Candy Cummings
Encyclopedia
William Arthur "Candy" Cummings (October 18, 1848 – May 16, 1924) was a professional baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 pitcher
Pitcher
In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throwsthe baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw a walk. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the...

 in the National Association
National Association of Professional Base Ball Players
The National Association of Professional Base Ball Players , or simply the National Association , was founded in 1871 and continued through the 1875 season...

 and National League
National League
The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League , is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball, and the world's oldest extant professional team sports league. Founded on February 2, 1876, to replace the National Association of Professional...

 who was credited with inventing the curveball. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939.

Career

At 17, Cummings debuted in the National Association of Base Ball Players
National Association of Base Ball Players
The National Association of Base Ball Players was the first organization governing American baseball. The first, 1857 convention of sixteen New York City clubs...

 with the Excelsior
Excelsior of Brooklyn
The Brooklyn Excelsiors were an amateur baseball team that played in Brooklyn, New York. Formed in 1854, the Excelsior ballclub featured stars such as Jim Creighton, Asa Brainard, and Candy Cummings.-1860 Championship Season:...

 baseball club of Brooklyn. His first game with the team was on August 14, 1866 against the New York Mutuals
New York Mutuals
The Mutual Base Ball Club of New York was a leading American baseball club almost throughout its 20-year history. It was established during 1857, the year of the first baseball convention, just too late to be a founding member of the National Association of Base Ball Players. It was a charter...

. Ten days later he led his team to a 24-2 win against the Newark Eurekas
Newark Eurekas
-Eureka Baseball Club of Newark:The Eureka team was part of the NABBP in the 1850's and 1860's. The Eureka Club first began playing other members of the NABBP in 1860. They played at a field at Ferry Street and Adams Street in the Ironbound.-Players*:...

. After the latter game baseball writer Henry Chadwick commented on the skills of the young Cummings and his promising future with the Excelsior club. He played for the Excelsiors next season and continued as the main pitcher for the Stars of Brooklyn from 1868 to 1871.

During a 6-year league career which lasted from 1872 until 1877, Cummings compiled a 145-94 career record and 2.49 ERA
Earned run average
In baseball statistics, earned run average is the mean of earned runs given up by a pitcher per nine innings pitched. It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number of innings pitched and multiplying by nine...

 while playing for five different teams. Among other records, Cummings was the first player to record two complete game
Complete game
In baseball, a complete game is the act of a pitcher pitching an entire game without the benefit of a relief pitcher.As demonstrated by the charts below, in the early 20th century, it was common for most good Major League Baseball pitchers to pitch a complete game almost every start. Pitchers were...

s in one day: September 9, 1876 when he beat the Cincinnati Reds
Cincinnati Reds
The Cincinnati Reds are a Major League Baseball team based in Cincinnati, Ohio. They are members of the National League Central Division. The club was established in 1882 as a charter member of the American Association and joined the National League in 1890....

 14-4 and 8-4.

In 1877 Cummings left the National League
National League
The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League , is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball, and the world's oldest extant professional team sports league. Founded on February 2, 1876, to replace the National Association of Professional...

 after pitching only 19 games with the Cincinnati Reds
Cincinnati Reds (1876-1880)
The Cincinnati Reds, also known as the Cincinnati Red Stockings, were a professional baseball team based in Cincinnati, Ohio that played from 1876–1880. The Reds were a charter member of the National League.-History:...

 to become the President of the new International Association for Professional Base Ball Players.

Invention of the Curveball

Cummings is often credited with being the first pitcher to throw a curveball
Curveball
The curveball is a type of pitch in baseball thrown with a characteristic grip and hand movement that imparts forward spin to the ball causing it to dive in a downward path as it approaches the plate. Its close relatives are the slider and the slurve. The "curve" of the ball varies from pitcher to...

, reportedly in 1867 at Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester is a city and the county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, as of the 2010 Census the city's population is 181,045, making it the second largest city in New England after Boston....

 while playing for the Brooklyn Excelsiors; some sources say later with the Brooklyn Stars. Cummings said that he discovered the idea of the curveball while studying the movement sea shells made when thrown. After noticing this movement, he began trying to make a baseball move the same way, and thus created the new pitch. He would later recall from that game: "I became fully convinced that I had succeeded ... the batters were missing a lot of balls; I began to watch the flight of the ball through the air, and distinctly saw it curve."

Another pitcher to claim inventing the curveball is New Haven, Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...

-born Fred Goldsmith. Goldsmith is credited with the first publicly recorded demonstration of the pitch on August 16, 1870, at the Capitoline Grounds
Capitoline Grounds
The Capitoline Grounds, also known as Capitoline Skating Lake and Base Ball Ground, was a baseball park in Brooklyn, New York from 1864 to 1880. It was built to rival nearby Union Grounds, also in Brooklyn...

 in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

. Sportswriter Henry Chadwick covered that in the Brooklyn Eagle newspaper, August 17, 1870.

Candy Cummings was born in Ware, Massachusetts
Ware, Massachusetts
Ware is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 9,707 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area.Part of the town comprises the census-designated place of Ware....

, and died in Toledo, Ohio
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...

.

See also

  • Denny Mack
    Denny Mack
    Dennis Joseph Mack, born as Dennis Joseph McGee, was a professional baseball player who was a first baseman and shortstop in Major League Baseball for eight seasons from to...

     - the Radcliffe affair
  • List of Major League Baseball leaders in career wins

External links

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