TOT - Jack Quinn Leaves the 1914 Braves. Oops
Jack Quinn's career deserves to be studied for its insanity
Transaction of Today...February 27, 1914 - Jack Quinn jumped from the Boston Braves to the Baltimore Terrapins.
He pitched parts of 23 seasons in the majors - if you include the Federal League.
He might be the first player in MLB history to be born in Slovakia. Maybe.
His most famous pitch was banned from baseball and he still used it a dozen years later.
And on this day in 1914, Jack Quinn made a decision that ultimately robbed him of his first World Title. He stayed around long enough to get two rings later, though.
And we're not even sure that was his real name.
So, I'll explain. Jack Quinn, or John Picus Quinn, maybe even John Picus Quinn, or quite possibly Johannes Paykos was possibly born in Štefurov, Slovakia. It's a tiny village in the Prešov Region that has a population of around 100. At the time, that was actually in Hungary. Within a year, his family immigrated to America. Or, maybe he was born just southwest of Wilkes-Barre, Pennslyvania in a coal mining town. Pick one and he was probably attributed to have been born there at one time or another.
He was possibly born on July 1, 1883. Or maybe he was born on July 5. Or maybe it was 1884 or 1885. Nobody knew and Quinn wasn't telling. He even never delivered on a promise to tell his actual age once he retired. We'll assume the first date and it's not the first assumption we need to make.
We're not even really sure about his ethnic background. Slovak seems a given, but he was also given Welsh, Polish, Irish, Greek, French, and Russian ancestry at different times. He was even labeled an Indian, though that seemed to be based on the idea that he was as silent as a cigar store wooden Indian. Some have suggested his middle name (or maybe surname) of Picus is truncated from the Polish name Paykos. About that name, he signed legal documents as John Picus so maybe that was his actual name, but where did Jack Quinn come from?
Anyway, there is so much more that we can say about his name, ancestry, and so forth, but the simple fact might be that Quinn simply didn't know much about his beginnings. His mother died when he was very young and his father was a coal miner. And Quinn? He could throw a spitball as well as anyone. By 12, he, too, was working in the coal industry before moving to working as a blacksmith. The work gave him a tough body and he would need that for the 30 years of baseball he was about to begin. He got his first job in baseball at around 16 after randomly throwing a foul ball back with some velocity that the visiting manager of the semipro game he was attending offered him a job.
Quinn was a successful, though not well-known, pitcher in the mid-Atlantic for several years until 1908 when the Yankees, then called the Highlanders, "discovered" Quinn in Virginia. He went 14-0 that year with Richmond, dominating the Virginia League. His major league career began the next year. After a promising start in '09 and '10 with a 2.24 ERA over 354.1 innings, Quinn would struggle the next two campaigns to keep the magic rolling. Sold to Rochester, he pitched well for the Hustlers until the Braves came calling in 1913, acquiring Quinn in late August. Brought back to the majors, he made eight appearances, including seven starts. He notched his first major league shutout in the process. Boston, which was starting to put together a talented young staff led by Lefty Tyler, Dick Rudolph, and Bill James, thought they had acquired a solid fourth to push Otto Hess.
Instead, on this day in 1914, it was announced that he had jumped to the Baltimore Terrapins for a salary of $3500 ($108K in today's money). That was a heck of a pay raise and Boston was incensed. Baltimore was part of the new Federal League, which promised players the ability to be free agents. The Braves sought $25,000 in damages in a lawsuit. The decision by Quinn would be both good and bad. The good side was that he made a lot more money in an era where most players made precious little. The bad side was that he'd miss out on being a part of the 1914 Braves.
Quinn would have great success in his first year in the Federal League before a reversal of fortune the following year. After two years of minor league ball following the folding of the Federal League, Quinn resurfaced for six games with the White Sox in 1918 before rejoining the Yankees the following year. He'd pitch once in the 1921 World Series, a losing effort for the Yanks, before they shipped him off in a six-player trade to the Red Sox. Probably not as well-known as the Babe Ruth trade, though.
After three-and-a-half years with Boston, Quinn was grabbed off waivers by the Philadelphia Athletics. Though over 40, Quinn would find some of his best success with an 18-7 year in 1928. The following year, the aging spitballer started his only World Series game. He struggled over five innings and left with a 6-0 hole in Game 4. The Cubs would push the lead to eight before the A's, led by Al Simmons, Mickey Cochrane, and Jimmie Foxx, scored ten runs in the bottom of the seventh. Two days later, they finished the series in five games. Quinn would pitch again in the World Series the following year, throwing the final two innings of a losing effort in Game 3. The A's would win the series in six.
The two-time champ's career wasn't over. He landed with Brooklyn in 1931 and twice led the Senior Circuit in saves. Now, to be fair, the save statistic didn't exist at the time, but his 13 saves in 1931 were briefly the record. Finally, in 1933, he pitched 14 games out of the bullpen for the Reds. He was 49-years-old.
Maybe.
Quinn's major league career was over, but he pitched a couple of more years into his 50's in minor league ball. He didn't pitch often, of course.
Unfortunately, his post-playing career would not be good for him. When he finally married in 1940, his wife soon passed. Back in Pennslyvania where it all began, he drank too much far too often before liver disease ended his life in 1946.
Quinn's exploits based on his age are truly remarkable, though. He was the oldest player to win a game until Jamie Moyer. He's still the oldest pitcher to start a game in the World Series. He was even the oldest player to hit a home run until Braves great Julio Franco broke that record. And with the DH now implemented, it seems likely no pitcher will ever break his record as the oldest pitcher to park one. He's one of just three dozen or so players to appear in an MLB game in four consecutive decades. And if we define "regular player" by 87.1 innings in a season, he remains the oldest player to play regularly in the majors (though Franco and another Braves great, Phil Niekro, nearly took that record). He was also the final pitcher who was allowed to throw the spitter after its ban in 1920 via a grandfather clause.
And not for nothing, but his 59.8 bWAR ranks 68th all-time. That's better than Whitey Ford, Sandy Koufax, Early Wynn, and Hoyt Wilhelm. Is he a Hall-of-Famer based on that? No, probably not, but his career is truly special.
Even if he did end up passing on a chance to be part of another truly special thing - the 1914 Braves.
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