Pud Galvin: Baseball's First 300 Game Winner
Pud Galvin’s plaque in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, NY.
His final resting place is atop a windswept hill in Pittsburgh’s Calvary cemetery. A small, flat, headstone, cracked in two places, marked the hard-to-find spot. Here lies James Francis “Pud” Galvin, baseball’s forgotten man, a star of the early game, a player whose easygoing nature earned him the affectionate nickname: “Gentle Jeems.” He was the first pitcher to win 300 games, long before such an accomplishment was considered the benchmark of pitching excellence.
Galvin also threw the first perfect game ever recorded, and repeated the feat twice. In all, he held opposing teams scoreless 57 times, thereby blanking them nearly once in every 10 complete games he pitched. Off the field, he was less successful.
After baseball, he struggled financially. Despite being one of the best-paid players of his day, he died in poverty in 1902 at a relatively young age, reliant on friends for burial and to help his surviving widow and six children. His headstone is that of a pauper because he had become one.
(note: Soon after this book was published a fine new marker was provided by Major League Baseball and the Society for American Baseball Research)
Brian Martin
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 256
Bibliographic Info: 29 photos, appendices, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2016
pISBN: 978-0-7864-9977-9
eISBN: 978-1-4766-2551-5
Imprint: McFarland
REVIEWS
“He was Major League Baseball’s first 300-game winner and was later reported to have been the first player to have experimented with performance-enhancing drugs.
Yet despite his accomplished and fascinating career, it took 124 years after his final professional pitch for a book to be published about Hall of Fame hurler Pud Galvin. Fortunately for us, it’s Brian “Chip” Martin, author of the excellent, Baseball’s Creation Myth.and The Tecumsehs of the International Association, who took on the challenge, and his superbly crafted, 244-page effort has definitely made it worth the wait.”
-Cooperstowners in Canada
“Maybe I have a bias as I am from Pittsburgh, but I loved this book. In fact, when I wrote my last book, "Greats in the Graveyard: A Guide to Baseball Players and Personalities Buried in Allegheny County, Galvin was the first player I found. He is buried in Calvary Cemetery and has a nice marker installed by SABR.
The author does a great job at bringing Galvin back to life and walking us through his career. Its a little thin on some personal details but doing my own research there isn't much out there so I cannot fault the author for that. I also loved the history of Edward "Cannonball" Morris that was included in this book, almost as a bonus. Morris was a fascinating character in the early days of baseball.
Kudos on a job well done. As a person that loves Pittsburgh and Baseball history, this was a pleasure to read.”
--Goodreads