Rubicon & the most runs given up by an AL pitcher
Posted by Andy on October 23, 2010
Rubicon is a television series on AMC that recently finished its first (and perhaps only) season. During one of the early episodes the main character, named Will Travers, uncovered a cypher that led to a story of interest to readers of this blog.
Following is a brief discussion of the relevant events on the show. Warning: this post spoils the fairly minor thread of the cracking of this particular cypher, so don't read on if you plan to go back and watch the show.
Travers discovers a cypher containing a series of 27 sets of numbers but can't figure out what they are supposed to mean. With the help of another character, he figures out that the 27 references the number of championships won by the Yankees, and that the cypher is baseball-themed.
It turns out that each set of numbers references a specific baseball game in history, and from that Travers is able to extract a series of names of people of interest. To understand who those people are and why they matter, you'll have to watch the show.
The interesting part was the details of the first game listed on the cypher. The series of numbers related to the date of a 1912 game in which the starting pitcher for the Tigers went on to give up the most runs in AL history, a record that still stands today. The story behind the game is listed in the BR Bullpen. Basically, most of the Tigers were protesting the suspension of Ty Cobb who, and the team was forced to field replacement players.
The name of the pitcher was Allan Travers. In the Rubicon episode, this was how Will Travers knew he had cracked the code of the cypher--because the first player of interest shared his surname.
If we search the PI for games in which single pitchers gave up the most runs, Travers doesn't come up:
| Rk | Player | Date | Tm | Opp | Rslt | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | GSc |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hod Lisenbee | 1936-09-11 | PHA | CHW | L 2-17 | 8.0 | 26 | 17 | 14 | 4 | 1 | 2 | -35 |
| 2 | Howard Ehmke | 1923-09-28 | BOS | NYY | L 4-24 | 6.0 | 21 | 17 | 16 | 4 | 6 | 2 | -34 |
| 3 | Chubby Dean | 1940-09-28 (1) | PHA | BOS | L 4-16 | 8.0 | 19 | 16 | 14 | 5 | 1 | 1 | -20 |
| 4 | Flint Rhem | 1933-08-04 | PHI | NYG | L 1-18 | 8.0 | 21 | 16 | 15 | 3 | 1 | 0 | -24 |
| 5 | Dutch Schesler | 1931-07-11 (1) | PHI | NYG | L 5-23 | 8.0 | 22 | 16 | 14 | 0 | 1 | 4 | |
| 6 | Hugh McQuillan | 1927-09-11 (2) | BSN | CIN | L 5-16 | 6.2 | 17 | 16 | 15 | 3 | 2 | 1 | -23 |
| 7 | Johnny Stuart | 1925-06-22 | STL | PIT | L 6-24 | 8.1 | 16 | 16 | 11 | 5 | 0 | 4 | |
| 8 | Ted Lyons | 1924-07-21 | CHW | WSH | L 2-16 | 8.0 | 18 | 16 | 14 | 5 | 3 | 0 | -16 |
| 9 | Lefty O'Doul | 1923-07-07 (1) | BOS | CLE | L 3-27 | 3.0 | 11 | 16 | 3 | 8 | 0 | 0 | |
| 10 | Jimmy Ring | 1922-08-25 | PHI | CHC | L 23-26 | 3.1 | 12 | 16 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 2 | -11 |
That's because his game came in 1912 and the PI only goes back as far as Retrosheet full box scores, meaning to 1920.
Interestingly, Travers' 26 hits aren't even a record:
| Rk | Player | Date | Tm | Opp | Rslt | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | GSc |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eddie Rommel | 1932-07-10 | PHA | CLE | W 18-17 | 17.0 | 29 | 14 | 13 | 9 | 7 | 0 | |
| 2 | Hod Lisenbee | 1936-09-11 | PHA | CHW | L 2-17 | 8.0 | 26 | 17 | 14 | 4 | 1 | 2 | -35 |
| 3 | Ted Lyons | 1929-05-24 | CHW | DET | L 5-6 | 21.0 | 24 | 6 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 77 |
| 4 | Dutch Schesler | 1931-07-11 (1) | PHI | NYG | L 5-23 | 8.0 | 22 | 16 | 14 | 0 | 1 | 4 | |
| 5 | Lefty Grove | 1935-07-27 (1) | BOS | PHA | L 6-7 | 14.2 | 21 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 0 | 49 |
| 6 | Flint Rhem | 1933-08-04 | PHI | NYG | L 1-18 | 8.0 | 21 | 16 | 15 | 3 | 1 | 0 | -24 |
| 7 | Bill Sherdel | 1929-07-03 | STL | PIT | L 2-13 | 8.0 | 21 | 13 | 13 | 3 | 2 | 0 | -13 |
| 8 | Howard Ehmke | 1923-09-28 | BOS | NYY | L 4-24 | 6.0 | 21 | 17 | 16 | 4 | 6 | 2 | -34 |
| 9 | Art Nehf | 1920-05-03 | NYG | PHI | L 6-9 | 8.0 | 21 | 9 | 9 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 7 |
I know this is off-topic, but did any of you folks watch Rubicon? It strikes me as the sort of show that baseball stat enthusiasts would like since it stresses data and the different ways of looking at it.
October 23rd, 2010 at 8:10 am
I did, but I haven't seen the final episode yet, and for some reason it's not being replayed until November. Ugh.
October 23rd, 2010 at 8:38 am
I did watch Rubicon and admittedly the 1912 baseball reference was one of the hooks for me. Looking forward to a possible second season which hasn't been announced yet.
October 23rd, 2010 at 10:39 am
A side note: I recall from Cobb's autobiography, "My Life In Baseball: The True Record," he related how an agreement was reached to let him play again, but that AL President Ban Johnson technically never rescinded the suspension. I don't remember the exact details from reading the book 38 years ago.
As you are aware the man who broke Cobb's record for hits in a career is not the Hall of Fame, and not eligible because he is on the suspended list.
Could it be that Cobb is still technically under suspension and thus, in theory, should not be in the Hall either?
October 23rd, 2010 at 12:03 pm
Holy smokes. Travers became a Jesuit priest after setting the AL's record for most runs given up in a game. God, I love baseball.
October 23rd, 2010 at 12:13 pm
Whoa, so Ted Lyons gave up 24 hits but pitched 21 innings, earning a game score of 77 in spite of giving up 6 runs. They just don't play baseball the way they used to...
October 23rd, 2010 at 12:53 pm
Nice point, Malcolm. And you've got to love a sport where the guy who gave up the most hits ever in a game came in as a reliever -- and won the game!
October 23rd, 2010 at 1:08 pm
The Wikipedia on Eddie Rommel has the story on the 29 hits given up to Cleveland in 1932.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Rommel
Ed Rommel had a .590 winning percentage in his career. Won 27 games in 1922 and 21 games in 1925 leading the AL both times.
He threw a knuckle ball and according to the Wiki he is considered the "father of the modern knuckleball".
Main reason I went to the Wikipedia on Ed Rommel was because I remembered an umpire by that name and wondered if he was the same person or related.
Sure enough Ed Rommel had a successful "secondary career" an a major league umpire.
In 1956 he became noted as the first umpire in MLB history to wear glasses in a regular season game.
October 23rd, 2010 at 2:31 pm
In the Ted Lyons game, Lil Stoner got the save. That is all. Lil Stoner.
In the bottom of the 21st, when George Uhle comes out the let Lil Stoner get the save opp, Lyons must be thinking, "Pfff - can't finish what you started, eh George?"
October 23rd, 2010 at 3:03 pm
LOL Lil Stoner.
And JT don't feel bad, I have only seen the first 4 episodes. Too busy blogging.
As for a second season of Rubicon, I think it depends a lot on what AMC wants to be. With Mad Men and Breaking Bad, they have found pretty significant success as a network carrying new mainstream shows. Rubicon, however, pulled only a little over 1 million viewers per episode, which still makes it a pretty lowly-rated show--probably not worth the cost of production. But if AMC wants to continue to build itself as a reputable network, they may pay for another year of Rubicon to keep building their base.
October 23rd, 2010 at 4:15 pm
@3 / Tangent re: Ty Cobb's autobiography, "My Life in Baseball":
That book was ghost-written by Al Stump, who wrote another bio after Cobb's death, a supposedly honest "warts and all" account titled simply "Cobb."
My point is that Al Stump's writing on Cobb has been called into question, if not outright discredited -- particularly his rendering of how Cobb's mother shot his father to death. Furthermore, Stump introduced a large number of "Cobb memorabilia" into the collectible market, claiming that Cobb gave it to him during the time they spent together on the book; virtually all of this material has since been declared inauthentic by collectibles experts.
My source for this info is a descendant of Cobb, but I still found his arguments persuasive:
http://haulsofshame.com/Final%20SABR%20Article%20-%20as%20published_6744.pdf
October 23rd, 2010 at 5:01 pm
Since I'm already off on a tangent, let's get postseason-historical....
-- Most runs allowed in a postseason game: 10, by Brickyard Kennedy in game 5 of the inaugural World Series, 1903-10-21. This game was a turning point in the Series; the Pirates were up 3-1, but Boston won the last 4 games and the title. Kennedy started for Pittsburgh and was in a scoreless duel with Boston's Cy Young until the 6th, when the Red Sox erupted for 6 runs (2 more than they'd scored in any of the first 4 games) with the help of 3 errors, a pair of triples (including Young's own 2-run drive) and a bases-loaded walk to Candy LaChance. Kennedy yielded 4 more runs in the 7th, as Patsy Dougherty tripled for the second straight inning (he's one of seven players to hit 2 triples in a postseason game). Kennedy, a 35-year-old journeyman who had won 20 four times and lost 20 five times, was pressed into WS duty by the absence of Ed Doheny, who had gone 16-8 that year but left the team after developing a mental illness that soon led to his forced confinement. Neither Kennedy nor Doheny ever played in the majors again.
-- Most ER allowed in a postseason game: 8, shared by 12 pitchers, including a pair of 300-game winners (Alexander and Maddux), a couple other CYA winners (Sabathia & Peavy), and a 239-game winner who had won 7 of his previous 8 postseason starts without a defeat (David Wells). This group also includes Josh Beckett, Chien-Ming Wang, Matt Clement, Guy Bush, and 3 relievers.
-- Most runs allowed by a winning pitcher: 6, by 7 pitchers, the last 2 being half-brothers Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez ('03 ALCS) and Livan Hernandez ('97 WS).
-- Most runs allowed in a game his team won: 7, by Al Leiter, 1997 WS game 3. Leiter departed after 4.2 IP with the Marlins down 7-3, but they scored 2 in the 6th, 2 in the 7th and 7 in the 9th, then survived Cleveland's 4-run rally in the bottom of the 9th for a 14-11 win -- just the 2nd time in the WS that both teams scored 11+ runs.
October 23rd, 2010 at 8:11 pm
Rubicon was great, especially with DVR and being on Sunday 🙂 Really enjoy the cast, pacing, and premise, although Travers is fairly week as a lead. Truxton makes the show for me though.
October 23rd, 2010 at 11:51 pm
How long was Cobb suspended for? Rick Rypien of the Vancouver Canucks just got 6 games for grabbing a fans shirt. I bet you Cobb's suspension was less.
October 27th, 2010 at 4:31 pm
#13, Kenh -- You lose the bet. 🙂
Cobb was at first suspended indefinitely, later reduced to 10 games.