Mickey Welch Marquee Hall of Fame 1973

Welch pitched thirteen seasons, three for Troy and ten for the New York clubs that became the Giants, and finished 307-210 across 4,802 innings. He completed 525 of his 549 starts and threw 41 shutouts. As a rookie in 1880 he won 34 games and lost 30, which was ordinary work when a pitching staff was one or two men deep.

His best year was 1885: 44 wins, 11 losses, a 1.66 earned run average and 55 complete games in 55 starts. He struck out 345 in 1884, reached 30 wins in four different seasons, and passed 300 for his career during 1890. He shared that New York staff with Tim Keefe, who finished with 342 wins.

He led his league in nothing the archive counts, not wins, not strikeouts, not shutouts, which is a strange record for a man with 307 of the first. The Veterans Committee elected him in 1973, eighty-one years after his last game and thirty-two years after his death.