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Dupee Shaw
There have been long-fought and dangerous disputes about the exact number of motions through which Shaw puts himself before delivering the ball. One man claimed thirty-two, holding that he had counted them. An attempt to give all of them would be foolish. A few will be enough. When Shaw first lays his hands on the sphere he looks at it. Then he rolls it around a few times. Then he sticks out one leg; pulls it back and shoves the other behind him. Now he makes three or four rapid steps in the box. While he does all this he holds the ball in his left hand. After he has swapped it to his right he wipes his left on his breeches, changes the ball to the left again and pumps the air with both arms. Then he gets down to work and digs up the ground with his right foot. Then you think he is going to pitch. But he isn't. He starts in and reverses the programme and does it over again three or four times, and just as the audience sits back in the seats with a sigh, the ball flies out like a streak. Nobody knows how it left his hand, but it did.
Frederick Lander "Dupee" Shaw (May 31, 1859 – January 12, 1938), also sometimes known as "Wizard," was a professional baseball player from 1883 to 1896. The left-handed pitcher played Major League Baseball for six seasons with the Detroit Wolverines (1883–1884), Boston Reds (1884), Providence Grays (1885) and Washington Nationals (1886–1888). Shaw won 30 games in 1884 and 23 in 1885, but never won more than 13 games in any other season. He lost 33 games in 1884 and 31 in 1886. He had a career mark of 83–121 with a 3.10 earned run average (ERA).
Shaw claimed to have been the first pitcher to use a wind-up before throwing the ball. Some attributed his ability to strikeout batters to his unusual windmill delivery. He once struck out the great slugger, Orator Shafer, five times in a single game, and in 1884, he struck out 451 batters, a total that remains the fourth highest total in major league history. He held the major league record for the most strikeouts in a game by a losing pitcher (18), until Steve Carlton struck out 19 New York Mets in a losing effort on September 15, 1969. He also pitched a no-hitter on October 7, 1885, though the game has not qualified as an official no-hitter since 1991 because it lasted only five innings.
Shaw was born in 1859 in the Charlestown section of Boston. Before playing professional baseball, he played first base for an amateur baseball team in Charlestown. His teammates on the Charlestown team included Thomas Shea, who later became a famous ragtime composer, John Clarkson, who was later inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame and catcher Mert Hackett.
Shaw claimed to have been "the first pitcher to wind up preparatory to delivering the ball." Alfred Henry Spink, founder of the Sporting News, described Shaw's wind-up as follows:"
After considerable swinging and scratching around with his feet, during which he would deliver a lengthy speech to the batter, to the effect that he was the best pitcher on earth and the batter a dub, he would stretch both arms at full length over his head. Then after gazing fixedly at the first baseman for a moment, he would wheel half around and both arms would fly apart like magic... [H]e would wind his left arm around again and let the ball fly, running at the same time all the way from the box to the home plate.
Another account describes Shaw's delivery this way: "Shaw had a very peculiar preliminary motion. He was a regular jumping jack in the box, for then the pitcher had more space in the box than now and were not obliged to face the batter."
After his first game for the Providence Grays, the Sporting Life wrote: "Shaw made a successful debut and promises to be a valuable man. He has a series of introductory motions in order to get an impulse to the ball, which mystifies the batsman and conceals its pace, and will probably be a terror to left-hand hitters." Alfred Spink wrote that Shaw's swinging delivery caused "a genuine sensation," prompting baseball writers to call him "a monkey, a mountebank and other harsh names," but "Shaw paid no attention to the knocks and went right on fooling the batsmen."
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Dupee Shaw
There have been long-fought and dangerous disputes about the exact number of motions through which Shaw puts himself before delivering the ball. One man claimed thirty-two, holding that he had counted them. An attempt to give all of them would be foolish. A few will be enough. When Shaw first lays his hands on the sphere he looks at it. Then he rolls it around a few times. Then he sticks out one leg; pulls it back and shoves the other behind him. Now he makes three or four rapid steps in the box. While he does all this he holds the ball in his left hand. After he has swapped it to his right he wipes his left on his breeches, changes the ball to the left again and pumps the air with both arms. Then he gets down to work and digs up the ground with his right foot. Then you think he is going to pitch. But he isn't. He starts in and reverses the programme and does it over again three or four times, and just as the audience sits back in the seats with a sigh, the ball flies out like a streak. Nobody knows how it left his hand, but it did.
Frederick Lander "Dupee" Shaw (May 31, 1859 – January 12, 1938), also sometimes known as "Wizard," was a professional baseball player from 1883 to 1896. The left-handed pitcher played Major League Baseball for six seasons with the Detroit Wolverines (1883–1884), Boston Reds (1884), Providence Grays (1885) and Washington Nationals (1886–1888). Shaw won 30 games in 1884 and 23 in 1885, but never won more than 13 games in any other season. He lost 33 games in 1884 and 31 in 1886. He had a career mark of 83–121 with a 3.10 earned run average (ERA).
Shaw claimed to have been the first pitcher to use a wind-up before throwing the ball. Some attributed his ability to strikeout batters to his unusual windmill delivery. He once struck out the great slugger, Orator Shafer, five times in a single game, and in 1884, he struck out 451 batters, a total that remains the fourth highest total in major league history. He held the major league record for the most strikeouts in a game by a losing pitcher (18), until Steve Carlton struck out 19 New York Mets in a losing effort on September 15, 1969. He also pitched a no-hitter on October 7, 1885, though the game has not qualified as an official no-hitter since 1991 because it lasted only five innings.
Shaw was born in 1859 in the Charlestown section of Boston. Before playing professional baseball, he played first base for an amateur baseball team in Charlestown. His teammates on the Charlestown team included Thomas Shea, who later became a famous ragtime composer, John Clarkson, who was later inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame and catcher Mert Hackett.
Shaw claimed to have been "the first pitcher to wind up preparatory to delivering the ball." Alfred Henry Spink, founder of the Sporting News, described Shaw's wind-up as follows:"
After considerable swinging and scratching around with his feet, during which he would deliver a lengthy speech to the batter, to the effect that he was the best pitcher on earth and the batter a dub, he would stretch both arms at full length over his head. Then after gazing fixedly at the first baseman for a moment, he would wheel half around and both arms would fly apart like magic... [H]e would wind his left arm around again and let the ball fly, running at the same time all the way from the box to the home plate.
Another account describes Shaw's delivery this way: "Shaw had a very peculiar preliminary motion. He was a regular jumping jack in the box, for then the pitcher had more space in the box than now and were not obliged to face the batter."
After his first game for the Providence Grays, the Sporting Life wrote: "Shaw made a successful debut and promises to be a valuable man. He has a series of introductory motions in order to get an impulse to the ball, which mystifies the batsman and conceals its pace, and will probably be a terror to left-hand hitters." Alfred Spink wrote that Shaw's swinging delivery caused "a genuine sensation," prompting baseball writers to call him "a monkey, a mountebank and other harsh names," but "Shaw paid no attention to the knocks and went right on fooling the batsmen."
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