Early Wynn: 300-Game Winner

Picture credits: Rawchili

Tough is the best word to describe pitcher Early Wynn.

Physically, mentally, emotionally tough. Intimidating works too. When the six-foot 190-pounder glared in from the mound, batters got the message. And hard-working.

He was the kind of warrior who ran wind sprints—alone--on the last day of the season. He was an aggressive pitcher, but not a headhunter. Home plate was his office; when a batter edged too close to the office, his ribs became the target.

He hated to come out of a game. Even when a line drive hit him in the mouth and separated him from several teeth, he wanted to stay in the game until he had a chance to face that batter again.

Born in 1920 as deep in Alabama as you can get before falling into the Florida panhandle, he was moving 500-pound bales of cotton for ten cents an hour when he wasn’t throwing footballs and fastballs in high school. When he was 17 he put on his best overalls and showed up at a Washington Senators tryout camp in Florida, where his fastball earned him a job.

Beginning in 1942, he was in the starting rotation for Washington, Cleveland and the White Sox for 22 years, He won 20 or more five times, was a Cy Young winner, and pitched in two World Series. He always volunteered to relieve whenever his team was short-handed in the bullpen.

Hard-working pitcher Early Wynn. Picture credits: Etsy

By 1962, his fifth season with the White Sox, he was 42, prime time for most occupations, but ancient for pitchers. He was suffering shoulder and elbow pain from the gout.

He started the season with 292 wins and one more goal: to become the first 300-game winner in the American League since Lefty Grove in 1941. It was a struggle. By September he was facing his first losing record in 20 years. 

On September 8 he won number 299. But he lost his last three starts. The White Sox, for whom he had won 22 games in 1959 to help put them in their first World Series in 40 years, put the needs of the team over sentiment and released him at the end of the season.

Early Wynn, being Early Wynn, did not give up. He was living in Venice, Florida, near the White Sox spring training site in Sarasota. When 1963 spring training began he showed up, grunting and sweating to get into shape. But he was 43, competing against 25 strong young pitchers for one of ten roster spots. The needs of the team outweighed sentiment. 

He contacted other teams without success. Then, in the middle of June he heard from the Cleveland Indians, for whom he had pitched for nine years, winning 23 for their 1954 pennant-winners. They were in fourth place in the 10-team AL and signed him for the rest of the season.

On June 21 he started at home against the White Sox and lost, 2-0, on a ninth-inning home run.

A week later, again facing the White Sox, he left for a pinch-hitter in the sixth and took a 3-2 loss.

On July 4 he pitched six scoreless innings against the Red Sox in a game the Indians won in 14 innings.

Three days later he pitched two scoreless innings in relief in a 10-inning loss to the Yankees.

On July 13 he started the second game of a doubleheader at Kansas City.  The score was 1-1 after four innings. Wynn singled to lead off the fifth and scored the go-ahead run. The Indians scored three more to take a 5-1 lead. Kansas City made it 5-4 in the bottom of the fifth.  The Indians pinch hit for Wynn in the sixth and held on to win, 7-4, for Number 300. 

Early Wynn started once more and relieved a dozen times. His final record was 300-244.