George Derby (baseball)
| George Derby | |||
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| Pitcher | |||
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Born: July 6, 1857 Webster, Massachusetts |
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Died: July 4, 1925 (aged 67) Philadelphia |
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| MLB debut | |||
| May 2, 1881, for the Detroit Wolverines | |||
| Last MLB appearance | |||
| July 3, 1883, for the Buffalo Bisons | |||
| MLB statistics | |||
| Win–loss record | 48-56 | ||
| Earned run average | 3.01 | ||
| Strikeouts | 428 | ||
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| Career highlights and awards | |||
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George Henry Derby (July 6, 1857 – July 4, 1925), nicknamed "Johan", was a professional baseball player from 1877 to 1883. He played three seasons in Major League Baseball as a right-handed pitcher for the Detroit Wolverines in 1881 and 1882 and for the Buffalo Bisons in 1883.
Derby won 29 games and led the National League in both strikeouts and shutouts as a 24-year-old rookie in 1881. However, after pitching 55 complete games and almost 500 innings in 1881, Derby developed shoulder problems that reduced the velocity of his pitches. His career was cut short, and he played in his final major league game in July 1883 at age 25.
Derby was born in Webster, Massachusetts, in 1857. He began his professional baseball career at age 19 in 1877 with the Hornellsville, New York team in the League Alliance. He next played for the Syracuse Stars of the International Association in 1878 and the Washington Nationals of the National Association in 1879 and 1880. In 1880, he compiled a 10–7 record and a remarkable 0.57 earned run average (ERA) in 158 innings for the Nationals.
Derby signed with the newly formed Detroit Wolverines for the 1881 season. He was described as "a compactly built, blonde haired, blue-eyed, pleasant-voiced gentleman who was to do all the pitching, and right well did he do his work." During his rookie season, Derby led the National League in both strikeouts (212) and shutouts (9). He also established a franchise record for the Detroit Wolverines that was never broken with 494-2/3 innings pitched in 1881; Derby started 55 games for Detroit, all complete games, and also had one relief appearance. The Detroit Free Press described Derby's rise to stardom in the first part of the 1881 season:
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