Jesse Joseph Haines (July 22, 1893 – August 5, 1978), nicknamed "Pop", was a right-handed

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

in for the Cincinnati Reds and

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB). After a lengthy stint in minor league baseball, he played briefly in 1918, then from 1920 to 1937. He spent nearly his entire major league career with the Cardinals. Haines pitched on three

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...

championship teams. Though he had a kind personality off the field, Haines was known as a fiery competitor during games. After retiring in 1937 with a 210–158 win–loss record, Haines was a coach with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1938. He left baseball after that season and returned to his native Ohio. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1970. However, his election was not without controversy, as the Veterans Committee included former teammates of Haines, resulting in charges of cronyism against the Veterans Committee. In 2014, he was inducted into the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame Museum. He ranks second in franchise history in shutouts.

Early life

Haines was born in

Clayton, Ohio Clayton is a city in Montgomery county in the U.S. state of Ohio. The population was 13,310 at the 2020 United States census. A suburb of Dayton. It is part of the Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city was named after John Clayton, a ...

, but he grew up in nearby Phillipsburg, where he attended local schools. His father Elias worked as an auctioneer. Haines wanted to play baseball for the local team in Phillipsburg. His parents did not approve of him playing baseball on Sundays, so Haines used to sneak away, hiding his uniform in a corn crib and changing clothes in a cornfield. He left town to play semipro baseball in Dayton in 1912. Soon thereafter, he was signed to play for a minor league team in Dayton. Spending several seasons in minor league baseball, Haines also pitched for teams in

Saginaw Saginaw () is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Saginaw County. The city of Saginaw and Saginaw County are both in the area known as Mid-Michigan. Saginaw is adjacent to Saginaw Charter Township and considered part of Greater ...

, Fort Wayne, Springfield,

Topeka Topeka ( ; Kansa: ; iow, Dópikˀe, script=Latn or ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the seat of Shawnee County. It is along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, in northeast Kansas, in the Central Uni ...

and

Tulsa Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...

. He had played briefly in the major leagues with the Cincinnati Reds in 1918, but he returned to the minor leagues. Across his minor league career, he compiled a 107–61 record and 1.93 ERA over 187 games. Branch Rickey of the

noticed Haines while he was pitching in Kansas City, but the team was struggling with money. He convinced a group of the team's stockholders to take out a $10,000 loan for the purchase of Haines's contract. During his minor league days, Haines married Carrie M. Weidner. They had one child.

Major league career

Haines became a fixture in the Cardinals starting rotation in 1920. Despite a 13–20 record, he pitched 301 innings, the highest output of his career, and recorded a 2.98 ERA. Author Paul Doutrich writes that while Haines was a mild-mannered individual, he had no patience for losing games and "became a raging bull when on the mound." Haines threw a no-hitter on July 17, 1924, against the Boston Braves; more than 50 years passed before a St. Louis pitcher threw another no-hitter at home. Haines pitched on three World Series championship teams, winning two games in the

1926 World Series The 1926 World Series was the championship series of the 1926 Major League Baseball season. The 23rd edition of the Series, it pitted the National League champion St. Louis Cardinals against the American League champion New York Yankees. The ...

. In game seven of that series, Haines developed a bleeding blister and had to be removed from the game with the bases loaded in the seventh inning.

Grover Cleveland Alexander Grover Cleveland Alexander (February 26, 1887 – November 4, 1950), nicknamed "Old Pete", was an American Major League Baseball pitcher. He played from 1911 through 1930 for the Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs, and St. Louis Cardinals. He ...

was inserted into the game and struck out Tony Lazzeri. As his career went on, Haines became known as "Pop" because of the influence he exerted on younger teammates. His use of the

knuckleball A knuckleball or knuckler is a baseball pitch thrown to minimize the spin of the ball in flight, causing an erratic, unpredictable motion. The air flow over a seam of the ball causes the ball to change from laminar to turbulent flow. This cha ...

allowed him to extend his career after his other pitches became ineffective. Unlike other knuckleball pitchers who gripped the pitch with their fingertips, Haines actually held the ball with his knuckles, throwing it as hard as he could. Haines began to pitch fewer games in 1932. By 1936, manager

Frankie Frisch Frank Francis Frisch (September 9, 1898—March 12, 1973), nicknamed "The Fordham Flash" or "The Old Flash", was an American Major League Baseball player and manager of the first half of the twentieth century. Frisch was a switch-hitting seco ...

thought that Haines had become too old and held him out of any games until May. However, he got more opportunities that year as the St. Louis pitching staff struggled with injuries. By June, he made relief pitching appearances three days in a row. He retired in 1937, having pitched to the age of 43. He won 20 games or more three times for the Cardinals and won three

championships (

1926 Events January * January 3 – Theodoros Pangalos declares himself dictator in Greece. * January 8 **Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud is crowned King of Hejaz. ** Crown Prince Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thuy ascends the throne, the last monarch of Viet ...

1931 Events January * January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics. * January 4 – German pilot Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa. * January 22 – Sir I ...

, and

1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 Nepal–Bihar earthquake strikes Nepal and Bihar with a maxi ...

), though he did not pitch in the 1931 series. In the 1926 World Series against the Yankees, he went 2–0 with a 1.08 ERA. He retired with a 210–158 record, 981 strikeouts, 3.64 ERA, and 3208 innings pitched. As a hitter, Haines posted a .186

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

(209-for-1124) with 76 runs, 3 home runs, 79 RBI and 30 bases on balls. In 6 World Series games, he hit .444 (4-for-9) with 1 run, 1 home run and 3 RBI.

Later life

Haines worked on the coaching staff of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1938. After that, he was an auditor for almost 30 years in Montgomery County, Ohio. After failing to gain more than 8.3% of the votes for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame over a 12-year period, Haines was voted in by the

Veterans Committee The Veterans Committee is the popular name of various committees of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum that elect participants other than recently retired players. Originally, it referenced the National Baseball Hall of Fame Committee ...

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

, a member of the VC, also shepherded the selections of his teammates Dave Bancroft and Chick Hafey in 1971,

Ross Youngs Ross Middlebrook "Pep" Youngs (April 10, 1897 – October 22, 1927) was an American professional baseball player. Nicknamed "Pep", he played ten seasons in Major League Baseball for the New York Giants from 1917 through 1926, playing right field ...

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using mean solar tim ...

, George Kelly in

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: ...

Jim Bottomley James Leroy Bottomley (April 23, 1900 – December 11, 1959) was an American professional baseball player, scout and manager. He played in Major League Baseball as a first baseman from 1922 to 1937, most prominently as a member of the St. Loui ...

in 1974, and

Freddie Lindstrom Frederick Charles Lindstrom (November 21, 1905 – October 4, 1981) was a National League baseball player with the New York Giants, Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago Cubs and Brooklyn Dodgers from 1924 until 1936. He was inducted into the Baseball Hal ...

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 ...

. After the committee selected Haines, Frisch commented that Haines was "a worthy, worthy man... a great competitor, a fine fellow off and on the field." Sabermetrician Bill James has listed Haines as one of ten examples of Hall of Fame inductees who do not deserve the honor. He died in 1978 in Dayton, Ohio after a 28-year career as Montgomery County (Ohio) Assessor. His grave in Clayton, Ohio which incorporates the sundial that the Cardinals gave Haines upon his retirement has become a local attraction.

Legacy

In January 2014, the Cardinals announced Haines among 22 former players and personnel to be inducted into the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame Museum for the inaugural class of

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

References

External links