Candy Cummings

Candy Cummings
Candy Cummings
	Cummings in 1872
	Pitcher
	Born: October 18, 1848; Ware, Massachusetts
	Died: May 16, 1924 (aged 75); Toledo, Ohio
	Batted: Right Threw: Right
MLB debut
	April 22, 1872, for the New York Mutuals
Last MLB appearance
	August 18, 1877, for the Cincinnati Reds
MLB statistics
Win–loss record	145–94
Earned run average	2.49
Strikeouts	259
Teams
	National Association of Base Ball Players Excelsior of Brooklyn (1866–1867) Star of Brooklyn (1868–1871) League Player New York Mutuals (1872) Baltimore Canaries (1873) Philadelphia White Stockings (1874) Hartford Dark Blues (1875–1876) Cincinnati Reds (1877)
Member of the National
Baseball Hall of Fame
Induction	1939
Election method	Veterans Committee

William Arthur "Candy" Cummings (October 18, 1848 – May 16, 1924) was an American professional baseball player. He played as a pitcher in the National Association and National League. Cummings is widely credited with inventing the curveball. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939.

Early life[]

Cummings was born in Ware, Massachusetts. He later said that he thought of the idea of the curveball when fooling around with clam shells as a teenager in Ware.^[1] He played baseball while attending Falley Seminary in Fulton, NY. At the age of 17, Cummings made his baseball debut in the National Association of Base Ball Players with the Excelsior baseball club of Brooklyn.^[2] His first game with the team was on August 14, 1866, against the New York Mutuals. Ten days later he led his team to a 24–2 win against the Newark Eurekas.^[2] After the latter game, baseball writer Henry Chadwick commented on the skills of the young Cummings and his promising future with the Excelsior club.^[3] Cummings played for the Excelsiors next season and continued as the main pitcher for the Stars of Brooklyn from 1868 to 1871.

His pitching skills led to his being called "Candy", a popular 19th-century nickname for a man who was the best at his craft.^[4]

Major league career[]

Cummings, who stood 5'9" and weighed 120 pounds,^[5] compiled a 145–94 career record and 2.49 earned run average while playing for five different teams from 1872 to 1877. Between 1872 and 1875, Cummings pitched in the National Association (NA) with the New York Mutuals, Baltimore Canaries, Philadelphia White Stockings and Hartford Dark Blues. Cummings won between 28 and 35 games in each of his NA seasons.^[6] He spent two seasons in the National League (NL), earning a 16–8 win–loss record with Hartford when the league began in 1876 and a 5–14 record with Cincinnati the next year.^[5] Among other records, Cummings was the first player to record two complete games in one day: September 9, 1876 when he beat the Cincinnati Reds twice, 14–4 and 8–4.^[7]

Cummings left the NL after pitching only 19 games with the Cincinnati Reds to become the President of the new International Association for Professional Base Ball Players.^[2]

Invention of the curveball[]

Plaque of Cummings at the Baseball Hall of Fame

Cummings is often credited with being the first pitcher to throw a curveball, reportedly in 1867 at Worcester, Massachusetts while playing for the Brooklyn Excelsiors; some sources say later with the Brooklyn Stars.^[8] It was not until the Stars acquired catcher Nat Hicks that Cummings was able to use his curveball. Most catchers of his era stood 20 to 25 feet behind the batter, which made it impossible to field a curveball. It was Hicks' catching technique of standing directly behind the batter that allowed Cummings to introduce his curveball.^[8] The introduction of the curveball radically changed pitching, and also changed the way catchers fielded their position.^[8]

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.^[2] 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 was Fred Goldsmith. Goldsmith is credited with the first publicly recorded demonstration of the pitch on August 16, 1870, at the Capitoline Grounds in Brooklyn, New York. Sportswriter Henry Chadwick covered it in the Brooklyn Eagle on August 17, 1870.^[2] According to a 2002 article by ESPN's Steve Wulf, Cummings was "fairly well-connected" in baseball, as evidenced by his position with the International Association. Baseball leaders Chadwick, Harry Wright and Albert Spalding supported Cummings' contention.^[1]

Later life[]

After baseball, Cummings received a small royalty from the invention of a railway coupling device. He owned a paint and wallpaper shop in Athol, Massachusetts.^[1] Cummings died in Toledo, Ohio.^[9] He is buried at Aspen Grove Cemetery in Ware, Massachusetts.^[10] He was posthumously inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939.^[4]

References[]

^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c Wulf, Steve. "Ball Breaker". ESPN The Magazine. Retrieved August 26, 2013.
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e David L. Fleitz (2004). Ghosts in the gallery at Cooperstown: sixteen little-known members of the Hall of Fame. Jefferson, N.C: McFarland & Co. ISBN 0-7864-1749-8.
^ Charlton's Baseball Chronology – 1866 Archived 2011-06-04 at the Wayback Machine
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b "Cummings, Candy". Baseball Hall of Fame. Retrieved September 1, 2013.
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b Gold, Eddie (February 21, 1981). "Candy Got the Credit". The Pittsburgh Press. Retrieved September 1, 2013.
^ "Candy Cummings Statistics". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved September 1, 2013.
^ Nemec, David (2004). Great Baseball Feats, Facts, & Firsts (2004), Signet Books, New York, p. 134.
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c Morris, Peter (2010). Catcher: How the Man Behind the Plate Became an American Folk Hero. Government Institutes. p. 42. ISBN 978-1-56663-870-8. Retrieved 10 July 2012.
^ Baseball-Reference.com.
^ "Cemeteries". Town of Ware, Massachusetts. Archived from the original on November 5, 2013. Retrieved August 26, 2013.

External links[]

Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)
Candy Cummings at the Baseball Hall of Fame
Candy Cummings at Find a Grave
Watching Clam Shell Sail Gave Gave First Curve Ball To Cummings; They Said It Couldn't Be Done, by Harry Grayson, May 28, 1943

[Wulf-1] Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c Wulf, Steve. "Ball Breaker". ESPN The Magazine. Retrieved August 26, 2013.

[Fleitz-2] Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e David L. Fleitz (2004). Ghosts in the gallery at Cooperstown: sixteen little-known members of the Hall of Fame. Jefferson, N.C: McFarland & Co. ISBN 0-7864-1749-8.

[3] Charlton's Baseball Chronology – 1866 Archived 2011-06-04 at the Wayback Machine

[HOF-4] Jump up to: ^a ^b "Cummings, Candy". Baseball Hall of Fame. Retrieved September 1, 2013.

[Gold-5] Jump up to: ^a ^b Gold, Eddie (February 21, 1981). "Candy Got the Credit". The Pittsburgh Press. Retrieved September 1, 2013.

[BR-6] "Candy Cummings Statistics". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved September 1, 2013.

[7] Nemec, David (2004). Great Baseball Feats, Facts, & Firsts (2004), Signet Books, New York, p. 134.

[Catcher-8] Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c Morris, Peter (2010). Catcher: How the Man Behind the Plate Became an American Folk Hero. Government Institutes. p. 42. ISBN 978-1-56663-870-8. Retrieved 10 July 2012.

[9] Baseball-Reference.com.

[Cemeteries-10] "Cemeteries". Town of Ware, Massachusetts. Archived from the original on November 5, 2013. Retrieved August 26, 2013.

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show v t Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 1939
BBWAA Vote	Eddie Collins (77.7%) Willie Keeler (75.6%) George Sisler (85.8%)
Veterans Committee	Cap Anson Charles Comiskey Candy Cummings Buck Ewing Lou Gehrig Charles Radbourn Al Spalding

show v t Members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame
Pitchers	Alexander Bender Blyleven M. Brown R. Brown Bunning Carlton Chesbro Clarkson Cooper Coveleski Day Dean Dihigo Drysdale Eckersley Faber Feller Fingers Ford B. Foster Galvin B. Gibson Glavine Gomez Gossage Grimes Grove Haines Halladay Hoffman Hoyt Hubbell Hunter Jenkins R. Johnson W. Johnson Joss Keefe Koufax Lemon Lyons Maddux Marichal Marquard P. Martínez Mathewson McGinnity Méndez Morris Mussina Newhouser Nichols Niekro Paige Palmer Pennock Perry Plank Radbourn Rivera Rixey Roberts Rogan Ruffing Rusie Ryan Seaver H. Smith L. Smith Smoltz Spahn Sutter Sutton Vance Waddell Walsh Welch Wilhelm J. Williams Willis Wynn Young
Catchers	Bench Berra Bresnahan Campanella Carter Cochrane Dickey Ewing Ferrell Fisk J. Gibson Hartnett Lombardi Mackey Piazza Rodríguez Santop Schalk T. Simmons
First basemen	Anson Bagwell Beckley Bottomley Brouthers Cepeda Chance Connor Foxx Gehrig Greenberg G. Kelly Killebrew Leonard McCovey Mize Murray Pérez Sisler Suttles Taylor Terry Thomas Thome
Second basemen	Alomar Biggio Carew E. Collins Doerr Evers Fox Frisch Gehringer Gordon Grant Herman Hornsby Lajoie Lazzeri Mazeroski McPhee Morgan J. Robinson Sandberg Schoendienst
Third basemen	Baker Boggs Brett J. Collins Dandridge J. Johnson Jones Kell Lindstrom Mathews Molitor B. Robinson Santo Schmidt Traynor D. White J. Wilson
Shortstops	Aparicio Appling Bancroft Banks Boudreau Cronin Davis T. Jackson Jennings Jeter Larkin Lloyd Maranville Reese Ripken Jr. Rizzuto Sewell O. Smith Tinker Trammell Vaughan Wagner Wallace Ward Wells Yount
Left fielders	Brock Burkett Clarke Delahanty Goslin Hafey Henderson Irvin Kelley Kiner Manush Medwick Musial O'Rourke Raines J. Rice A. Simmons Stargell Wheat B. Williams T. Williams Yastrzemski
Center fielders	Ashburn Averill Bell W. Brown Carey Charleston Cobb Combs DiMaggio Doby Duffy Griffey Jr. Hamilton Hill Mantle Mays Puckett Roush Snider Speaker Stearnes Torriente L. Waner H. Wilson
Right fielders	Aaron Clemente Crawford Cuyler Dawson Flick Guerrero Gwynn Heilmann Hooper R. Jackson Kaline Keeler K. Kelly Klein T. McCarthy Ott S. Rice F. Robinson Ruth Slaughter Thompson Walker P. Waner Winfield Youngs
Designated hitters	Baines E. Martínez
Managers	Alston Anderson Cox Durocher R. Foster Hanlon Harris Herzog Huggins La Russa Lasorda López Mack J. McCarthy McGraw McKechnie W. Robinson Selee Southworth Stengel Torre Weaver D. Williams
Executives and pioneers	Barrow Bulkeley Cartwright Chadwick Chandler Comiskey Cummings Dreyfuss Frick Giles Gillick Griffith Harridge Hulbert B. Johnson Kuhn Landis La. MacPhail Le. MacPhail Manley Miller O'Malley Pompez Posey Rickey Ruppert Schuerholz Selig Spalding Veeck Weiss S. White Wilkinson G. Wright H. Wright Yawkey
Umpires	Barlick Chylak Conlan Connolly Evans Harvey Hubbard Klem McGowan O'Day