Bob Caruthers, MLB great with Spokane ties, honored by SABR

Sat., July 8, 2017

By Jim Price For The Spokesman-Review

For the second time in three years, the Society for American Baseball Research has selected someone with Northwest connections as their Overlooked 19th-Century Legend, an award that recognizes great players, managers or executives not voted into the Hall of Fame.

Bob Caruthers, who starred as a right-handed pitcher and hard-hitting outfielder for the original St. Louis Browns, umpired Spokane Indians games at Natatorium Park (1903) and Recreation Park (1908-09). Born in Memphis, Tennessee, and raised in Chicago, Caruthers joins pitching star Tony Mullane, the 2015 honoree, who played for Spokane in 1902 following his own major-league career.

After a vote of SABR members, Caruthers was recognized as this year’s winner at the organization’s annual convention one week ago in New York City.

Caruthers, slightly built at 5-feet-4, 140 pounds, made his major-league debut for the Browns at age 20 near the end of the 1884 season. The next year, he led the Browns to the American Association pennant, going 40-13 and leading the league in wins, winning percentage (.755), and earned run average (2.07).

The Browns won the pennant again in 1886. Caruthers went 30-14 with a 2.32 ERA while hitting .334, slugging .527 and leading the league with a .448 on-base percentage. The 1887 season was much of the same with a pennant, a 29-9 record and a league-leading .763 winning percentage to go with a .357 batting average, 547 slugging percentage, 49 stolen bases, and a .463 on-base percentage.

For his career, Caruthers joins Babe Ruth and John Montgomery Ward as the only players to accrue 16 or more Wins Above Replacement (WAR) both at the plate and on the mound. He earned 37.8 WAR as a pitcher in the American Association, topped only by Mullane (42.0). However, when his batting totals are included, he eclipses Mullane as the most valuable player in league history.

Caruthers was an American League umpire in 1902 and 1903 and became a Pacific Northwestern League official after losing his job at midseason.