Eppa Rixey
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Eppa_Rixey_Baseball.jpg
Eppa Rixey (May 3, 1891 - February 28, 1963) was a left-handed Major League Baseball pitcher. His 266 career victories was a National League record for a left-handed pitcher at the time of his retirement (since broken by Warren Spahn).
Rixey entered the major leagues in 1912 directly from the University of Virginia and went 10-10 in his first year with a stellar 2.50 ERA. After several mediocre seasons, and a forgettable 1914 in which he went 2-11, Rixey went 22-10 in 1916 with a 1.85 ERA. Rixey missed the 1918 season to serve overseas in the war effort and stuggled upon returning to baseball action, going 6-12 in 1919 and 11-22 in 1920.
Rixey was traded prior to the 1921 season to the Cincinnati Reds. The trade paid off for Rixey who returned to his best pre-war form. He won 19 games in 1921, a league-high 25 in 1922, 20 in 1923, 15 in 1924 and 21 in 1925. Rixey's play began to slip in 1930, when he went 9-13 with a 5.10 ERA and pitched less than 200 innings for the first time since 1919. He lingered in the Reds organization until 1933, however, before retiring. He finished with 266 wins, 251 losses and a 3.15 ERA.
Rixey was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1963. He was also inducted into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame in 1959.
External links
- Eppa Rixey's career statistics at Baseball-Reference.com (http://www.baseball-reference.com/r/rixeyep01.shtml)
- Baseball Hall of Fame (http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers_and_honorees/hofer_bios/rixey_eppa.htm)