71 Wins to be Top 1,000: Amos Rusie has 246 Career Wins

    I have paid attention to baseball and many of the statistics from it since the 1970s. By then the sport had a pretty robust history. There were legendary names, always. Reggie Jackson was earning his status as legend when I was watching. Like Pete Rose and Johnny Bench of nearby Cincinnati.  Before them there were others, many names. Aaron, Mays, Mantle, DiMaggio, Berra, Gibson (there was more than one, one of the Negro Leagues, too), Koufax, Robinson... I leave out many. We all know the Bambino, Babe Ruth.

    Home runs and hits get a lot of attention and renown. I pay those numbers there due, watching some current players rise through the historic lists and surpass their way into elite status. Bryce Harper, Mike Trout, Juan Soto. These guys are doing great things in the context of the game where history and stats intertwine. Some write books and poetry about it.

    Win totals in pitching have become a more elusive statistic deeper into the 21st century than it used to be for the first hundred years of the game. I like to see certain hurlers advance in the career wins in number of their career accomplishments. But as some know, it is harder than ever to get credited those wins in the modern game. Pitchers throw less, relievers come in much more, and the wins that were attributed more in the 1960s or back in the early 1900s to the starting pitchers, like what happened with Cy Young or so many others, does not come as much. A great pitcher of 1910 could much more readily accrue a few hundred wins than now. Today in the game even great pitchers may only get a hundred or so total career wins. 

    71 wins will get a pitcher in the top 1,000 of all time. There are about 30 current pros with the 71 or more career victories. Only a few have north of 200 wins recorded at present. Those are Justin Verlander (246), Zach Greinke (224), Maz Scherzer (208), and Clayton Kershaw (206). Adam Wainwright is right at the door with 198. It looks good for all of them to make the Hall of Fame, which is a hard club to join. Some of the greatest pitchers and position players of all time do not make it. Especially a select few who gambles (Pete Rose) or were caught using performance enhancing drugs (PEDs).

    At win total 246 with Verlander is a guy named Amos Rusie, who only competed a total of 10 years.

    His stats will be included below. He pitched for the Indianapolis Hoosiers in 1889, a team that I did not know existed. Then he was quickly part of the New York Giants most of his tenure; he did his last year with the Cincinnati Reds, starting two games and going 0-1 at age 30. He was basically done at age 27, not recording any games when he was 28 and 29. At 27, his last full season, he went 20-11. Pretty good. He did make the Hall of Fame after only those 10 years of competition, mostly from ages 18-27. He did lose a high of 34 games in 1890, at age 19. He won 29 that season, which is much more than any modern amazing game winner in one year of the modern era. Twenty wins is enough to get a Cy Young (best pitcher) in this day and age. More than twenty wins in one year is really hard to do now.

    Rusie's best win year was 36 in 1894, as part of a string of four 30 plus win seasons.

    As a Giant of the Big Apple, I am sure that this man was lauded and celebrated so much where a modern-looking game was becoming a bigger part of the American world. Before Ruth made the game the game of the long ball, we had Cy Young and Ty Cobb, Cap Anson and Honus Wagner. A pitcher of over 500 career wins, and hitters who did not hit so many homers, but likely got more career triples than long balls. The game has changed. Home runs are the most vital stats, triples are elusive, and wins are really hard to come by.

    I know Scherzer should have 100 more, I believe, because the lack of run support and numerous times pulled for early relief has cost him many good decisions.

    And we have Rusie of the 19th century sitting on 246 career wins, maybe in a three man rotation in the 1890s. Times do change. Incidentally, he is from Mooresville, Indiana, a town on the way to the Indianapolis Airport for me growing up, a town police known for doling out speeding tickets, of which I have earned one in 1994 or so. 

    That is a bit about Amos. And baseball. History and perspective.

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	W	L	W-L%	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	BK	WP	BF	ERA+	FIP	WHIP	H9	HR9	BB9	SO9	SO/W	Awards
1889	18	IND	NL	12	10	.545	5.32	33	22	11	19	1	0	225.0	246	181	133	12	116		109	9	0	9	1036	77	4.40	1.609	9.8	0.5	4.6	4.4	0.94
1890	19	NYG	NL	29	34	.460	2.56	67	62	5	56	4	1	548.2	436	300	156	3	289		341	26	0	36	2379	134	3.47	1.321	7.2	0.0	4.7	5.6	1.18
1891	20	NYG	NL	33	20	.623	2.55	61	57	4	52	6	1	500.1	391	244	142	6	262		337	18	1	17	2167	123	3.02	1.305	7.0	0.1	4.7	6.1	1.29
1892	21	NYG	NL	32	31	.508	2.84	65	62	3	59	2	0	541.0	410	290	171	7	270		304	12	0	24	2314	113	3.04	1.257	6.8	0.1	4.5	5.1	1.13
1893	22	NYG	NL	33	21	.611	3.23	56	52	4	50	4	1	482.0	451	260	173	15	218		208	16	0	26	2111	143	4.24	1.388	8.4	0.3	4.1	3.9	0.95
1894	23	NYG	NL	36	13	.735	2.78	54	50	4	45	3	1	444.0	426	228	137	10	200		195	5	0	10	1910	188	4.61	1.410	8.6	0.2	4.1	4.0	0.98
1895	24	NYG	NL	23	23	.500	3.73	49	47	2	42	4	0	393.1	384	248	163	9	159		201	7	0	10	1690	124	4.12	1.381	8.8	0.2	3.6	4.6	1.26
1897	26	NYG	NL	28	10	.737	2.54	38	37	1	35	2	0	322.1	314	143	91	6	87		135	10	0	6	1336	163	3.63	1.244	8.8	0.2	2.4	3.8	1.55
1898	27	NYG	NL	20	11	.645	3.03	37	36	1	33	4	1	300.0	288	149	101	6	103		114	9	0	13	1261	116	3.39	1.303	8.6	0.2	3.1	3.4	1.11
1901	30	CIN	NL	0	1	.000	8.59	3	2	0	2	0	0	22.0	43	25	21	1	3		6	0	0	2	109	38	3.38	2.091	17.6	0.4	1.2	2.5	2.00