Toad Ramsey

Thomas H. "Toad" Ramsey (August 8, 1864 – March 27, 1906) was an American Major League Baseball player who pitched in the majors from to . Ramsey spent his entire career in the American Association, split between playing for the Louisville Colonels and St. Louis Browns. He is sometimes credited with inventing a pitch, the knuckleball, and was one of the top pitchers in the Association for more than two years, with statistics that put him in the top five in multiple pitching categories.

Career

Louisville Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, and a former bricklayer, Ramsey is credited as the inventor of the knuckleball pitch. He had severed the tendon in the index finger of his pitching hand with a trowel. The result was that Ramsey's pitches had a natural knuckleball motion. He threw with a fastball motion, holding the ball with his index finger retracted, since he could not straighten it, and with just his finger tip on the ball. Some historians have disputed he actually threw a knuckleball in the modern sense, in that his ball movement was like what is now known as a knuckle curve.

While playing for the Chattanooga Lookouts of the Southern League, Ramsey pitched a no-hitter on May 30, 1885, against the Nashville Americans in a road game where only three players reached base, two via walks and one on an error. On August 29, Chattanooga traded him to Louisville Colonels of the American Association in exchange for John Connor and $750. He was brought in to spell star pitcher Guy Hecker, who had a sore arm, and made his major league debut on September 5, In that first season with the Colonels, he started nine games, completing them all with a 3–6 win–loss record. Ramsey logged in a league leading innings and 66 complete games in 67 starts. In addition to his league leading statistics that season, his earned run average of 2.45 and 38 wins were good for third in the league. His 499 strikeouts that season finished second behind Matt Kilroy's record setting total of 513. Ramsey's total is the second-highest total in major league history. Ramsey and Hecker's relationship steadily became more at odds the more Ramsey's status with the team grew. At one point, Ramsey stated Hecker was jealous of his success and it would be good for the team if Hecker were released. Unfortunately, his dominant years stopped after that season, and his fortunes changed for the worse beginning during the season. His win–loss record was 8–30 in 40 starts. in his hometown of Indianapolis at the age of 41, and is interred at Crown Hill Cemetery and Aboretum, Section 37, Lot 238.