Fame pitchers. Those that are for him can point out that finishing just under 2,000 strikeouts, Ruffing was a good strikeout pitcher for his era and that, he was the ace of the Yankees staff for a long period, including that run of four 20-win seasons that helped produce four straight World's titles. His 82-33 - .713 win.pctg. record over those four seasons, with win totals of 20,20,21,& 21 in that 1936-39 period is probably better than any other Yankees pitcher's mark for any four year period in franchise history.
I'm just pointing out how unlikely Ruffing's eventual election was given his humble beginnings with Boston. I think Ruffing's story has the kind of "Underdog" vibe that will resonate with most fans.

Here's Ruffing's cumulative W-L record by team.


With the Yankees (1930-1942 & 1945-1946): 231-124
As a Non-Yankee: 42-101
With Boston - AL (1924-1930): 39-96
With Chicago-AL (1947) : 3-5
Career totals: Major Leagues (1924 -1947, Except 1943 & 1944: Military Service) 273-225.

*Philly-brownsfan*
(Dennis Orlandini)

[dgarza]

While there were others who have had bad starts, Ruffing's W/L % was flat out awful!

  Cnt Player            ERA+  W-L%   IP   From  To   Ages
+----+-----------------+----+-----+------+----+----+-----+
    1 Red Ruffing         92  .295 1098.1 1924 1929 19-24 
    2 Catfish Hunter      94  .483 1312.2 1965 1970 19-24 
    3 Early Wynn          97  .485 1068.2 1939 1947 19-27 
    4 Don Sutton          99  .494 1485   1966 1971 21-26

Clemente was anoth great turn around story.

  Cnt Player            OPS+   G  From  To   Ages
+----+-----------------+----+----+----+----+-----+
    1 Roberto Clemente    89  627 1955 1959 20-24

[Paul Wendt]

Ruffing was a perfect example of a borderline Hall Of Famer. He was elected by a small margin to The Hall in 1967, in his last year of eligibility by the Baseball Writers Of America in 1967. If he had failed to get the required 75 percent of the votes that year Ruffing would have had to wait until his candidacy went to the Veterans Committee six years later in 1973.

Red Ruffing was elected in a runoff, the last runoff election to date. The rules for BBWAA consideration of recent players provided for a runoff to encourage election of at least one candidate 1947-49 and to ensure election of at least one 1964-67.

There were runoffs in 1949 (Charlie Gehringer elected), 1964 (Luke Appling), and 1967 (Red Ruffing). During the later runoffs one candidate would be elected regardless of percentage support. In both instances two candidates surpassed 75%: Appling 94% and Ruffing 91% in 1964; Ruffing 87% and Joe Medwick 81% in 1967. (The earlier version called for election of everyone who surpassed 75% in the runoff. By fortune rather than design that was Gehringer alone in 1949.)

"Baseball Hall of Fame Balloting, 1967" (wikipedia) presents the first-round and runoff tallies in two columns. Ruffing and Medwick scored better in the runoff, of course. Third-place Roy Campanella slipped a little in the runoff and support for everyone else plummeted.

A glance at wikipedia's coverage of the 1964 first-round and runoff shows that the first four candidates scored better in the runoff (Appling, Ruffing, Campanella, and Medwick) while support for everyone else plummeted.

[Paul Wendt]

Certainly some will argue that Ruffing is one player whose name could be removed from the Hall Of Fame roster.

Probably so, but he seems to be an easy choice for shadow halls of fame that roughly or precisely mimic the HOF in size.

For example in this forum, Ruffing is already a contender in the "1957 Best of Baseball Election" (which closes today). He will not be elected this year or next but almost certainly before 1967.

For another example, Ruffing is in the Hall of Merit, which matches the size of the HOF as precisely as possible. The HOM also ranks him 15 among 19 member pitchers with careers primarily 1924-58. That implies grand rank certainly closer to 200 and probably closer to175 than to 236, the comparable size of the Cooperstown's Hall.

[STLCards2]

Lest not forget that Ruffing's offense was so good for a pitcher, if his offensive runs created above average pitcher were converted into runs prevented above average pitcher, he would have an ERA+ near 118. He created almost 100 runs more than an average pitcher did during his era! Over 4,000 IP and a 118 runs prevented/runs created ERA+ is well into HOF criteria, and in my opinion, real top 50 stuff. He did get some defensive help, but not enough to change his overall standing too much.

In fact, Wins Above Replacement has Ruffing near the top 40 all time after factoring in offense.

[Ralph Zig Tyko]

Can't forget that Red was the pitching coach for the hapless 1962 Mets. :-)
http://pushpull.wordpress.com/2009/0...-way-reposted/