Early Wynn
Early Wynn Jr., nicknamed "Gus", was an American professional baseball right-handed pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball for the Washington Senators, Cleveland Indians, and Chicago White Sox, during his 23-year MLB career. Wynn was identified as one of the most intimidating pitchers in the game, having combined his powerful fastball with a hard attitude toward batters. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972.
Wynn signed with the Senators at the age of 17, deciding to forgo completing his high school education to begin pursuing a baseball career. He spent three seasons in Minor League Baseball before achieving his first MLB stint in 1939. Wynn returned to the big leagues two years later and in 1942 pitched his first full MLB season. The following year, he won 18 games for the Senators. Drafted into the military in 1944, Wynn missed all of 1945 and a portion of the 1946 season while serving in the United States Army during World War II. He spent all of 1947 and 1948 with the Senators before getting traded to the Indians after the 1948 season.
With Cleveland, Wynn was a member of what historian David Fleitz called "one of the greatest pitching rotations of all time," along with Bob Feller, Mike Garcia, and Bob Lemon. Pitching coach Mel Harder taught him a curveball, slider, and knuckleball, which Wynn credited with helping him become a better pitcher in the 1950s. He won 20 or more games in four of his seasons with the Indians, helping them set an American League record with 111 total wins in 1954. He started Game 2 of the 1954 World Series, which the New York Giants won in four games. In 1955, he was selected to his first of eight straight All-Star Games. Traded to the White Sox after the 1957 season, Wynn won the 1959 Cy Young Award, leading the AL with 22 wins as the team won the AL pennant. At 39, he became the oldest pitcher to win the award, and he was not passed for 19 years. In Game 1 of the 1959 World Series, Wynn struck out six in seven innings, allowing no runs as the White Sox won 11–0. He made two other starts in the Series but failed to pitch past the fourth inning in either, as the Los Angeles Dodgers won the series in six games. Towards the end of his career, Wynn began to rely more heavily on the knuckleball, as the velocity of his pitches declined. The White Sox released him after the 1962 season, but Wynn signed with the Indians in 1963 because he was determined to win 300 games. He picked up his 300th victory against the Kansas City Athletics on July 13, his last major league win, though he remained on the roster for the rest of the season., he is one of 24 MLB pitchers to win 300 games.
After his retirement as a player, Wynn served as a pitching coach for the Indians from 1964 to 1966 and the Minnesota Twins from 1967 to 1969. He later was a broadcaster for the Toronto Blue Jays and White Sox. Wynn lived in Nokomis, Florida, for many years, operating the Early Wynn Steak House and Bowling Lanes in Venice, Florida, during the 1960s. In 1999, he was included on The Sporting News list of the 100 greatest players in baseball history. Wynn died that year in an assisted living facility following heart-related problems and a stroke.
Early life
Wynn was born January 6, 1920, in Hartford, Alabama, the son of Blanche Wynn and Early Wynn Sr., an automobile mechanic and former semi-professional baseball player. Wynn described his ancestry as being Scottish, Irish, and Cherokee; sportswriter Lew Freedman speculates that Wynn was no more than Cherokee. As a youth, Wynn lifted 500-pound bales of cotton one summer for 10 cents an hour; the experience left him determined to make a different living for himself. Excelling at both football and baseball, Wynn was about to become the top running back at Geneva County High School as a sophomore, but he suffered a broken leg on a punt return that year. The injury forced him out of football and focused his attention on baseball. Wynn later described it as "my best break ever."When he was a teenager, Wynn attended a tryout session in Florida for the Washington Senators. He impressed Senators coach Clyde Milan enough that the organization offered him a minor league contract. Wynn signed with Washington for $100 per month and decided not to finish high school. Between 1937 and 1939, Wynn pitched minor league baseball in the Florida State League and the Piedmont League.
Professional career
Washington Senators (1939, 1941–1944, 1946–1948)
Wynn made his Major League Baseball debut in 1939, when he was a September callup by the Senators. He threw a complete game in his first outing on September 13, allowing four runs in a 4–2 loss to the Chicago White Sox. Wynn made three starts, posting an 0–2 record and a 5.75 earned run average before returning to the minor leagues for 1940 and most of 1941. David Fleitz of the Society for American Baseball Research wrote, "Wynn was not yet ready for major-league action." He made it back to the major leagues in 1941, when he was again a September callup. In his first start of the year, the second game of a doubleheader against the Philadelphia Athletics, he gave up two runs and six hits, earning his first major league win in a 4–2 Senator victory. He started five games this time, completing four of them and finishing with a 3–1 record and a 1.58 ERA.In 1942, Wynn was named to Washington's four-man pitching rotation and spent the whole season in the major leagues for the first time. He threw a shutout on April 30 against the White Sox, allowing the Senators to win by scoring just one run. In the second game of a doubleheader against the New York Yankees on September 6, he gave up several runs–11, though only five were earned. The Senators lost 15–2. He pitched 30 games that season, finishing with a 10–16 record and a 5.12 ERA. The 16 losses ranked fifth in the American League.
Wynn opened the 1943 season as the number two starter in the Senators' rotation, behind Dutch Leonard. On April 27, he threw 13 scoreless innings but received a no decision as Philadelphia defeated the Senators 2–1 in 16 innings. Against the Cleveland Indians on July 10, he allowed only four hits and threw a shutout in a 4–0 victory. He pitched innings on August 18, losing the game 3–2 in the 14th to the White Sox when Guy Curtright singled to drive in a run; however, the two runs Wynn had allowed earlier were unearned. Four days later, in the second game of a doubleheader against the St. Louis Browns, Wynn hit his first major league home run against Bob Muncrief. He was less successful on the mound, allowing seven runs in six innings as the Browns won 8–5. On September 10, he held Philadelphia to three hits in a 5–0 victory. In the first game of a doubleheader against the Yankees on September 19, Wynn gave up two runs in 10 innings as the Senators won 3–2. In 37 games, he finished 18–12 with a 2.91 ERA and 89 strikeouts, leading the AL with 33 starts. Wynn finished 18th in AL Most Valuable Player voting.
On April 20, 1944, Wynn threw a two-hit shutout against the Philadelphia Athletics. He held the Indians to three runs over 13 innings on May 26 in a 5–3 victory. On June 18, he threw a four-hit shutout against the Boston Red Sox in a 1–0 victory. He had a 6–7 record entering June 29 but would lose 10 decisions in a row starting from that date and lasting through August 13, when he finally won another game. One of those losses in the second game of a doubleheader on July 4 came after Wynn had held the White Sox to two runs in 11 innings; he gave up a third run in the 12th, and Chicago defeated Washington by a score of 3–2. Though his season ended in late August, he led the league in losses in 1944, compiling an 8–17 record and a 3.38 ERA.
Wynn's 1944 season ended early, as he joined the United States Army on August 21. He underwent 17 weeks of training at Fort Knox before going to the Philippines to serve in the Tank Corps during World War II. Though he missed the 1945 major league season, Wynn continued to play baseball, pitching for a Pacific Army team known as the Manila Dodgers.
Returning to the United States in June 1946, Wynn was able to resume pitching for the Senators on July 16. He pitched 11 innings against the Yankees in the first game of a doubleheader on September 8, allowing only one run and earning the victory in Washington's 2–1 triumph. In 17 games that year, he finished with an 8–5 record and a 3.11 ERA.
In 1947, Wynn was the Senators' Opening Day starter. He came within one out of completing the first game he won that season on April 23, getting relieved by Tom Ferrick with two outs in the ninth inning but still earning the win in a 4–3 triumph over Philadelphia. On June 5, he shut out the Indians in a 3–0 victory. Wynn was selected to the 1947 AL All-Star team for the first time as a replacement for an injured Bob Feller, but he did not pitch in the AL's 2–1 victory. In the first game of a doubleheader on July 10, he gave up 10 hits but threw a shutout in a 4–0 victory over the White Sox. On July 22, he gave up only two hits and one run in a 6–1 victory over the Detroit Tigers. He pitched 33 games that year and earned a decision in almost every game, totaling 17 wins with 15 losses and a 3.64 ERA. After the season, he finished 23rd in AL MVP voting.
Wynn made the Opening Day start again for the Senators in 1948 but gave up 12 runs over innings in a 12–4 loss to the Senators. On May 6, he limited Cleveland to three hits in a shutout as the Senators beat the Indians by a score of 5–0. He had a 7–7 record through the end of June but only won one more game the rest of the season, losing 12 games and posting a 6.96 ERA in the season's second half. In 1948, Wynn was the victim of inconsistency, posting an 8–19 record and a 5.82 ERA. He gave up a league-high 128 earned runs, and his 19 losses were third in the league. When hitting, though, he had a career-high 16 runs batted in.
During the offseason, the Senators made Wynn available for trade. The Boston Red Sox offered Johnny Pesky to Washington for Wynn in November, but the trade did not go through. However, Bill Veeck, who owned the Indians, had been trying to acquire Wynn since before the 1948 season. In December, Wynn and Mickey Vernon were sent to the Cleveland Indians in exchange for Joe Haynes, Ed Klieman and Eddie Robinson.