Joe Wood

Lore & Background

Wood played his first amateur baseball for a semipro team in Ouray, Colorado. He made his professional debut with the Red Sox in 1908. After joining the Red Sox at 18, Wood had his breakthrough season in 1911 in which he won 23 games, compiled an ERA of 2.02, threw a no-hitter against the St. Louis Browns and struck out 15 batters in a single game. He earned the nickname "Smoky Joe" because of his blazing fastball.

Wood recounted in the 1966 book The Glory of Their Times, "I threw so hard I thought my arm would fly right off my body." A story that gained common parlance was that legendary fastballer Walter Johnson once said, "Can I throw harder than Joe Wood? Listen, my friend, there's no man alive can throw harder than Smoky Joe Wood!" Reminded of Johnson's supposed assessment 60 years later, Wood said, "Oh, I don't think there was ever anybody faster than Walter."

Johnson did say Wood could throw as hard as he could for two or three innings, but his delivery put much strain on his arm. Johnson had a speed 6.1 mph faster than anyone measured with the photo-electric system, but Wood when tested in 1917 had already suffered a career-changing injury. Wood's best season was in 1912, when he had an ERA of 1.91, 258 strikeouts, a record of 34 wins and only 5 losses. He also tied Walter Johnson's record for consecutive victories with 16.

During the 1912 season, Wood had a 13-game winning streak. On September 6, 1912, Wood faced off against Johnson in a pitching duel at Fenway Park. Wood gave up only two hits and no runs, and the Red Sox prevailed, 1–0. Wood's Red Sox faced John McGraw's New York Giants in the 1912 World Series.

After seven close games, the teams met for the deciding game eight at Fenway. After Boston tied the score 1–1 in the bottom of the seventh, Wood came in to pitch. He matched Christy Mathewson in the eighth and ninth, and the game went into extra innings. In the top of the tenth, Fred Merkle knocked in a run with a single.

But in the bottom of the tenth, Clyde Engle, pinch-hitting for Wood, hit an easy fly ball to Fred Snodgrass in center field, and Snodgrass dropped the ball.

Reader's Guide

Wood is one of only 13 pitchers to win 30 or more games in one season since 1900. His 34 victories in 1912 rank as the sixth-highest total among the 21 times pitchers have won 30 or more games since 1900. He tied Walter Johnson's record for consecutive victories with 16. Wood struck out 11 batters in one game of the 1912 World Series, becoming the first pitcher to record double-digit strikeouts in a World Series game. He finished his major league career with a pitching record of 117–57 and an ERA of 2.03, and a lifetime batting average of .283.