Sam Weaver is leading the NL in strikeouts and at age 21 is, together with Dan Collins, helping change the strategy of pitching in my universe. In reality, he was a good pitcher but somewhat less memorable. So who was the real Sam Weaver?
Well, first of all, he was Buck Weaver, which is going to be jarring for people who think of Buck Weaver as the potentially innocent Black Sock. But Sam went by Buck 40 years earlier. There's no SABR bio of Sam/Buck, but Nemec has some information:
Quote:
|
After debuting with a win in his hometown [Philadelphia] on one of the NA's last days as a major league, Weaver pitched for the League Alliance Philadelphia Athletics before jumping to Milwaukee after the 1877 season was under way. Accompanying the independent Wisconsin club when it joined the NL, he set about disproving the popular theory that pitching is anywhere from 60 to 90 percent of the game. In 1878 Weaver had one of the most remarkable rookie years of any pitcher in major league history, with a 1.95 ERA and an NL-low .247 OOBP, but all he showed for it was the all-time season record for the fewest baserunners per 9 innings pitched (9.21) among qualifiers with a winning percentage below .300 (.279) - and a return ticket to the minors once Milwaukee disbanded.
|
Weaver played in 1879 with Worcester, an independent club that year, for manager Frank Bancroft. He started out as the primary pitcher, but it didn't last throughout the season. Nemec again:
Quote:
By July 1879, however, Bancroft had "gotten down" on Weaver, preferring Lee Richmond, and the original Buck began pitching for hire on a temporary basis with such unheralded independent teams as Campello, Massachusetts. The following year he returned to his hometown to hurl for the Globe team and by 1881 had joined the Eastern Championship Association Athletics. When the A's advanced to the rebel American Association in 1882, Weaver was expected to be their ace but began the season with a lame arm, causing his teammates to curse when management did not hire a quality pitcher to replace him but instead tried to get by with marginal types, like Harry Arundel, until he healed. Despite eventually winning 26 games, he was allowed to sign with Louisville the following year and then jumped to the Philadelphia UA Keystones in 1884 after another big season in 1883 with 24 wins as second fiddle to Guy Hecker.
Back to first fiddle, Weaver was creamed 14-1 by Boston on Opening Day in 1884 and was released by the Keystones even before the club disbanded on August 7. The excuse given was that his salary was too high, but the truth was that he was the least effective pitcher in the UA. In his seventeen starts with the Keystones, Weaver allowed 14.36 BR/9 IP and logged a 5.76 ERA, the poorest among UA qualifiers. Arm or shoulder trouble was almost certainly the culprit for the Philadelphian's rapid decline. Weaver tried to come back with the A's in 1886 but was hurriedly scrapped after his first two starts in Philly yielded a 14.73 ERA. By the end of the decade he was a policeman in Philadelphia, and his arm was eventually useful enough again to play shortstop on a team of Philadelphia "bobbies" that challenged police teams in surrounding cities. In 1908 Weaver retired from the force with twenty-one years of service when an operation failed to remedy a serious heart condition. He died of a heart attack at his Philadelphia home in 1914 as he sat down to breakfast. Local obits referred to him as "Buck Weaver" and extolled his terrific speed.
|
In my world, Weaver pitched for the Philadelphia Whites as a 19-year-old rookie in 1875 and finished with an 11-10 record. He joined Cincinnati in 1876 and finished 12-16 with a 2.71 ERA and was second to Dan Collins in strikeouts. This season he is 3-4 for Cincinnati and is leading in strikeouts and appears to have a bright future. This gives him a lifetime 26-30 record at the moment and while there are a number of big pitchers about to enter professional baseball in the next few years, Weaver still seems to have long-term career potential.