The Hardball Times:Bucky Walters: A forgotten legacy

As part of your age group, I always wanted to know more about Bucky Walters...then again, I now write for THT, so I guess I betrayed my hand with that one.  :-)

 A fantastic work about a player who I very heartily agree needs some more recognition.  I've been fascinated with the makeup of the McKechnie Reds ever since Bill James's Guide to Baseball Managers (or whatever it was called), and of course Walters is one of the central characters.

Thanks a bunch.

Eric, nice article.

My Mom was a big Reds fan as a teen during Bucky's heyday.  We moved to the Philly area long ago.  She would occasionally see some article in the local papers about him and bring it to my attention.  I'd bet she'd love to talk to you if you wanted eyewitness accounts.  She sometimes takes a frustratingly long time to fish the exact word or thought from memory but otherwise she's plenty lucid. :)

 IIRC, Mr. Walters died at Abington Hospital and if you live close to there, then we don't live too far apart -- I'm in Ft. Washington.

Great article, Eric. I knew about Walters' accomplishments, but I didn't know the background. (I'm 45) About ten years ago I was doing an exhaustive survey of major league careers through various sabermetric measurements, and had determined at that time that Bucky Walters was the most deserving starting pitcher not in the Hall of Fame. And I'm not a Reds fan (I'm from California). 

In his prime, not only were his ERAs and W-L phenomenal, but he also led the league in IP three years straight in the process. He was both efficient and a workhorse. That makes those 168 and 154 ERA+'s all that much more impressive.

I also charted the pitchers with the worst career run support in history (based on their teams' run scoring totals in relation to the league), and only three pitchers had a differential of -0.20 or less: Bucky Walters, Walter Johnson and Robin Roberts.

During his career, he had three stellar seasons, two very good seasons, and two good seasons. A lot of HOF pitchers did not have three or even two stellar seasons. A seven-season prime like that isn't very common.

Put all those factors together, and it spells someone who has the credentials but is easy to overlook. I'd put him above Phil Niekro, Catfish Hunter, Ted Lyons, Herb Pennock and Early Wynn – all elected by the BBWAA – not to mention the slew of Veterans picks he surpasses.

Eric,

Very nice article on an excellent player who flies under the radar for most casual fans.  I found this article by linking from Rob Neyer's blog, which should get it plenty of visibility.  I remember Bucky from a tabletop baseball game I played as a kid that had him eligible as both a pitcher and a third baseman, which intrigued me.

For some reason, Walters is often overlooked in favor of Paul Derringer as the best pitcher on those two Reds World Series teams - Derringer even started the All Star game in 1940.  However, Walters was clearly better than Derringer in both '39 and '40 and pretty certainly was the best pitcher in the NL both of those years, though you can make a strong argument that Mort Cooper of the World Champion Cardinals or Walters was the best pitcher of 1944.  I suspect that it would have been a close vote, and Cooper might well have won based on his team winning the pennant.

While I'm not certain that a lifetime ERA+ of 115 and WHIP of 1.324 are Hall worthy, even factoring in the era in which he pitched and adding that he actually walked more hitters (1121) in his career than he struck out (1107), he was certainly one of the two best players on those Reds teams (the other being Ernie Lombardi), and he certainly deserves to be remembered as such.  Well done.