Top 106 Baseball Players: #71 - Eddie Plank

Eddie Plank

Eddie Plank was the first great left-handed pitcher in baseball, and still holds some records for lefties, and he was one of the most consistent pitchers in baseball for 16 years.

Eddie didn't even play baseball until after high school, when the local college coach asked him to try out for the team, even though he didn't attend school there. He jumped from there straight to the Philadelphia Athletics of the American League, where he was immediately a solid starter, pitching 28 complete games with a 3.31 ERA, which would be the highest ERA of his career.

He led the league in several categories during his career, including games started twice, shutouts twice, complete games and saves once each, and also win percentage once. He was never a strikeout or ERA leader, but he was among the top 10 in at least one of those nearly every season.

The A's reached the World Series 5 times during his time with the team, and Plank was always at his best in the postseason. He missed the 1910 series due to a sore arm, but in the other 4 seasons, he had an ERA of only 1.32, more than a run lower than his regular season average of 2.35.

Unfortunately, he often faced the other teams' best pitchers in those games, so he finished with a postseason record of 2-5, despite giving up only 11 runs over 54 innings. In his first World Series, in 1905, his team did not score a single earned run in the entire series, but they were able to get revenge on the Giants in both 1911 and 1913, the years in which he was able to outduel Christy Mathewson once each.

After the A's lost the 1914 World Series, the team was dismantled, and Plank left to join the Saint Louis Terriers, where he won 21 games and had an ERA of 2.08. When the team folded at the end of the season, he joined the crosstown Browns, where he pitched his final 2 seasons before deciding to retire at age 41.

After his retirement, the Yankees still had interest in him, so they traded 5 players and cash to the Browns for Plank and Del Pratt, but Plank refused to report, reiterating that he was done. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1946, 20 years after he died of a stroke.

When he retired, he was the all-time leader among left-handed pitchers in wins, which is now #3 among all lefties, but he is still the all-time lefty leader in complete games and shutouts, 100 years after his retirement. He won two World Series titles while facing off with his opponents' best pitcher, and though he wasn't flashy, he was one of the top pitchers in the game for 16 years, and is one of the all-time greats.