More ugly numbers

OK, I've dredged up awful seasons by Mike Schmidt and Roy Halladay, and an awful game by Salomon Torres ... along with awful teams like the Cleveland Spiders and all those seasons in Washington.

I don't know. Baseball's ugly numbers always have fascinated me. Probably has something to do with my own lack of prowess as a player.

Anyhow, here's what I've always considered to be the most pitiful seasonal pitching line of all time:

Record: 0-10
Games: 10
Innings: 68
Runs allowed: 110
Hits allowed: 111
Walks allowed: 60
Strikeouts: 18
Earned run average: 10.32

The pitcher's name was either Charles Stecher or William Theodore Stecher, depending on the source, and he's one of those entries in the baseball encyclopedias who's listed simply as "deceased," for lack of biographical information. He pitched the last month of the season for the 1890 Philadelphia Athletics, which lost its final 23 games.

The story of that team is a fascinating one, and I'll summarize it from memory based on the writings of historian David Nemec.

The A's were part of the American Association, which in 1890 was one of three major leagues in existence. None of the three was making any money, and the Athletics reached a point where they couldn't meet payroll. Their solution was to release all their active players and hire sandlot-quality substitutes on a game-to-game basis. That seems to explain Mr. Stecher's presence on the mound, and also that of teammate Ed O'Neill (not the guy who played Al Bundy), whose numbers with Philadelphia were just as ugly:

Record: 0-6
Games: 6
Innings: 52
Runs allowed: 77
Hits allowed: 84
Walks allowed: 32
Strikeouts: 17
Earned run average: 9.26

Mercifully, neither Stecher nor O'Neill were invited to play in the major leagues again.