Addie Joss

Infobox MLB retired
name=Addie Joss
position=Pitcher


bgcolor1=#990000
bgcolor2=#023465
textcolor1=white
textcolor2=white
birthdate=April 12, 1880
city-state|Woodland|Wisconsin
deathdate=death date and age|1911|4|14|1880|4|12
city-state|Toledo|Ohio
bats=Right
throws=Right
debutdate=April 25
debutyear=1901
debutteam=Cleveland Bronchos
finaldate=July 11
finalyear=1910
finalteam=Cleveland Naps
stat1label=Pitching Record
stat2label=Earned run average
stat3label=Strikeouts
stat1value=160-97
stat2value=1.89
stat3value=920
teams=
*Cleveland Bronchos/Naps (by|1902-by|1910)
highlights=
*Second-best career ERA (1.89) in Major League history
*Best career WHIP (.968) in Major League history
*American League ERA champion: 1904, 1908
*American League wins champion: 1907
*4 20-win seasons
*5 sub-2.00 ERA seasons
hofdate=by|1978
hofmethod=Veteran's Committee

Adrian Joss (April 12, 1880 – April 14, 1911) was a Major League Baseball pitcher in the early 20th century. His father had been a cheese maker in Wisconsin and several of his nicknames in baseball reflected this. As a youth, Joss was a star athlete at Wayland Academy in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. As a town ball player, Joss pitched in, and won, the Wisconsin town championship game against Rube Waddell who was playing as a 'ringer' while 'moonlighting' away from his job in the Major Leagues -- fishing.

As a pitcher, Joss's repertoire included a fastball, a "slow ball," or changeup, and a single hard curve. George Moriarty explained that he had only one curveball because "he believed that with a few well mastered deliveries he could acquire great control and success with less strain on his arm." ["The Greatest Pitcher I Ever Faced." "Baseball Magazine", 1911] In an era filled with spitball pitchers, Joss achieved his success without ever experimenting with altering the baseball. Joss threw with a "corkscrew" windup motion. Roger Peckinpaugh described his windup::"He would turn his back toward the batter as he wound up, hiding the ball all the while, and then whip around and fire it in." [Honig, Donald. "The Man in the Dugout", 1977.]

Joss joined the Cleveland Bronchos in by|1902 and was an immediate success, earning a 17-13 record and 2.77 ERA in his first year. He continued to improve over the following decade, posting four 20 win seasons and six sub-2.00 ERAs by by|1910. His best season came in by|1908 when he was 24-11 with a 1.16 ERA and 9 shutouts. In planning for life after baseball, Joss took up sports writing and worked for a local paper for several years.

Joss' playing career was cut short when he was diagnosed with tubercular meningitis. He died on April 14, 1911 at the age of 31. The first 'all-star' game was played as a benefit for Joss' family, over the opposition of American League management (Ban Johnson threatened punishment for any who participated, but relented).

Joss pitched a perfect game on October 2, 1908 opposite Hall of Fame pitcher Ed Walsh, accomplishing the feat with just 74 pitches. He pitched a second no-hitter in by|1910. Both no-hitters were against the Chicago White Sox; to date, Joss is the only pitcher in Major League history to no-hit the same team twice. His 1.89 career ERA is ranked second all-time.

Joss was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in by|1978. In 1981, Lawrence Ritter and Donald Honig included him in their book "The 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time". They explained what they called "the Smoky Joe Wood Syndrome," where a player of truly exceptional talent but a career curtailed by injury or illness should still, in spite of not having had career statistics that would quantitatively rank him with the all-time greats, be included on their list of the 100 greatest players. They believed that Joss' career ERA was proof enough of his greatness to be included.

References

ee also

* List of Major League Baseball leaders in career wins
* List of Major League Baseball ERA champions
* List of Major League Baseball wins champions
* Pitchers who have thrown a perfect game
* List of Major League Baseball no-hitters

External links

* [http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers_and_honorees/hofer_bios/joss_addie.htm Baseball Hall of Fame Biography]