During the 1907 Finger Lakes League season, I had the chance to enjoy one of those stories that make baseball--either the "real" or the simulated variety--so much fun.
I know it's not a 1907-style uniform, but here's the hero of our story...
On July 3, the Geneva Green Sox called up a righthanded pitcher named
Casey Ladner from their reserve squad. I'd never seen Ladner before; it turns out he'd been created when I began the game, and he was Geneva's 22nd-round choice in the league's inaugural draft.
However, while toiling away as a reserve, young Ladner experienced a talent spike before the 1906 season began. Apparently, another similar surge occurred in 1907, and by mid-season the Geneva management decided to give Ladner a try.
Casey made his debut on July 5, before a good-sized crowd at the Geneva grounds. His opponents were the Canandaigua Ice Cats, with ace
Joe Norris on the mound. Ladner shut out the Canandagua Ice Cats on four hits, striking out six and walking none, and throwing only 96 pitches.
Four days later, Casey was even better. He tossed another four-hit shutout, this time victimizing Watkins Glen. Again, Casey didn't walk a batter, and this time he struck out ten.
I had to see what kind of superman this Ladner was, so I looked at his ratings. His Movement (21) was exceptional, as was his Control (18). His Stuff (10) was also very good, but no better than that of five or six other pitchers in the league, including
Norris, Billy Patrick, and
Michael Watkins.
Now I was closely watching all of Ladner's starts. At Waterloo on July 14, he finally allowed a run, leaving a 1-1 tie for a pinch hitter in the 10th inning. The Green Sox lost, 3-1, in 13 innings.
On the 18th, Ladner and his 0.32 ERA took the mound at Seneca Falls, and he shut out the Sheepdogs on five hits. For the first time, he walked a batter, leaving his K/BB ratio at 28:1.
How much longer could this go on? On July 22, he once again faced Canandaigua and Joe Norris at home. His teammates scored a run in the bottom of the first, and Casey took care of the rest. Nine innings, three hits, no runs, no walks, seven strikeouts, 88 pitches.
In five games, Casey Ladner had thrown four shutouts, and his era stood at 0.20. Forget Fernandomania...this was Caseymania.
Casey finally proved himself human in his next start, losing 4-1 to the last-place Penn Yan Brawlers. He was hit hard one more time, too, allowing seven runs in a 12-inning loss to Canandaigua on September 5. Those were the only truly rough outings among Casey's 16 starts.
Here's his season statistics:
Code:
W L SV ERA G GS CG IP H R ER HR BB K WHIP
10 5 0 0.94 16 16 14 144.0 104 22 15 0 6 94 0.76
If this were a movie, Casey would have pitched the Green Sox into the Series, where they upset Seneca Falls and won the championship. Instead, the best Casey could do was keep the Sox in third place.
There's one more thing, however, that made the whole thing seem almost surreal. The first five or six games of Casey's career were played while I was on vacation with my family.
Where were we on vacation?
Geneva, New York.
I couldn't have made this up if I tried...