Pitchers who debuted with a complete game but never pitched another one

Posted by Andy on April 18, 2011

Since 1928, there have been 196 pitchers to debut with a complete game. It hasn't happened since Andy Van Hekken's major league debut in 2002. (Van Hekken, incidentally, is still pitching in the minors.)

Of those fellows, here are the 27 who never pitched more than that 1 CG in the majors:

Rk	Player	CG	From	To	Age	G	GS	SHO	GF	W	L	W-L%	SV	IP	ERA	ERA+	HR	BF	Tm
1	Andy Van Hekken	1	2002	2002	22-22	5	5	1	0	1	3	.250	0	30.0	3.00	143	2	131	DET
2	Mark Brownson	1	1998	2000	23-25	11	9	1	0	2	2	.500	0	48.0	6.94	81	11	221	COL-PHI
3	Nate Minchey	1	1993	1997	23-27	15	12	0	0	3	7	.300	0	64.0	6.75	73	7	310	BOS-COL
4	Kevin Morton	1	1991	1991	22-22	16	15	0	0	6	5	.545	0	86.1	4.59	94	9	379	BOS
5	Jim Kern	1	1974	1986	25-37	416	14	0	254	53	57	.482	88	793.1	3.32	116	35	3422	CLE-TEX-TOT-CHW-MIL
6	Jay Pettibone	1	1983	1983	26-26	4	4	0	0	0	4	.000	0	27.0	5.33	81	8	111	MIN
7	Mike Wallace	1	1973	1977	22-26	117	4	0	32	11	3	.786	3	181.2	3.91	95	9	814	PHI-TOT-STL-TEX
8	Wenty Ford	1	1973	1973	26-26	4	2	0	1	1	2	.333	0	16.1	5.51	74	3	72	ATL
9	Jimmy Freeman	1	1972	1973	21-22	19	11	0	1	2	4	.333	1	73.1	6.87	57	12	349	ATL
10	Dave Downs	1	1972	1972	20-20	4	4	1	0	1	1	.500	0	23.0	2.74	134	1	89	PHI
11	Jim Cosman	1	1966	1970	23-27	12	6	1	2	2	0	1.000	0	41.1	3.05	114	3	175	STL-CHC
12	Aubrey Gatewood	1	1963	1970	24-31	68	13	0	15	8	9	.471	0	178.1	2.78	122	9	752	LAA-CAL-ATL
13	Paul Edmondson	1	1969	1969	26-26	14	13	0	1	1	6	.143	0	87.2	3.70	105	5	369	CHW
14	Gordie Richardson	1	1964	1966	25-27	69	7	0	22	6	6	.500	4	118.0	4.04	91	14	484	STL-NYM
15	Dick Rusteck	1	1966	1966	24-24	8	3	1	3	1	2	.333	0	24.0	3.00	122	1	96	NYM
16	Don Loun	1	1964	1964	23-23	2	2	1	0	1	1	.500	0	13.0	2.08	184	0	55	WSA
17	Charlie Beamon	1	1956	1958	21-23	27	5	1	11	3	3	.500	0	71.1	3.91	95	4	307	BAL
18	Ed Albrecht	1	1949	1950	20-21	3	2	0	1	1	1	.500	0	11.2	5.40	93	0	52	SLB
19	Art Lopatka	1	1945	1946	26-27	8	2	0	4	1	1	.500	0	17.0	6.35	60	1	81	STL-PHI
20	Earl Henry	1	1944	1945	27-28	17	3	0	7	1	4	.200	0	39.1	5.03	66	0	172	CLE
21	Len Gilmore	1	1944	1944	26-26	1	1	0	0	0	1	.000	0	8.0	7.88	50	2	36	PIT
22	Baby Ortiz	1	1944	1944	24-24	2	2	0	0	0	2	.000	0	13.0	6.23	54	0	58	WSH
23	Jim Mains	1	1943	1943	21-21	1	1	0	0	0	1	.000	0	8.0	5.62	64	0	36	PHA
24	Hank Leiber	1	1942	1942	31-31	1	1	0	0	0	1	.000	0	9.0	6.00	59	0	42	NYG
25	Jim Reninger	1	1938	1939	23-24	8	6	0	0	0	4	.000	0	39.0	7.38	65	6	192	PHA
26	Jim Hayes	1	1935	1935	22-22	7	4	0	2	2	4	.333	0	28.0	8.36	53	0	143	WSH
27	John Jackson	1	1933	1933	23-23	10	7	0	1	2	2	.500	0	54.0	6.00	64	3	267	PHI

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 4/16/2011.

It's not surprising that this group consists mainly of guys with short careers, as had they been able to duplicate their debut performances, they'd probably have stuck around in the majors for a long time.

Jim Kern is an interesting exception. He had a long pretty good career as a reliever, startingly only 13 times after his debut in 1974 with the Indians.

Incidentally, among that group of 196 guys to start with a CG since 1928, here are the ones to end up with the most career complete games:

Rk	Player	CG 6	From	To	Age	G	GS	SHO	GF	W	L	W-L%	SV	IP	ERA	ERA+	HR	BF	Tm
Rk	Player	CG	From	To	Age	G	GS	SHO	GF	W	L	W-L%	SV	IP	ERA	ERA+	HR	BF	Tm
1	Early Wynn	290	1939	1963	19-43	691	612	49	66	300	244	.551	15	4564.0	3.54	107	338	19408	WSH-CLE-CHW
Rk	Player	CG	From	To	Age	G	GS	SHO	GF	W	L	W-L%	SV	IP	ERA	ERA+	HR	BF	Tm
2	Juan Marichal	244	1960	1975	22-37	471	457	52	11	243	142	.631	2	3507.0	2.89	123	320	14236	SFG-BOS-LAD
Rk	Player	CG	From	To	Age	G	GS	SHO	GF	W	L	W-L%	SV	IP	ERA	ERA+	HR	BF	Tm
3	Hal Newhouser	212	1939	1955	18-34	488	374	33	79	207	150	.580	26	2993.0	3.06	130	136	12648	DET-CLE
Rk	Player	CG	From	To	Age	G	GS	SHO	GF	W	L	W-L%	SV	IP	ERA	ERA+	HR	BF	Tm
4	Luis Tiant	187	1964	1982	23-41	573	484	49	51	229	172	.571	15	3486.1	3.30	115	346	14365	CLE-MIN-BOS-NYY-PIT-CAL
Rk	Player	CG	From	To	Age	G	GS	SHO	GF	W	L	W-L%	SV	IP	ERA	ERA+	HR	BF	Tm
5	Curt Simmons	163	1947	1967	18-38	569	462	36	54	193	183	.513	5	3348.1	3.54	111	255	14144	PHI-STL-TOT
Rk	Player	CG	From	To	Age	G	GS	SHO	GF	W	L	W-L%	SV	IP	ERA	ERA+	HR	BF	Tm
6	Dizzy Dean	154	1930	1947	20-37	317	230	26	76	150	83	.644	30	1967.1	3.02	131	95	8171	STL-CHC-SLB
Rk	Player	CG	From	To	Age	G	GS	SHO	GF	W	L	W-L%	SV	IP	ERA	ERA+	HR	BF	Tm
7	Mel Stottlemyre	152	1964	1974	22-32	360	356	40	3	164	139	.541	1	2661.1	2.97	112	171	10972	NYY
8	Ed Brandt	150	1928	1938	23-33	378	279	18	70	121	146	.453	17	2268.1	3.86	101	134	9721	BSN-BRO-PIT
9	Larry Jackson	149	1955	1968	24-37	558	429	37	73	194	183	.515	20	3262.2	3.40	113	259	13593	STL-CHC-TOT-PHI
10	Curt Davis	141	1934	1946	30-42	429	280	24	111	158	131	.547	33	2325.0	3.42	117	142	9752	PHI-CHC-STL-TOT-BRO
11	Schoolboy Rowe	137	1933	1949	23-39	382	278	22	74	158	101	.610	12	2219.1	3.87	110	132	9398	DET-TOT-PHI
12	Mort Cooper	128	1938	1949	25-36	295	239	33	39	128	75	.631	14	1840.2	2.97	125	85	7648	STL-BSN-TOT-CHC
13	Van Mungo	123	1931	1945	20-34	364	260	20	61	120	115	.511	16	2113.0	3.47	110	89	9030	BRO-NYG
14	Dave McNally	120	1962	1975	19-32	424	396	33	7	184	119	.607	2	2730.0	3.24	106	230	11229	BAL-MON
15	Vern Law	119	1950	1967	20-37	483	364	28	77	162	147	.524	13	2672.0	3.77	102	268	11231	PIT
16	Howie Pollet	116	1941	1956	20-35	403	277	25	53	131	116	.530	20	2107.1	3.51	114	146	8981	STL-PIT-CHC-TOT
17	Tiny Bonham	110	1940	1949	26-35	231	193	21	27	103	72	.589	9	1551.0	3.06	120	117	6284	NYY-PIT
18	Vic Raschi	106	1946	1955	27-36	269	255	26	5	132	66	.667	3	1819.0	3.72	105	138	7675	NYY-STL-TOT
19	Denny McLain	105	1963	1972	19-28	280	264	29	8	131	91	.590	2	1886.0	3.39	101	242	7719	DET-WSA-TOT
20	Harvey Haddix	99	1952	1965	26-39	453	285	20	84	136	113	.546	21	2235.0	3.63	108	240	9330	STL-TOT-PHI-CIN-PIT-BAL

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 4/16/2011.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 18th, 2011 at 7:59 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

32 Responses to “Pitchers who debuted with a complete game but never pitched another one”

Scott H Says:
April 18th, 2011 at 8:29 am
The only three on the list who's complete game was their ONLY game in the bigs were three wartime players. Interesting.
Spartan Bill Says:
April 18th, 2011 at 9:08 am
I realize the list doesn't go back beyond 1928, which is a shame because you have to mention Allan Travers as a 1 CG wonder

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/t/traveal01.shtml
Andy Says:
April 18th, 2011 at 9:35 am
#2 I had to limit it to the 200 most recent games due to the limit on second-tier searches. I could have done a second search for earlier games too.
Steven Page Says:
April 18th, 2011 at 10:02 am
I saw Wenty Ford's CG, and another of his performances for Atlanta. He was a sports writer from the Bahamas, who decided to play the game. As I recall, he nibbled all around the plate, walking six giants, but they just couldn't hit him. His other three games, the hitters could... Hank Aaron hit his 710th home run. The debut game was on an early September night, and it was freezing cold and windy. The gamelog shows 2800 in attendance, but there were less than 500 in the seats. The ushers invited people to move down to the good seats, probably so that some of them could get out of the weather. My dad, sister and I sat through the entire thing, with us kids cheering our next Braves pitching hope.
wendell Says:
April 18th, 2011 at 10:05 am
Possibly the most interesting that did not make the list above was Bobo Holloman who actually pitched a no-hitter in his first start (his second appearance) and never pitched another complete game.
Dvd Avins Says:
April 18th, 2011 at 10:28 am
Some in the 1930s, more in the war, then it just about stopped happening until the 1960s. Interesting. And more recently, of course, it became rarer because CG of all sorts became rarer.
Spartan Bill Says:
April 18th, 2011 at 11:35 am
In 1967, when I was a young Mets fan, I accepted an offer to go to the Yankees home opener, (game#3 for the NYY and BOS) with a friend and his father.

Billy Rohr was the Red Sox pitcher that day, in his MLB debut and had a no-hitter for 8.2 until Elston Howard singled to break it up. Rohr didn't make Andy's list because he also had a CG in start #2 before becoming ineffective and getting send down tot he minors.

Those 2 CGs were it for his career. he had an 0.50 ERA after those 2 games, but in career games 3 thru 27 it was 7.80.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA196704140.shtml

And @#4 Steven. Some guy named W FORD pitched for the Yankees that day, but it wasn't Wenty
steven Says:
April 18th, 2011 at 11:45 am
Jim Cosman was a hard throwing rookie who was considered a top candidate to break into the Cardinals' rotation in 1967. Didn't quite work out. They did okay with a couple of young guys named Briles and Carlton.
Hartvig Says:
April 18th, 2011 at 12:12 pm
Man with a name like Percival Edmund Wentworth Ford (AND with such a great nickname play off of the original Whitey to boot) should have had a much longer career. I'm envious of Steven for having the pleasure of seeing his debut.
Morten Jonsson Says:
April 18th, 2011 at 12:24 pm
@4

I'm not sure what you mean by saying Wenty Ford was a sportswriter who decided to play the game. He pitched in the Braves' minor league system for seven years, from the time he was nineteen years old, before he got his chance.
Kelly Says:
April 18th, 2011 at 1:39 pm
I can honestly say that I had not heard of any pitcher on this list other than Kern!

As far as Wenty Ford, a Google search indicates he is one of only five Bahamians to play in the majors, and was a skilled cricketer and basketball player as well. Apparently he is considered a sports giant in the Bahamas. Google also turns up this quite extensive bio:

http://bioproj.sabr.org/bioproj.cfm?a=v&v=l&pid=4592&bid=2731

Apparently he did cover sports in Nassau during the offseason, but it's probably a stretch at age 19 to call him a sports writer who decided to give baseball a whirl.
Richard Chester Says:
April 18th, 2011 at 2:18 pm
@1

Hank Leiber, one of those three pitchers, played 813 games, all as an outfielder-first-baseman except for the one game he pitched.
Steven Page Says:
April 18th, 2011 at 2:47 pm
#10.
Wenty's dad operated a newspaper in the Bahamas, and Wenty wrote for them in the off season, besides playing cricket and basketball. He might have had a better MLB career had he played some winter ball instead of his other sports. His life was unfortunately cut short by a car wreck at the age of 33.
Macaulay Says:
April 18th, 2011 at 3:47 pm
Paul Edmonson, like Wenty Ford, also lost his life in a car crash. In Edmonson's case, he was en route to spring training in 1970.
John Says:
April 18th, 2011 at 3:49 pm
The best player I see on that list is probably Jim Kern, who got three straight all-star selections as a reliever, and actually received some Cy Young consideration in 1979.

I have exactly zero reason for bringing this up, besides the fact that one of my all-time favorite self-disparaging baseball quotes was uttered by Kern.

"I'm working on a new pitch. It's called a strike."
John Autin Says:
April 18th, 2011 at 4:48 pm
Charlie Beamon, #17 on the list above:

-- Debuted on 9/26/56 with a 4-hit, 9-K shutout of the Yankees, besting Whitey Ford by a score of 1-0. The Yanks had already clinched the pennant, but still played most of their regulars; Mantle didn't start but pinch-hit and popped out. Ford got two of the four hits. Beamon fanned Billy Martin in all 3 trips, and also whiffed Mickey McDermott when he pinch-hit for Martin. (McDermott was a pitcher, but a career .252 hitter.) The defeat denied Ford his first 20-win season, which he did not collect until 1961 at age 32. Beamon's appearance on Baltimore's roster marked the first time they had 3 black players at the same time.

-- Had a son by the same name who played in 45 MLB games over 3 seasons in the majors.
John Autin Says:
April 18th, 2011 at 5:13 pm
Dave Downs (#10 above) was the older brother of Kelly Downs, who pitched in the majors from 1986-93. Both Downs brothers played with Steve Carlton, though 14 years apart; Dave with the '72 Phillies, Kelly with the '86 Giants.
Pitchers who debuted with a complete game but never pitched another one » Stathead » Blog Archive Says:
April 18th, 2011 at 5:24 pm
[...] Andy K. of BRef; the title says it all. Link Posted on Monday, April 18th, 2011 at 5:24 pm, Category: Baseball, Tags: bref, history, statistics, [...]
John Autin Says:
April 18th, 2011 at 5:46 pm
Ed Albrecht's CG debut was a 5-inning job. It came in the 2nd game of a doubleheader on the last day of the 1949 season, between the Browns (who finished 44 games out) and the White Sox (34 GB). Albrecht allowed 3 runs but only 1 hit, a 2-run triple by Jim Baumer that followed a pair of walks. (That hit by the 18-year-old Baumer -- called up from class B despite hitting .218 in his first pro season -- gave him 4 hits in 10 trips for the year. He would not play in the majors again for 12 seasons, when he made a brief appearance with the '61 Reds.)

The 9,000 or so fans who turned out for the doubleheader in Sportsman's Park pushed the season attendance past the 270,000 barrier, and they likely witnessed a MLB first: Browns manager Zack Taylor used 9 different pitchers, each for exactly 1 inning. Since 1919, no other team has used more than 6 pitchers for exactly 1 inning in a 9-inning game.

Those Browns fans also got to see rookie star Roy Sievers go 5 for 5 in the first game, pushing his BA from .297 to .305, which helped him win the AL Rookie of the Year award. Sievers would collect over 1,700 hits in the majors, but that was his only 5-hit game.
John Autin Says:
April 18th, 2011 at 6:06 pm
Jim Cosman (#11 above) had pitched almost solely in relief over his last 2 minor-league seasons, but he debuted for the Cardinals on the last day of the 1966 season with a 2-hit shutout of the Cubs, facing just 3 batters over the minimum. Only 4 pitchers since 1919 have faced fewer batters in a debut of at least 9 innings.

The loss was the 103rd for the Cubs and their first-year manager, Leo Durocher, back in the majors after a 10-year layoff. Durocher proved that season that it wasn't only nice guys who finished last.
Pete Says:
April 18th, 2011 at 7:08 pm
I remember Andy Van Hekken. I was surprised he never made it onto the super awful 2003 Tigers, and then after that he just never had the stuff to make it back to the show.
Doug Says:
April 18th, 2011 at 7:43 pm
Interesting that Kevin Morton (#4 on first list) never got a second look. In his only half-season in 1991, he basically a regular in the rotation. Sure, his ERA, WHIP, SO and BB weren't anything special, but he was good enough to pitch into the 6th in 12 of his 15 starts. Considering he was only 22 and a 1st round draft pick, would have thought he would have made it back to the majors at some point.

Interestingly, prior to his time with Boston in '91, he had good K and walk rates (~2.5 BB/9, and K/BB over 2.5) in the minors. But his BB/9 shot up to 4.2 with the Red Sox, and he never got it back below 3.5 in 4 subsequent minor league seasons.
psychump Says:
April 18th, 2011 at 11:14 pm
@15 My brother was good friends with a minor league pitcher for the Giants then Topps rookie all-star for the A's in '78 (he was part of the Vida Blue deal). Then he went to Texas and became friends with Jim Kern and both went downhill because of cocaine. My brother's friend? John Johnson.
John Autin Says:
April 18th, 2011 at 11:38 pm
@23, interesting story.

John Henry Johnson made the '78 A's rotation out of spring training at age 21, without having pitched above class A. He threw 6 scoreless IP to win his debut, a 1-0 game. He allowed 1 run in 6.2 IP his second game. Then he threw a shutout in his 3rd game; a 4-hit CG win in his 5th game; and a 3-hit shutout in his 8th game.

He would never throw another shutout.
Bradley Says:
April 19th, 2011 at 8:58 am
Hank Lieber was actually a position player who had a decent career.
Bradley Says:
April 19th, 2011 at 8:58 am
Oops. I see someone else already mentioned that. My bad.
Bradley Says:
April 19th, 2011 at 9:02 am
He was a three time all-star and led the league in grounding into double plays and getting hit in the same season! He also had 200 hits that season with 100 runs and RBI's and 20 dingers. And amazingly in his best season he wasn't an all-star, although he did finish 11th in voting for the MVP and never received another MVP vote in his career.
Paul Says:
April 19th, 2011 at 3:34 pm
This is similar to research I had done when I was writing about Tom Seaver and Dick Rusteck, who were teammates on the 1966 Jacksonville Suns, the NY Mets AAA affiliate.
Rusteck got the call to the majors first, and pitched a complete-game shutout in his major-league debut on June 10, 1966, for the Mets against the Reds, but never got another MLB win. I believe the research Elias did on that showed Rusteck was one of seven who fit that profile -- CG shutout in MLB debut and no more MLB wins.
John Autin Says:
April 19th, 2011 at 10:56 pm
Re: Paul @28 -- Assuming B-R's data is correct for player debut dates and team results by date, there have been no more than 6 pitchers since 1901 who threw a shutout in their debut for their only MLB win. (Perhaps the 7th reported by Elias came before 1901.) In reverse chronological order:

Andy Van Hekken, 2002
Dave Downs, 1972
Dick Rusteck, 1966
Don Loun, 1964
Lefty Russell, 1910
Bill Cristall, 1901*

* Highly likely that Cristall meets the criteria, but not 100% certain.

The Play Index (with data back to 1919) yielded the first 4 pitchers via a 2-part search, first finding all players with a shutout in their debut, then searching that group for career wins = 1. To find the other 2, I searched for pitchers before 1918 with 1 career shutout and 1 career win. For each of the 8 results, I then checked to see if the shutout came in his first season; if it did (and if he had other games in that first season), I checked the team's result on the date of his debut. Lefty Russell had just 1 game (and 1 shutout) in his first season, so Bill Cristall is the only one on this list that I can't be certain about.

Cristall debuted for Cleveland on Sept. 3, 1901, and the club did have a shutout win that day (actually 2 of them). It's possible that Cristall did not get his shutout that day, but later in the season; he did start 5 more games that year. However, Cleveland had just 1 more shutout win after Sept. 3, so I think it's very likely that he did, indeed, get the shutout in his debut.
Johnny Twisto Says:
April 20th, 2011 at 12:31 am
You can see here that the Indians lost all the subsequent games Cristall started that season: http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1901/VCLE01901.htm
DoubleDiamond Says:
April 20th, 2011 at 10:38 pm
Dave Downs' career was cut short due to one or more injuries. A few months ago, I did an analysis of debuts of and career ends of players born in 1952, a year in which nobody who had a Hall of Fame playing career was born. (Fred Lynn probably was our best chance, but he didn't live up to his early promise.)

Downs was not the first 1952er to make it to the majors (I think Terry Forster was the first), but if I recall correctly, his was the first 1952er to make his last major league appearance. When his major league career ended in 1972, the players born in 1952 who played baseball at four year colleges hadn't even signed their first professional contract!

I'm pretty sure that Nate Snell, who made the Orioles' roster out of spring training in 1985, was the last player born in 1952 to make his major league debut. I remember thinking at the time that someone a few months short of turning 33 was awfully old to be a rookie. Now, with Chris Coste types who spend years in independent ball and signees from Japan, rookies that old are not as rare as they used to be. I think that Lynn was the last player born in 1952 to retire as a big league player.
breadalbane Says:
April 21st, 2011 at 8:28 pm
Lieber's complete game was his very last ML appearance, after 812 games as a position player who on two occasions (in '35 and '39) hit 20+ home runs, while batting over .300. He also hit .302 in '40, with 17 HRs.

The Giants ended the '42 season with a string of doubleheaders on three consecutive days, Sept. 24/25/26. It would seem that Leiber (by now a utility player -- only 58 appearances in '42) got pressed into service as an emergency starter on the 25th. In the second game, he gave up 9 R, 6 ER in going the distance. However, the third place Giants probably just wanted someone to eat up some innings...

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