Vic Willis

Victor Gazaway Willis won 249 games, completed 388 of his 471 starts, pitched 3,996 innings, posted a 2.63 career ERA, and threw the last no-hitter of the nineteenth century. He stood 6-foot-2 with unusually long fingers that allowed him to throw a curveball with a sharp downward break that hitters in the dead-ball era found nearly impossible to square up. He spent eight seasons carrying a Boston club that gave him almost nothing to work with, then moved to Pittsburgh and went 89-46 across four seasons, finishing with a World Series ring in 1909. The Veterans Committee elected him to the Hall of Fame in 1995.

The Delaware Peach

Willis was born on April 12, 1876, in Cecil County, Maryland, and grew up in Newark, Delaware, where he earned the nickname "the Delaware Peach." He threw with an overhand delivery at a time when most pitchers still worked from sidearm or three-quarters, and the combination of his height, his arm angle, and those long fingers produced a curveball that dropped straight down through the strike zone. Hitters could see it coming and still couldn't catch up to it.

Willis reached the Boston Beaneaters in 1898 and won 25 games as a rookie on a pennant-winning club. In 1899 he went 27-8, threw a no-hitter against the Washington Senators on August 7 (the last no-hitter anyone would throw in the 1800s), and posted a 2.50 ERA, among the best in the National League.

Willis won 20 or more games in eight of his 13 seasons. In 1902 he completed 45 games, a modern National League record, pitched 410 innings, struck out 225 to lead the league, and on May 29 struck out 13 batters in a game against the New York Giants. In 1904 he set a modern NL record for putouts by a pitcher with 39, a reflection of how many innings he spent on the mound and how involved he was in fielding his position.

But the Beaneaters collapsed around him. Boston's lineup was among the weakest in the league, and the club lost players to the new American League. Willis absorbed the losses because he was the only pitcher good enough to keep taking the ball. In 1905 he led the National League with 29 defeats, a modern record, despite pitching well enough to carry a competent team. His ERA during the 1903-1905 stretch averaged 3.02, but Boston's offense scored so few runs that Willis went 42-72 over those three seasons. A pitcher with his arm on a decent team would have won 20 every year. On the Beaneaters, he lost 29.

Pittsburgh

The Pirates acquired Willis before the 1906 season, and the change in surroundings transformed his record. Pittsburgh had a lineup that scored runs, a defense that caught the ball, and a pitching staff deep enough that Willis didn't have to throw 400 innings every year. With a real club behind him, Willis went 23-13 in 1906, 21-11 in 1907, and 22-11 in 1909, compiling an 89-46 record with a 2.08 ERA across four seasons in Pittsburgh. He won his final 11 decisions of the 1909 season and helped Pittsburgh reach the World Series against Ty Cobb's Detroit Tigers. Willis relieved in Game 2 and started Game 6, taking the loss, but the Pirates won the championship in seven games.

Newark

Willis finished with 249 wins, 205 losses, 50 shutouts, and 1,651 strikeouts across 513 games. He pitched his final season with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1910 at 34. The Chicago Cubs acquired his rights in 1911, but Willis refused to report and retired.

He returned to Newark, Delaware, where he purchased and operated the Washington House hotel on Main Street. He managed semipro teams in the area, coached college baseball at Delaware and other local schools, and spent his retirement playing golf and raising bird dogs. Willis stayed connected to the game at the local level for decades, teaching young pitchers the overhand curveball that had made his career, even as the major league game moved on without him.

Willis was inducted into the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame in 1977, 30 years after his death. The Veterans Committee elected him to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1995 alongside William Hulbert. He died of a stroke on August 3, 1947, in Elkton, Maryland, at 71, and is buried at St. John Cemetery in Newark. His 45 complete games in 1902 remain a modern National League record, and his 388 career complete games rank among the highest totals in baseball history.