Bullet Joe Bush Marquee

b. November 27, 1892 · Philadelphia Athletics 1912–1917, 1928, Boston Red Sox 1918–1921, New York Yankees 1922–1924, St. Louis Browns 1925, Washington Senators 1926, Pittsburgh Pirates 1926–1927, New York Giants 1927

He won a World Series game for Connie Mack at twenty, in 1913, and three years later went 15-24 for the Philadelphia club that lost 117 games, which was nobody's fault but the roster's. Boston bought him, he threw a no-hitter in 1916, and in 1918 he was on the last Red Sox club to win a World Series for eighty-six years.

He hurt his arm and taught himself to split his fingers around the ball to take the spin off it, and the pitch that resulted is the forkball, which he is generally credited with inventing. It worked: 26-7 for the 1922 Yankees, then 19 and 17 wins in the two years after.

Seventeen seasons gave him 195 wins against 183, a 3.51 earned run average, 3,087 innings and 225 complete games, for seven clubs. He hit .253 with 313 hits and was used to pinch-hit. The 1958 ballot gave him five votes of 266. He died in 1974, at eighty-one.

Honors

Award	Times	Years
Baseball Magazine All-Star	1	1922

Batting, season by season

Year	Team	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	AVG
1912	PHA	1	4	1	2	0	1	0	3	0	2	0	.500
1913	PHA	39	70	8	11	3	1	0	1	2	21	0	.157
1914	PHA	38	74	6	14	4	0	1	8	2	25	0	.189
1915	PHA	25	49	2	7	0	0	0	0	1	22	0	.143
1916	PHA	41	100	4	14	4	0	0	6	0	23	0	.140
1917	PHA	37	80	9	16	2	1	0	4	5	12	0	.200
1918	BOS	36	98	8	27	3	2	0	14	6	11	0	.276
1919	BOS	5	5	1	2	0	0	0	2	0	1	0	.400
1920	BOS	45	102	14	25	2	0	0	7	9	15	0	.245
1921	BOS	50	120	19	39	5	4	0	17	3	14	2	.325
1922	NYY	39	95	15	31	6	2	0	12	3	11	0	.326
1923	NYY	38	113	12	31	5	3	2	19	3	8	0	.274
1924	NYY	60	124	13	42	9	3	1	14	7	6	0	.339
1925	SLB	57	102	10	26	12	0	2	18	6	8	2	.255
1926	PIT/WSH	45	79	6	20	4	0	1	10	4	12	0	.253
1927	NYG/PIT	10	9	0	5	0	0	0	2	1	1	0	.556
1928	PHA	15	15	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	.067
Career	—	581	1239	128	313	59	17	7	137	53	194	4	.253

Pitching, season by season

Year	Team	W	L	G	GS	SV	IP	H	ER	BB	SO	ERA
1912	PHA	0	0	1	1	0	8.0	14	7	4	3	7.88
1913	PHA	15	6	39	16	3	200.1	199	85	66	81	3.82
1914	PHA	16	12	38	22	3	206.0	184	70	81	109	3.06
1915	PHA	5	15	25	18	0	145.2	137	67	89	89	4.14
1916	PHA	15	24	40	33	0	286.2	222	82	130	157	2.57
1917	PHA	11	17	37	31	2	233.1	207	64	111	121	2.47
1918	BOS	15	15	36	31	2	272.2	241	64	91	125	2.11
1919	BOS	0	0	3	2	0	9.0	11	5	4	3	5.00
1920	BOS	15	15	35	32	1	243.2	287	115	94	88	4.25
1921	BOS	16	9	37	32	1	254.1	244	99	93	96	3.50
1922	NYY	26	7	39	30	3	255.1	240	94	85	92	3.31
1923	NYY	19	15	37	30	0	275.2	263	105	117	125	3.43
1924	NYY	17	16	39	31	1	252.0	262	100	109	80	3.57
1925	SLB	14	14	33	28	0	208.2	230	118	91	63	5.09
1926	PIT/WSH	7	14	31	22	3	182.0	180	90	70	65	4.45
1927	NYG/PIT	2	3	8	5	0	18.2	32	20	10	7	9.64
1928	PHA	2	1	11	2	1	35.1	39	20	18	15	5.09
Career	—	195	183	489	366	20	3087.1	2992	1205	1263	1319	3.51

On this day & linked events

1892

Born November 27, 1892

Gull River, MN, USA

1974

Died November 1, 1974

1912

Major-league debut: Bullet Joe Bush

Bullet Joe Bush made a major-league debut on September 30, 1912.

1916

Bullet Joe Bush's No-Hitter

Bullet Joe Bush threw a no-hitter for the Philadelphia Athletics against the Cleveland Indians on August 26, 1916, winning 5–0.

1928

Final major-league game: Bullet Joe Bush

Bullet Joe Bush played a final major-league game on September 30, 1928.

Image: Harris & Ewing, public domain