Major Pitching Records From 1962 Still Stand
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Pregame Pepper
Free agent outfielder Max Kepler, who hit 18 homers for the Phillies last season, can kiss his career goodbye after receiving an 80-game suspension for steroids abuse . . .
If the Braves continue their pursuit of Atlanta native Byron Buxton, the deal might have to include fellow Atlanta native Michael Harris, their incumbent center-fielder . .
The Yankees are paying DJ LeMahieu $15 million not to play for them this year . . .
Post-season pitching stars Roki Sasaki (Dodgers) and Trey Yesavage (Blue Jays) are officially 2026 rookies . . .
Because he spent the last four years pitching in Asia, Cody Pence (252 Ks over 180 2/3 innings in Korea) could be a big surprise for the Jays after signing a three-year, $30 million pact . . .
Despite the erroneous reporting of a New York Post columnist Thursday, Bo Bichette had never played anywhere but shortstop until the Jays tried him at second base during the World Series . . .
Gold Gloves and World Series rings won by Willie Mays are part of the personal memorabilia collection in the current Hunt’s Auction that closes to bidding Monday. Proceeds go to youth education, training, and health services via the Say Hey Foundation the late Hall of Famer founded in 2000.
Leading Off
Two significant pitching records that still stand were set days apart in September 1962
By Andrew Sharp
On Sept. 12, 1962, Tom Cheney of the Washington Senators struck out 21 Baltimore Orioles in a 16-inning game — a single-game mark never equaled and not very likely to be.
Three days later, a pitcher as obscure as Cheney broke a record set by Christy Mathewson in 1913 for the most consecutive innings pitched without walking a batter. On Sept. 15, Bill Fischer of the Kansas City Athletics topped Mathewson’s 68 innings without a free pass.
Cheney’s name comes up relatively often when trivia buffs talk about the nine-inning standard of 20 strikeouts, held now by four pitchers. Yet righty Bill Fischer gets far less mention for his equally unlikely-to-be-surpassed mark of 84 1/3 consecutive innings without walking a batter.
Fischer had his best season in the majors with the 1959 Washington Senators. On a team that finished last with 91 losses, he was part of a pitching staff that featured Camilo Pascual, Pedro Ramos and little else.
Fischer’s mark, like Cheney’s, has stood for more than 60 years. Given today’s manta of three true outcomes –- a home run, a strikeout or a walk -- it would be hard for any pitcher to approach Fischer’s accomplishment. Cheney’s mark has become increasingly untouchable as few pitchers go even nine innings, let along 16.
Fischer was claimed off waivers by the lowly Senators, on September 11, 1958, from the Tigers, to whom he had been traded by the White Sox in June. He lost the three games he started for Washington, but had a respectable 3.86 ERA.
As a member of the Senators’ 1959 starting staff, he matched up against the Yankees’ Whitey Ford in late April and pitched one of the best games of his career, shutting out the Bronx Bombers for 10 innings. Ford was just as good, however, and went 14 innings as the Yanks beat Washington, 1-0.
That game “did wonders for my confidence,” Fischer told Burt Hawkins of the Washington Evening Star. He proceeded to throw a complete game in beating the Red Sox in his next start and then beat the Tigers, yielding just a run in another complete game. His earned run average at the end of April was 1.06.
He faded in the second half, however, winning just one game to finish 9-11 on a team that went 63-91. Still, he started 29 games and threw 187 innings, both career highs, with six complete games and one of his two career shutouts.
Fischer credited Senators pitching coach Walter “Boom Boom” Beck and manager Cookie Lavagetto for his early-season success. “I learned more about pitching in three weeks with Washington than I had learned in all my other years in baseball,” he told Hawkins. “Cookie made me feel as if I belong,” he recounted in Bob LeMoine’s SABR bio essay on Fischer.
Lavagetto, Hawkins reported, said Fischer’s new-found sinker and slider gave him confidence. “I felt all along he could help us because he has the heart,” Lavagetto said.
Fischer couldn’t replicate his 1959 success, however, in 1960 and was relegated to the bullpen before returning to the Tigers in a July trade. Although he did better in 20 games for Detroit that season, he again slumped to start 1961 and was shipped to the Athletics in a four-player deal.
Fischer was sent to AAA to begin the 1962 season but was back with the A’s in late May. On August 3, his consecutive innings streak began after he walked a batter in the first inning in a game he started and lost, 1-0. The first game he appeared in after the streak began and in which he issued no walks came on August 7 at D.C. Stadium. He pitched a complete game, beating the Senators 10-3, pushing his walk-less innings to 17.
His next walk came in the last game of the season, Sept. 30.
“There are only two reasons a guy is wild: He’s got bad mechanics or he’s afraid,” he told John O’Connor of the Richmond Times Dispatch in 1998. “I had pretty good mechanics, and I was too dumb to be afraid.”
Fischer walked just six batters unintentionally over 127.2 innings in 1962, fewer than one base-on-balls every 21 innings. A more recent comparison of pitcher whose stinginess with walks was notable: In 1994, Bret Saberhagen walked just 13 batters in 177 innings. Even so, that amounted to a walk about every 13 innings.
After his playing career ended, Fischer spent decades as a scout and pitching coach. He died at age 88 in 2018.
Cheney began the1963 season with a one-hit shutout and completed his first four starts, yielding just one earned run, but his career essentially ended in July when he hurt his arm. He died at age 67 in 2001.
Please check out Bob LeMoine’s SABR bio essay on Fischer at https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/Bill-Fischer/ .
My Games Project story of Cheney’s 21 strikeouts is also on SABR.org.
Andrew C. Sharp is a retired daily newspaper journalist and a SABR member who lives in central New Jersey. Raised in the Washington, D.C., suburbs, he blogs about D.C. baseball at washingtonbaseballhistory.com
Cleaning Up
Clubs Gobble Up Quality Relief Arms Like Thanksgiving Turkeys
By Dan Schlossberg
Relief pitchers in the free agent market disappeared like chocolate cream-filled confections at Dunkin’ Donuts.
A baker’s dozen of late-inning arms were early signees. Edwin Diaz got the most money ($69 million for three years from the Dodgers) but likely replacement Devin Williams did well too, getting $51 million from the Mets for three years.
Considering the shabby season Williams had in the Bronx, he did well. After all, he topped the $45 million, three-year haul Robert Suarez got from the Braves after leading the league with 40 saves (two more than Diaz).
The scramble for bullpen help became so bizarre that teams gave question-marks big dollars in the hope they morph into exclamation marks.
That group includes ex-Met Ryan Helsley (2 years, $28 million from Baltimore) and incoming Met Luke Weaver ($22 million for two years).
Ancient Kenley Jansen, pushing for a spot in Cooperstown, got a one year, $11 million deal from Detroit, which also inked Kyle Finnegan (two years, $19 million).
But a bunch of respectable relievers still remain unsigned.
They include aging but still-dependable David Robertson, former Braves Tyler Kinney and Pierce Johnson, and hard-throwing Michael Kopech. And Craig Kimbrel, like Jansen a 400-save closer, is also available for the asking.
The Rogers twins could even become teammates if the Blue Jays add still-unsigned Taylor to the submarining Tyler.
The glacial pace of free agency is obviously connected to several factor, from the infernal Scott Boras to the even-more-infernal Rob Manfred and his lockout-in-waiting. What team wants to give players guaranteed contracts that extend into 2027 when there may not be a 2027 season?
Yes, it’s that serious.
In the meantime, relief is just a signature away — at least for 2026.
HtP weekend editor Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ is the author of 43 baseball books, including Hank Aaron biographies written 50 years apart. Now booking power point presentations and author talks, he’s at ballauthor@gmail.com.
Timeless Trivia: Can Cubs’ Cabrera Deal Crater?
This week’s deal that sent Miami’s Edward Cabrera to the Chicago Cubs for three prospects produced instant recall of the notorious Brock-for-Broglio swap of June 15, 1964.
In that six-man deadline deal on June 15, 1964, the Cubs sent Lou Brock, Jack Spring, and Paul Toth to the rival Cardinals for Ernie Broglio, Doug Clemens, and ancient Bobby Shantz . . .
Broglio, like Cabrera, had only one standout season at the time of the swap — before injuries intervened and tilted the scales toward Chicago . . .
When the deal was made, Brock had a reputation as a fleet power hitter who struck out too frequently to take advantage of his great speed . . .
He once homered into the distant center-field bleachers of the Polo Grounds — a spot only Joe Adcock had reached previously (and Hank Aaron reached the next day) . . .
Brock, who turned 25 three days after the deal, still holds National League records for steals in a season and in a career. Only Rickey Henderson had more . . .
In the latest trade, the Fish got Owen Caissie, Cristian Hernandez, and Edgardo De Leon from the Cubs . . .
Caissie, like Brock, is a fleet outfielder considered a top prospect. The lefty-hitting Canadian, who can play anywhere in the outfield, hit his first big-league homer during a brief tryout with the Cubs last summer. He was the team’s top prospect.
Know Your Editors
Here’s the Pitch is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [gopherben@gmail.com] handles the Monday issue with Dan Freedman [dfreedman@lionsgate.com] editing Tuesday and Jeff Kallman [easyace1955@outlook.com] at the helm Wednesday and Thursday. Original editor Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com], does the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Former editor Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] is now co-director [with Benjamin Chase and Jonathan Becker] of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America, which publishes this newsletter and the annual ACTA book of the same name. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HtP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.
Fischer's 84 1/3 innings without a walk is wild considerng today's game where walks are just accepted as part of hte equation. That quote about being "too dumb to be afraid" is hilarious but also kinda revealing about the mental side. I actually coached little league a few years back and teaching control vs power was always the biggest debate, but Fischer's streak shows what happens when mechanics and confidence align perfectly. The Cheney record feels even more untouchble now with pitch counts.