ERA (baseball)

In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the mean of earned runs given up by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number of innings pitched and multiplying by nine. Runs resulting from defensive errors (including pitchers' defensive errors) are recorded as unearned runs and omitted from ERA calculations.

Henry Chadwick is credited with devising the statistic, which caught on as a measure of pitching effectiveness after relief pitching came into vogue in the 1900s. Prior to 1900 – and, in fact, for many years afterward – pitchers were routinely expected to pitch a complete game, and their win-loss record was considered sufficient in determining their effectiveness.

After pitchers like James Otis Crandall and Charley Hall made names for themselves as relief specialists, gauging a pitcher's effectiveness became more difficult using the traditional method of tabulating wins and losses. Some criterion was needed to capture the apportionment of earned-run responsibility for a pitcher in games that saw contributions from other pitchers for the same team. Since pitchers have primary responsibility to put opposing batters out, they must assume responsibility when a batter they do not retire at the plate moves to base, and eventually reaches home, scoring a run. A pitcher is assessed an earned run for each run scored by a batter (or that batter's pinch-runner) who reaches base while batting against that pitcher. The National League first tabulated official earned run average statistics in 1912 (the outcome was called "Heydler's statistic" for a while, after then-NL secretary John Heydler), and the American League later accepted this standard and began compiling ERA statistics.

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