When it comes to hard-luck pitchers, let’s have a moment of silence for Big Ed Walsh. I’ll get back to him in a moment.
In the meantime, I understand why the Indians’ starting pitchers feel sorry for themselves. Although the Indians exploded for 12 runs and 18 hits Thursday night, don’t count on that happening often.
The big night raised their team batting average to .245, still one of the lowest in the American League. Two nights earlier, C.C. Sabathia had to throw a shutout to win 1-0. That’s how it goes on a team with 50 homers and more than 200 RBIs on the disabled list and the rest of the team suffocating in a horrendous slump.
The Indians are not unique, however. Since the steroid police started shuttering the muscle mills, baseball is returning to normal. It is moving ever so slightly away from 1998 and toward 1968.
Let’s hope 1968 is only a direction and not a destination. It is the year known for historically low earned-run averages and record-low batting averages, the year the American League as a whole batted only .230 and no team in the league hit better than .240. By comparison, the current Indians resemble Murderer’s Row.
Let’s return to Ed Walsh, the Hall of Fame pitcher who never complained about his workload or the lack of support.
Walsh toiled from 1904 to 1917, all but the final year for the Chicago White Sox. It looks like a long career, but it wasn’t. Discount the last five years. He was washed up with a dead arm in 1913 at the age of 31.
If you want to know why they count pitches today, look at Ed Walsh, one of the last legal spitball pitchers.
Between 1904 and 1912 he started 289 games and completed 236.  He accumulated 2,773 innings pitched.
The veterans committee elected him to the Hall of Fame based on the seven middle years of his career when he led the league four times in innings pitched, three times each in starts and shutouts, twice in complete games and, incredibly enough, five times in saves. His career record was a very good 195-126, all but 13 of his victories posted by the time he was 31 years old. He should have been on his way to 300 wins, but his star burned too brightly for too short a time.
For five straight years his earned-run average was below 2.00. His lifetime ERA of 1.82 is the best in history.
In 1908 he had a 40-15 record, baseball’s last 40-game winner, and he pitched 464 innings, most since the 1800s. He should have won 41, but on the final day of the season he lost, 1-0, on a no-hitter thrown by Cleveland’s Addie Joss, whose lifetime ERA of 1.88 makes him the only other pitcher in history with a lifetime ERA below 2.00.
Thanks for staying with me. Here’s where I’m going. In 1910, when Walsh led the league with an ERA of 1.27, he had a losing record — 18-20. The White Sox that year were last in the league with a .211 batting average and seven home runs. They averaged a paltry three runs per game.
Furthermore, they couldn’t field the ball very well. Nobody could. In those days, twice as many errors were committed than today. The five-fingered gloves of that era were only a slight improvement over your bare hand.
And so, in 370 innings, Walsh allowed 52 earned runs and 38 unearned runs.
If a pitcher today had that kind of non-support, he’d hire a plaintiff lawyer. You wouldn’t see him on “SportsCenter.” He’d be on “Judge Judy.” He’d toss away the resin bag and reach for the crying towel.
Not so with Ed Walsh. He never lacked for self-confidence. He had an arrogant streak. Charles Dryden, writing in the Chicago Examiner, described Walsh as “the only man who can strut standing still.”
I feel bad for the current Indians pitchers. They usually have to pitch a shutout to get a win.
They should know about the guy who’s been there before.
Dan Coughlin is a columnist for The Chronicle-Telegram and a sportscaster for Channel 8. 

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