WHY I THINK BILL DOAK SHOULD BE IN COOPERSTOWN

WHY I THINK BILL DOAK SHOULD BE IN COOPERSTOWN 

By- Damien 

Bill Doak was a very good pitcher for a long time, but his greatest contribution to baseball came in his innovation of baseball gloves. When Doak was first coming up, the idea of a baseball glove was to protect a fielder’s hand, not to assist him in making any plays. In 1920, Doak proposed that some webbing should be placed between the pointer finger and the thumb, forming a sort of pocket. The Bill Doak model glove was immediately produced on a mass scale, made all kinds of money, and practically every glove since has resembled it. None of the previous models were ever financially successful again, as everybody realized that Doak’s gloves were clearly superior. Aside from his popular invention, Doak was also a well known pitcher who won two ERA Titles, one in the dead ball era and one in the live ball era. Bill Doak started his career with the Cincinnati Reds in 1912, but he pitched only two innings of one game that season. The Cardinals got him and by 1914 he was their ace, as he went 19-6 and led the NL with a 1.72 ERA. In 1920, Doak went 20-12 with an ERA of 2.53, and paced the circuit in 1921 with a 2.59 mark. Doak had his worst season to date in 1922 (11-13, 5.54), and although he bounced back in 1923, the Cardinals thought that his best years were behind him, and got rid of him. Doak pitched very well in 1924, mostly with the Brooklyn Robins, and then decided to take a few years off. When he returned to the club in 1927, he had another good year, and also pitched well in 1928. The Cardinals, perhaps regretful of trading away their ace, got him back in 1929, but he pitched in only three games before the Cardinals let him go again. Doak, a spitballer, was one of the 17 pitchers exempt from the ban on spitballs, enacted in 1920. When he teamed up with fellow spitballer Burleigh Grimes in Brooklyn, Doak helped give the Robins an effective and unexpected weapon - multiple spitballers. Opposing batters had a tough time with the two of them, and didn’t appreciate them very much (Doak was nicknamed “Spittin’ Bill”, and almost everybody complained about Grimes’s loaded spitballs). So, for all his work to improve the baseball glove, and for his fine pitching career, Bill Doak gets my vote for the Hall of Fame. 

LIFETIME STATISTICS 

Games Pitched career: 453 season high: 44 in 1917 

Starts career: 369 season high: 37 in 1917 and 1920 

Complete Games career: 162 season high: 20 in 1920 

Shutouts career: 34 season high: 7 in 1914 

Games Finished career: 63 season high: 11 in 1924 

Wins career: 169 season high: 20 in 1920 

Losses career: 157 season high: 20 in 1917 

Winning Percentage career: .518 season high: .760 in 1914 

ERA career: 2.98 season high: 1.72 in 1914 led NL: 1.72 in 1914, 2.59 in 1921 

WHIP career: 1.267 season low: 1.094 in 1914 

Innings Pitched career: 2,782 ⅔ season high: 281 ⅓ in 1917 

Strikeouts career: 1,014 season high: 124 in 1915 

Strikeouts Per Nine Innings career: 3.3 season high: 4.1 in 1914 

Walks career: 851 (7 intentional) season high: 87 in 1914 

Strikeouts Per Walk career: 1.19 season high: 2.24 in 1921 

Saves career: 16 season high: 3 in 1924 and 1928 

Fielding Percentage career: .960 season high: .979 in 1918 

Double Plays career: 33 season high: 6 in 1924 

Putouts career: 103 season high: 17 in 1920 

Assists career: 934 season high: 108 in 1915 

Caught Stealing Percentage career: .438 season high: .692 in 1921 

Pickoffs career: 16 season high: 4 in 1924 (Doak’s pickoff information from before 1916 is unavailable) 

DID YOU KNOW? 

-finished 13th in the NL MVP Award voting in 1914 

-had 71 career sacrifice hits, including as many as ten in two different seasons 

-among MLB pitchers, ranks 33rd in career assists