Vic Willis

{{Infobox baseball biography

|name=Vic Willis

|image=Vic Willis, Pittsburgh Pirates, baseball card portrait LCCN2008676406.jpg

|caption=Willis in 1909

|position=Pitcher

|birth_date={{birth date|1876|4|12}}

|birth_place=Cecil County, Maryland, U.S.

|death_date={{death date and age|1947|8|3|1876|4|12}}

|death_place=Elkton, Maryland, U.S.

|bats=Right

|throws=Right

|debutleague=MLB

|debutdate=April 20

|debutyear=1898

|debutteam=Boston Beaneaters

|finalleague=MLB

|finaldate=September 5

|finalyear=1910

|finalteam=St. Louis Cardinals

|statleague=MLB

|stat1label=Win–loss record

|stat1value=249–205

|stat2label=Earned run average

|stat2value=2.63

|stat3label=Strikeouts

|stat3value=1,651

|teams=

Boston Beaneaters ({{mlby|1898}}–{{mlby|1905}})
Pittsburgh Pirates ({{mlby|1906}}–{{mlby|1909}})
St. Louis Cardinals ({{mlby|1910}})

| highlights=

World Series champion (1909)
MLB ERA leader (1899)
MLB strikeout leader (1902)
Pitched a no-hitter on August 7, 1899

|hoflink = National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

|hoftype = National

|hofdate = 1995

|hofmethod = Veterans Committee

}}

Victor Gazaway Willis (April 12, 1876 – August 3, 1947) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher. He played for the Boston Beaneaters, Pittsburgh Pirates, and St. Louis Cardinals in 13 seasons in the National League (NL) from 1898 to 1910. In 513 career games, Willis pitched 3,996 innings and posted a win–loss record of 249–205, with 388 complete games, 50 shutouts, and a 2.63 earned run average (ERA). Nicknamed "the Delaware Peach", he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1995.

Early life

Willis was born on April 12, 1876, in Cecil County, Maryland. He moved to Newark, Delaware, as a young boy, where he attended school. He attended high school at Newark Academy and played both on the high school baseball team and in semi-pro baseball leagues throughout Delaware.{{cite web|url=http://bioproj.sabr.org/bioproj.cfm?a=v&v=l&pid=15298&bid=879|work=The Baseball Biography Project|title=Vic Willis|first=Daniel R.|last=Levitt|publisher=The Society for American Baseball Research|access-date=August 10, 2010}} Prior to joining the major leagues, Willis played football and baseball for the University of Delaware, then known as Delaware College, despite never attending the college. This was due to their low enrollment at the time, which allowed them to add local talent to fill out their roster.Fleitz, 177

Willis began his professional baseball career in 1895 with the Harrisburg Senators of the Pennsylvania State League. After the team ceased operations in June, he moved to the Lynchburg Hill Climbers of the Virginia State League. The following year, he was promoted to the Syracuse Stars of the Eastern League. He finished the season with a 10–6 win–loss record, but had spent most of the season battling illness, which caused him to end his season in July. Willis returned to the Stars for the 1897 season and, after establishing a curveball in the offseason, finished the season with 21 wins, with Syracuse winning the league championship in the process. After the season ended, he was purchased by the Boston Beaneaters for Fred Lake and $1,000. The Beaneaters acquired Willis to fill the void left by Jack Stivetts, who was near retirement due to an arm injury.Fleitz, 178

Major League Baseball career

Willis began his major league career with the Beaneaters on April 20, 1898, in a relief appearance against the Baltimore Orioles, allowing eight runs, three walks, and a wild pitch in an 18–2 loss while also hitting two batters. In his next appearance, he beat the Washington Senators, 11–4, in his first career start. He remained in the starting rotation throughout the season but at times struggled with his control. In one game against the Philadelphia Phillies, opposing pitcher Red Donahue threw a no-hitter, while Willis allowed eight walks in a 5–0 loss.Fleitz, 179 He finished the season with 25 wins, 13 losses, a 2.84 ERA, 148 walks, and 160 strikeouts. He finished second in walks and third in strikeouts in the National League.{{cite web |url= https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/willivi01.shtml|title= Vic Willis Statistics and History |website= Baseball-Reference.com |publisher= Sports Reference, LLC |access-date= August 10, 2010}} In 1899, Willis became the last pitcher to throw a no-hitter in the 19th century.

Despite being a Hall of Fame pitcher, Willis holds the post-1900 single season records for most losses (29){{cite book|last1=Burke|first1=Larry|title=The Baseball Chronicles - A Decade-by-Decade History of the All-American Pastime|date=1995|publisher=Smithmark Publishing|location=New York, NY|isbn=0831706805|pages=18}} and most complete game losses (25);{{cite web|title=Player Pitching Game Finder: In the Regular Season, since 1901, Pitcher Lost, Complete Game, sorted by most games.|url=https://stathead.com/tiny/eD6eY|website=Stathead|access-date=April 14, 2021}} both records were set in 1905. For the three seasons from 1903 to 1905, Willis compiled a dismal record with the Beaneaters of 42 wins against 72 losses. However, his earned run average during those three years averaged 3.02, and in two of those years his ERA was under 3.00. Despite Willis' performance on the mound during those three seasons, the Boston offense could only muster a combined .238 batting average over those seasons. When he changed teams to the Pittsburgh Pirates for 1906, whose offense had a combined batting average of .256 over the four years Willis was with the team, he compiled a record of 88–46. His ERA for those four years was 2.08.

Willis was on one World Series championship team, the 1909 Pirates. He lost one game during the Series pitching against Ty Cobb's Detroit Tigers. Willis' final major league season was 1910, with the St. Louis Cardinals. The following season, he pitched for a semipro team in his hometown of Newark, Delaware.{{cite book|last=Lanctot|first=Neil|year=1994|title=Fair Dealing and Clean Playing: the Hilldale Club and the development of black professional baseball, 1910–1932|place=Jefferson, North Carolina|publisher=McFarland|isbn=0-89950-988-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/fairdealingclean00lanc/page/10 10]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/fairdealingclean00lanc/page/10}}

Later life

After retiring from baseball, Willis purchased and operated the Washington House, a hotel in Newark, Delaware. Willis died in 1947 and is interred in St. John Cemetery in Newark.

In 1977 he was inducted into the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame.{{Cite web|url=http://www.desports.org/inductees/1977/|title=Delaware Sports Museum and Hall of Fame in Wilmington, Delaware - 1977|website=www.desports.org}} The National Baseball Hall of Fame inducted him in 1995.

References

{{cite book|title=Ghosts in the Gallery at Cooperstown: Sixteen Forgotten Members of the Hall of Fame|last=Fleitz|first=David L.|publisher=McFarland & Company|year=2004|isbn=0-7864-1749-8}}

External links

{{bbhof|willis-vic}}
{{baseballstats|mlb=|espn=|br=w/willivi01|fangraphs=1014042|brm=willis001vic}}
[https://web.archive.org/web/20080117111423/http://www.udel.edu/sportsinfo/hall_of_fame/2003/willis.html UD Hall of Fame]
{{find a Grave|18831}}

{{succession box|title=No-hitter pitcher|before=Deacon Phillippe|years=August 7, 1899|after=Noodles Hahn}}