Hall of Famer Red Ruffing, World Series Star

If you were to ask a casual baseball fan to list the greatest players on the New York Yankees’ dynasty from the 1920’s through the 1940’s, virtually every name would be an offensive star: Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, and Berra. If asked to name the best pitcher on those great Yankee teams, you might get a blank stare. From the casual fan. After all, the Yankees were known as the Bronx Bombers, not the Bronx Hurlers. If you go by games won (in either the regular season or postseason), the most prolific pitcher for the Yankees from the first half of the 20th century was a big right-hander named Red Ruffing.

Ruffing won 231 games (against 124 losses) with 3.47 ERA in 15 years with the Yankees and also went 7-2 with a 2.63 ERA in 10 postseason starts, which contributed to a whopping six World Series championships. Ruffing retired after the 1947 season and, 20 years later, was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

Cooperstown Cred: Red Ruffing (SP)

• Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1967 (15th time on the ballot, 86.9% of the vote in runoff)
• Boston Red Sox (1924-30), New York Yankees (1930-42, ’45-46), Chicago White Sox (1947)
• Career: 273-225 (.548), 3.80 ERA, 1,987 Strikeouts
• Career: 110 ERA+, 68.9 overall WAR (Wins Above Replacement)
• Won 20+ games for four straight seasons (1936-39)
• Won 6 World Championships with the N.Y. Yankees (7-2, 2.63 ERA)
• Career as batter: .269 BA, .306 OBP, .389 SLG, 36 HR, 273 RBI
• 6-time All-Star

(cover photo: New York Daily News)

I personally became really interested in the career of Red Ruffing several years ago when I was contemplating the Hall of Fame candidacy of Jack Morris. Until Morris (who posted a 3.90 career ERA) was inducted in 2018, Ruffing held the highest career ERA (3.80) of any pitcher enshrined in Cooperstown.

Both hurlers were October heroes. Both faced challenges that kept their ERA high. Ruffing pitched in the hitter-friendly 1920’s and 1930’s while Morris spent his entire career in the American League. Thanks to the designated hitter rule, implemented six years before his debut, Morris became the only Hall of Fame inductee who never had the pleasure of facing the opposing pitcher.

One of the things that makes Ruffing’s career interesting is that he was hardly a pleasure for the opposing hurler when he strode to the plate. Ruffing’s career batting average (.269) is higher than the mark posted by 14 Hall of Fame position players, including Mike Schmidt, Johnny Bench, Brooks Robinson, Gary Carter, Reggie Jackson and Harmon Killebrew. Ruffing’s 36 career home runs is the third most for any pitcher in MLB history and more than 18 Cooperstown-enshrined position players.

When I was finished doing my analysis about Ruffing and Morris, I concluded that both were worthy of the Hall of Fame (the case for Morris is here).

Early Life and Career

Charles Herbert Ruffing was born on May 3, 1905 in Granville, Illinois. Charley, nicknamed “Red” because of his hair color, was one of five children of German immigrants. Ruffing’s father was a coal miner and young Charley quit school and became a miner at the age of 13. He lost four toes at the age of 15 when his left foot was crushed between coal cars.

Ruffing played for the company baseball team (managed by his father), signing a minor league contract in 1923 at the age of 18. A year later, he was with the Boston Red Sox. Ruffing spent parts of seven seasons with the Red Sox (1924-30) in what were among the darkest years in the franchise’s history. The Sox had won 3 World Series titles in 1915, ’16 and ’18 with a young left-handed pitcher named George Herman Ruth playing a key role. Famously, Ruth was sold to the Yankees on the day after Christmas in 1919. sparking decades of mediocrity for the Sox.

In Charley’s five full seasons in Boston (1925-29), the team went 259-507 (.338), finishing last in the American League each year. The 6’1″, 205-pound right-hander could hardly be described as a star toiling among scrubs. In those five full seasons, Ruffing went 39-93 (.295) with a 4.53 ERA and 1.496 WHIP (walks + hits per inning).

Even so, he was the only future Hall of Famer to play with the Red Sox during his entire tenure (’24-30). In case that seems like a trivial matter, consider that there were only 16 MLB teams during these seven years and a whopping 66 Hall of Famers who played at least one season during those years.

In 1929, while he was losing a league-high 25 games, Ruffing hit .314 with a .818 OPS (adjusted 116 OPS+), causing the Red Sox to consider moving him to the outfield. However, his mangled foot from that childhood accident slowed him down too much to play there.

Trade to the New York Yankees

On May 6, 1930, 3 days after his 25th birthday, Red Ruffing was traded to the New York Yankees for the immortal Cedric Durst and $50,000. Following Waite Hoyt and Herb Pennock, Ruffing became the third future Hall of Fame hurler to be traded by the Red Sox to the Yankees in the 10 1/2 years after the trade of Ruth. Hoyt, who was 30 at the time, had started to lose his effectiveness and was dealt to the Detroit Tigers 24 days after Ruffing was traded to New York. Pennock (36 years old) would remain Ruffing’s teammate through the end of 1933.

Anyway, the trade to New York was like a lightning bolt that energized Ruffing’s career. Red’s manager was Bob Shawkey, who was a 195-game winner with a 3.09 ERA in 15 MLB seasons. Shawkey, in his lone season as the skipper of the Yankees, revamped Ruffing’s delivery. Although it took a couple of years for the changes to really take, they turned Charley into a star. While his delivery was revamped, Ruffing’s won-loss record was also revamped by the presence of teammates named Ruth and Gehrig.

Take a look at the difference in Ruffing’s won-loss record in 1930-31 (with New York) compared to 1928-30 (with Boston):

• 1928-30 (Boston): 19-50 (.275), 4.42 ERA
• 1930-31 (New York): 31-19 (.620), 4.29 ERA

That’s a small difference in ERA but a huge difference in W-L%. Again, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig will help your pitching record more than Jack Rothrock and Phil Todt.

Red Ruffing’s Glory Years Begin

The backbone of what makes Red Ruffing a Hall of Famer is what he accomplished with the Yankees between 1932 and 1942. The 11-year run of excellence started in ’32, when he went 18-7 with a 3.09 ERA. Using modern metrics, he posted a 6.6 WAR (per Baseball Reference), double his previous best.

His signature effort in 1932 came on August 13th in Washington when he tossed a 10-inning shutout, scattering 3 hits while walking 2 and striking out 12. The Yankees defeated the Senators 1-0 thanks to a 10th inning home run by Ruffing himself.

“Having blanked the Washington Senators with three hits for nine innings and finding himself no better than even the enemy at that stage, Ruffing stepped to bat today with two out in the tenth inning and whaled a liner into the left field bleachers for a home run and a 1-to-0 decision… The big Indianan fanned an even dozen the course of his mound masterpiece.”

— William E. Brandt, New York Times (August 14, 1932)

Ruffing’s feat, pitching a 1-0 shutout while scoring the team’s only run on a solo tater, has only been matched 9 other times in the history of baseball, the most recent being this past Thursday by the New York Mets’ Noah Syndergaard.

The ’32 Yankees, under 2nd year manager Joe McCarthy, won 107 games to win the American League pennant by 13 games. The Bronx Bombers would go on to sweep the Chicago Cubs in 4 games in the World Series, with Ruffing the winning pitcher in Game 1.

Starting the 1933 Season in Style

Now an established winner, Ruffing started the 1933 season in style. In his first start of the season (against the Red Sox), Red pitched 9 innings of 2-run ball. The game was tied going into the bottom of the 9th. Thanks to an error and a couple of walks, the Yankees loaded the bases with two outs against Sox’ starter Bob Weiland. The Yankees had a mere six future Hall of Fame position players in the lineup (Earle Combs, Joe Sewell, Ruth, Gehrig, Tony Lazzeri, and Bill Dickey) but it was their pitcher who was due up. Ruffing delivered a walk-off grand slam to win the game for himself and his team.

The rest of the season did not go as well as in ’32 but Ruffing was now an established ace.

During the 11 seasons that began in 1932, Ruffing went 188-101 (.651 WL%) with a 3.39 ERA (which translates to a 123 ERA+, 23% above league average). He won 20 or more games for four consecutive seasons (1936-39). He made 6 All-Star teams. And, most importantly, he participated in 7 World Series, helping the Yankees win 6 championships in 7 tries.

Ruffing finished his career with a 3.80 ERA but, during those 11 seasons, never posted a mark higher than 3.93.

World Series Ace

In the first half of the 20th century (ending in 1949), Red Ruffing was one of the very best starting pitchers in the Fall Classic. His 85.2 postseason innings were 2nd most (to Christy Mathewson) and nobody won more than the 7 games that he did.

Although the Yankees had another Hall of Fame starting pitcher during those years (Lefty Gomez), it was Ruffing that McCarthy almost always tabbed to start Game 1. And, from 1936-42, the beginning of the Joe DiMaggio era, the Yankees were almost always in the Fall Classic.

In 1936, the Yankees prevailed in 6 games over the New York Giants despite losing both of Ruffing’s starts (he gave up 4 runs in both Game 1 and Game 5).

Gomez had one of the best seasons of his career in 1937 (21-11, 2.33 ERA, 193 ERA+, 9.2 WAR) so McCarthy tabbed him for Game 1. Gomez delivered, as did Ruffing in Game 2; the Yankees beat the Giants again, in 5 games.

In 1938 (another four-game sweep over the Cubs), Ruffing got the nod again in Game 1. He beat Chicago 3-1 in a complete game victory. He followed that up with another complete game in the series-deciding Game 4.

“Burly Red Ruffing, victor in the series opener in Chicago last Wednesday, came back to spin another commendable performance on the mound, and behind him there again was that steady drumfire of long-range blows that tossed the Cubs into hopeless confusion whenever they made the slightest mistake. Perhaps their greatest mistake was in showing up at all.”

— John Drebiner, New York Times (October 10, 1938)

Ruffing opened the 1939 World Series with another complete game in a 2-1 win over the Cincinnati Reds. The Yankees would sweep again.

Injuries limited Gomez to 27.1 innings in 1940 and the Yankees failed to win the pennant for the first time since 1935. Lefty was back in 1941; he and Ruffing won 15 games each and the Yankees were back in the Fall Classic. Ruffing was on the bump again in the series opener and spun another complete game gem, beating the Brooklyn Dodgers 3-2. The Yankees would win in 5 games.

Overall, from 1937 to 1941, Ruffing went 5-0 in 5 World Series starts with a 1.20 ERA.

In 1942 against the St. Louis Cardinals, after winning Game 1 (8.2 IP, 4 ER), the magic ended in Game 5. The Bombers were down 3 Games to 1 to the Redbirds, so Game 5 was a must-win tilt. After 8 innings, the score was tied at 2. In the top of the 9th, however, Whitey Kurowski hit a 2-run home run off Ruffing to give the Cards a 4-2 lead, a score that would hold and give Hall of Fame Cardinals manager Billy Southworth his first World Series title.

Military Service and Career’s End

Red Ruffing had 258 career wins at the end of the 1942 season, his age 37 campaign. He was a solid 14-7 with a 3.21 in ’42. Even in his late 30’s. Ruffing was effective. Physical fitness, a given in today’s game, was his edge in the 1930’s:

“Run, run, run…. Some of the young kids on the Yankees used to kid me about going to bed at 7:30 after running all day long. But as the years went by I noticed I was still up there while they were forgotten.”

— Red Ruffing (quoted in Paul Dickson’s Baseball’s Greatest Quotations), reported in his SABR Bio

After the ’42 season, even at the age of 37 and a left foot with only one toe, Ruffing was drafted into the military to aid in the war effort. Ruffing never saw active duty during World War II. His contribution was to lead soldiers’ physical service training. After Germany surrendered in May 1945, all soldiers and sailors over the age of 40 were discharged from duty. Red’s military service essentially ended any chance he had at reaching 300 career victories.

Red returned to the Yankees in in July 1945 and managed to go 7-3 with a 2.89 ERA in 11 starts. He got off to a good start in 1946 (5-1, 1.77 ERA) through his first 11 starts but suffered a broken kneecap on a line drive on June 29th. He would not pitch again in ’46 and the Yankees released him.

Ruffing spent his final MLB season pitching sporadically for the Chicago White Sox in 1947. He had a 3-5 record to go with an unsightly 6.11 ERA, his career over after an outing in Boston (his original team) in September.

Red Ruffing’s Unusual Journey to the Hall of Fame

Red Ruffing’s career ended after the 1947 season. Because the Hall of Fame had yet to implement the rule that players must be retired before being eligible for Cooperstown, he was on the 1948 Hall of Fame ballot. Out of 121 ballots cast, Ruffing got just 4 votes (3.3%) while his former teammate Pennock and Pie Traynor were elected to the Hall. Fortunately, the Hall’s 5% minimum rule was not in effect yet either so Ruffing remained on the Hall of Fame ballot for years to come.

Ruffing didn’t get much traction from the BBWAA (Baseball Writers Association of America) voters for many years but did finally get a respectable 23.9% of the vote in 1955, his 8th year on the ballot. He zoomed up to 50.3% of the vote in 1956 but then regressed to under 50% in the next 3 ballots. Between 1956 and 1966, the BBWAA vote was only held in even years so it was not until 1964 that Ruffing made a significant jump, garnering 70.1% of the vote. Nobody topped 75% to get elected in ’64 (Luke Appling was the top vote-getter at 70.6%) so there was a runoff vote for just the 2nd time in history.

In the 1964 runoff vote, Red Ruffing became the first player ever to get over 75% of the BBWAA vote but not get into the Hall of Fame. Ruffing actually got 91.5% of the vote in the 30-player runoff but the runoff rules held that only the top vote-getter would be granted a Cooperstown plaque. Appling, longtime shortstop for the Chicago White Sox, got 94.0% of the vote and was inducted into the Hall of Fame Class of ’64 along with 6 Veterans Committee selections.

In 1966, Ruffing got a 68.9% vote share but there was no runoff; Ted Williams was an easy first ballot inductee.

1966 was the last time the BBWAA only voted in even years so Ruffing made his 15th appearance on the BBWAA ballot in 1967 and fell just shy of 75%, earning 72.6% of the voting tally, finishing in a flat-footed tie with Joe “Ducky” Medwick. This time, Ruffing was the runoff winner, beating Medwick 86.9% to 81.0%. He was finally inducted into the Hall of Fame in the summer on ’67.

Medwick, incidentally, was elected in 1968. Ruffing was the third and final player to be elected to the Hall using the runoff process, which was discontinued after the ’68 vote.

Red Ruffing’s Unique Hall of Fame Career

Red Ruffing is a Hall of Famer because of his years with the Yankees, in which he earned 6 World Series rings while going 231-124 (.651) with a 3.47 ERA (119 ERA+). It was his years in Boston that caused his overall ERA to be as high as 3.80. It’s not unusual for a Hall of Famer to have a peak of excellence that outweighs some other seasons of mediocrity.

To this day, Whitey Ford is the only pitcher in World Series history to log more than Ruffing’s 7 wins (Ford had 10, Allie Reynolds matched Ruffing with 7). Ford was a first ballot Hall of Famer thanks to his Fall Classic prowess and 2.75 career ERA but the modern metric of Wins Above Replacement (WAR) actually ranks Ruffing slightly ahead, with a 55.4 pitching WAR compared to Ford’s 53.5.

I discussed Ford’s surprisingly low WAR at in this piece but the short version is that Casey Stengel limited Ford’s innings early in his career. In total, Ruffing tossed over 1,000 innings more innings than the Chairman of the Board. This is why he has a higher WAR than Ford despite a vastly inferior ERA. Of course, volume counts as well. Ruffing tossed over 220 innings for the Yankees for 10 straight years.

As noted earlier, one unique aspect about Ruffing’s Hall of Fame career is that he delivered a great deal of value as a hitter. Besides not giving the opposition an easy out in the #9 hole, Ruffing also was used as a pinch-hitter 203 times, delivering 41 RBI in those 203 PA. That extrapolates to approximately 123 ribbies over a hypothetical full season.

In the modern game (1901 and beyond), Ruffing’s 13.5 batting WAR is the highest among all MLB pitchers. For his career, 19.6% of his value came from his skill with the bat. Only Bob Lemon had a higher percentage of his value (21.7%) come from batting among all Hall of Fame pitchers.

Final Thoughts

Would Red Ruffing be a Hall of Famer if he had spent his entire career with the Boston Red Sox? Almost certainly not. Getting traded to the Yankees was the spark to his Cooperstown-worthy career. His 273 career wins were greatly enhanced by his presence in the Bronx and, of course, his World Series performances are a significant part of his Hall of Fame resume.

That’s the way it is. Baseball, like life, is not always fair. For a borderline Hall of Famer, delivering when the significant opportunities present themselves is required. Ruffing persevered, and he delivered. Ruffing’s primary “out” pitch was a screwball but he learned to throw a slider late in his career, this despite pitching through injury for most of his years on the mound.

“I pitched most of my career with a sore shoulder… It hurt so much I’d keep going to doctors. But I wouldn’t tell the ballclub. They’d have traded my tail out of there. So I had to spend my own money. I’d pull into a town, pull down the telephone book and look under chiropractors for a likely looking name.”

— Red Ruffing, as told to Yankees historian Marty Appel

Ruffing passed away in 1986 at the age of 80. He remains to this day one of the most significant pitchers in the history of the storied New York Yankees.

Thanks for reading. Please follow Cooperstown Cred on Twitter @cooperstowncred.

Red Ruffing Links

• SABR Bio (by Warren Corbett)
• Baseball Hall of Fame page

Embed from Getty Images