Hugh "Losing Pitcher" Mulcahy Comes Out a Winner

Of all the baseball nicknames, Hugh Mulcahy was burdened with the worst.

Considering the record for futility that the Philadelphia Phillies amassed in the years between World Wars 1 and 2, it is probably unsurprising that they employed the player with the harshest nickname in baseball history: Hugh "Losing Pitcher" Mulcahy. Mulcahy, a tall, righthanded flinger for the Phillies in the years leading up to World War 2, was given that moniker by journalists who noted that seemingly every time he pitched the box score read "LP" next to his name. In his main years with the Phillies, 1937-1940, Mulcahy compiled records of 8-18, 10-20, 9-16, and 13-22. He led the league in losses in those two 20 loss seasons. Lost (ahem) in these numbers is the fact that Mulcahy was a pretty darn good pitcher who had the great misfortune of pitching for a historically lousy team at a historically dangerous time.

During the 1937-1940 seasons the Phillies finished last three times and next to last once. The loss totals for each year in a 154-game season were 92, 105, 106, 103. Sports Illustrated called the team a "no-hit, no field, no anything club." Mulcahy was a real workhorse for those futile squads. In 1937 he tied Christy Mathewson's record with 56 appearances as both a starter and reliever, totaling 215+ innings. From 1938-40, he was used mostly as a starter, dutifully taking his turn every four days, but he was often asked to relieve on days he was not starting. No wonder Mulcahy preferred another nickname often applied to him: "Workhorse."

Mulcahy featured a good hard fastball that moved. It moved so much, in fact, that Mulcahy often had trouble controlling it. Walks would plague him throughout his career. He once walked seven batters in a 5-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. Biographer C. Paul Rogers III points out that Mulcahy kept a notebook on major league hitters in which he wrote his rule number one for each batter: "Don't walk him." That reminder didn't help much. He led the league in walks in 1937.

In 1938, Mulcahy was the top pitcher on a team that lost 105 games. The team did not hit well and they fielded even worse, leading the league with 201 errors. Still Mulcahy soldiered on compiling a record of 10-20 for the year. He bested the Boston Bees 5-1 with a two-hitter on May 1 at Baker Bowl. A typical Mulcahy loss came on August 5th, when the Cards scored three runs on miscues by shortstop George Sharein, beating Mulcahy and the Phils 3-1. His 19th loss of the season came against the Bees in Boston on September 27. He lost the game 2-1 in the eleventh inning when his wild pitch set up the winning run.

If a pitcher who lost as frequently as Mulcahy could be said to have an off year, that year was 1939. Hampered by a sore arm that eventually saw him shut down late in the season and playing for a team that would lose 106 games, Mulcahy did manage a few highlights. He hurled a two-hit shutout of the Chicago Cubs on June 24 at Wrigley Field, besting Charlie Root, 1-0. On August 20th at Shibe Park, he beat his boyhood idol, the New York Giants' Carl Hubbell, 3-2. Mulcahy scored the winning run himself.

By 1940, Mulcahy was an All-Star and was establishing himself as one of the best pitchers in the league. He added a change up to his pitching repertoire and that pitch, along with improved control, had people speculating that Mulcahy could be a 20-game winner. Alas, it was not to be as the old losing ways returned. From August 8 until September 23, he lost 12 straight games. Finally, on September 27, in his last game of the season, he shut out the Giants on four hits to win his 13th game of the year.

On March 8, 1941, Mulcahy was inducted into the Army. He was the first major league baseball player drafted. Most players spent a year or two in the service, Mulcahy spent four years and five months. He was stationed mostly in The Philippines, until he was honorably discharged in August 1945. He had lost nearly five full seasons of baseball during his prime, ages 27-31. He tried to return but was not the same pitcher. He went into the war at 205 pounds and returned at 170. His good moving fastball was gone.

Released by the Phillies after the 1946 season, he caught on with the Pittsburgh Pirates but was released by them in May after just two appearances. He continued pitching in the minor leagues until finally hanging up the spikes in 1951. He was a minor league pitching coach for the White Sox from 1951 to 1975.

How good a pitcher could Mulcahy have been? It is hard to say. As Rogers points out in his Society for American Baseball Research biography, other Phillies pitchers of the same era, Claude Passeau, Bucky Walters, and Kirby Higbe, became 20 game winners when they escaped Philadelphia through trades to better teams. Perhaps if he could have pitched for another team, perhaps if he had not lost five prime years to military service, old "Losing Pitcher" Mulcahy could have been a winner.

For his part, after his playing days, Mulcahy expressed no bitterness. He said he was fortunate to sign with the Phillies where he got proper instruction and a chance to pitch. As to his time in the service, he said, "A lot of guys went to the war and didn't come back. I came back and had a long career in baseball. I feel fortunate, not cheated."

As to the "Losing Pitcher" label? Mulcahy says before each game he only thought he was going to win. He told Steve Wulf of Sports Illustrated, "Maybe I was too stupid, but I never thought about losing. I'd be warming up before a game, and I might have lost five or six in a row, but I still felt I was going to win."

Famed baseball writer, Red Smith concluded, "Chances are there has not been in modern times a player with ability comparable to Mulcahy's who put so much into baseball and took so little out. Mulcahy only lost a career that seemed just about to come full flower when he gave it up for military service."

Mulcahy pitching in for the Army

For the full story of Hugh Mulcahy's life and career, please see his biography by C. Paul Rogers III in the SABR BioProject here.

You may also enjoy Steve Wulf's profile of the pitcher in Sports Illustatrated.