Sixty-one years ago, as World War II raged in Western Europe and big leaguers wondered about the threat of war to America, Philadelphia Phillie workhorse Hugh Noyes Mulcahy, a fastballing right-hander, produced another of his solid complete-game performances.
Today Mulcahy is remembered chiefly as the first big leaguer to be inducted into the U.S. Army in the Second World War, or by his moniker, “Losing Pitcher,” which appears in the Baseball Encyclopedia. But in his heyday, Hughie was a first-rate pitcher.
For example, on Tuesday afternoon, May 14, 1940, he whitewashed visiting St. Louis, 4-0, at Philadelphia’s Shibe Park. Relying on good control and his hopping fastball, the Phillie ace scattered nine Cardinal hits and allowed one extra-base shot, a double by center fielder Terry Moore. Mulcahy, a good hitting pitcher (he averaged .202 in 1940), also went 2-for-4 and batted in three of the game's four runs.
In the home half of the second inning, Merrill May walked, Bill Atwood singled, and Mulcahy contributed his first base hit—driving in May for a 1-0 lead. In the next inning, Philadelphia's Morrie Arnovich walked, and May doubled in another run. Heinie Mueller drew a walk, Atwood got a single to load the bases, and Mulcahy singled again, this time driving home two runners.
Like many former hurlers, Hugh fondly remembers his clutch hits. “Of the 13 games I won in 1940,” he told me recently, “I helped win three or four of them with my hitting. One of those was my shutout against the Cards.”
After an opening day loss, this victory was number three for the 6’2” 190-pounder. Mulcahy (pronounced MULL-KAY) allowed two bases on balls, struck out three, and stranded nine Cardinals. The Phillie infield backed the ace with four double plays—one of which Mulcahy completed.
Typical for a ball club that had finished in seventh place (twice) or in the National League's cellar (three times) since Mulcahy joined them in 1935, only 1,500 fans saw the first of Mulcahy's three shutouts that season.
When his big league career was finally over—and he served four years out of his prime in the Army during the Second World War, Mulcahy owned a lifetime record of 45-89 with a 4.49 ERA. He pitched 1,161 2/3 innings in 220 games over nine years. Ironically, he never enjoyed a winning record in the majors. Twice he led the NL in losses—with 20 in 1938 and 22 in 1940.
Still, Mulcahy made the All-Star team in 1940, an accomplishment that indicates the quality of his hurling. But before he could improve on his ‘40 record, Hugh was drafted.
The Selective Service Act passed Congress in September 1940. On March 8, 1941, Mulcahy became the first major leaguer to join the military. He returned from the Pacific to resume his career after the war, but, having been ill and lost strength in 1945, he had lost some of his speed.
Hugh's story goes back to Brighton, Massachusetts, where he was born on September 9, 1913, the year before the Great War began. The only son of Hugh Thomas Mulcahy, a good all-around athlete, and “Bertie” Noyes Mulcahy, the youth had an older sister who passed away in the mid-1930s.
Like most guys his age, “Hughie” loved baseball. On occasion he and his buddies, the “Knot Hole Gang,” would slip into the bleachers at Braves Field in Boston. By the time he reached high school, his family had moved to nearby Allston.
Hughie, a hard-throwing sidearmer, became a shortstop in grade school and an outfielder in high school. As his height passed six feet and his arms and legs grew longer, his fielding skills suffered. His father suggested that he try pitching, which he did in sandlot ball.
Graduating from Brighton High in 1931, Hughie spent a year at the Dean Academy. He played ice hockey in the winter. Taking to the mound, he starred in baseball, and his team was undefeated for the 1932 season. After leaving Dean, Hughie pitched semipro ball for Allston in the Boston Twilight League.
Much later, in 1977, Mulcahy (Class of ‘32) and Hall of Famer Gabby Hartnett (Class of ‘19) were among those named to the all-time Dean baseball team.
But in 1933, at the depths of the Great Depression, a Giant scout signed Mulcahy after his coach at Dean arranged a tryout. The aspiring hurler spent the summer in the class B New England League. During the Depression many clubs experienced financial difficulties. Hughie's club shuttled from North Attleboro to Lawrence to Woonsocket, Rhode Island. Under those unstable conditions, he produced an 8-4 record.
When Woonsocket couldn't meet the payroll, Mulcahy “jumped” the club and went to Saranac, New York, to pitch semipro ball. There he earned $8 a week, plus room and board. But the next spring he returned to the Giants’ system.
In 1934, pitching for Manchester of the Northeastern League, Hughie finished with a 14-10 record in 26 games. Relying on his good fastball, he struck out 75 and walked 40.
While toiling at Reading, Mulcahy was spotted by Joe Cambria, who scouted for the Washington Senators and owned the Albany club of the International League.
In 1935 Cambria signed Mulcahy. The owner-scout watched his “recruit” (as rookies were often called) pitch 27 games and go 4-2 with a 5.12 ERA. Although the Brighton native was hardly a polished pitcher, Cambria believed in him. In July Joe persuaded the seventh-place Phillies, then managed by Jimmie Wilson, to buy Mulcahy's contract.
Wilson and his coach, Hans Lobert, were good baseball men, and Mulcahy was eager to learn. Wilson taught Hughie to throw from a three-quarter overhand delivery, to throw his left foot in front of the batter's face before delivering the ball, and to stand properly on the pitching rubber—so that his weight would be evenly distributed. Hughie also learned the art of holding runners on base.
The instruction took several weeks, but the Phillies were riding out a losing season (64-89). Mulcahy worked in relief and started five times, going 1-5 with a 4.79 ERA. The rookie walked 25 and fanned 11 in 52 2/3 innings.
He enjoyed several highlights. For example, in his first appearance on July 24, 1935, he set down the side in order. Reflecting on that game, Mulcahy said, “I first pitched one inning of relief in Forbes Field, Pittsburgh. The hitters were Paul Waner, Lloyd Waner, and ‘Arky’ Vaughn. I was fortunate and retired all three.”
In 1936 Mulcahy was farmed out to Hazleton, Pennsylvania, of the New York-Penn League to work on the adjustments he learned the previous season:
“I did gets lots of work, I think 325 innings, and I won 25 and lost 14. I received the Sporting News ‘Most Valuable Player.’ I was recalled the last couple of weeks by the Phillies.”
Mulcahy is modest. In 1936 he led his league in several categories: games, with 46; innings, 325; runs allowed, 172; earned runs, 155; walks, 120; and wins, 25. He also struck out 134 batters, and his ERA was 4.24. With Philadelphia he was 1-1 with a 3.22 ERA in three games.
Thereafter, from 1937 through the 1940 season, Mulcahy was the Phillies' ace:
MULCAHY’s BEST FOUR SEASONS (* = led league)
YR W L ERA G GS CG IP BB SO
1937 8 18 5.13 56* 25 9 215.2 97* 54
1938 10 20* 4.61 46 34 15 267.1 120 90
1939 9 16 4.99 38 32 14 225.2 93 59
1940 13 22* 3.60 36 36 21 280 91 82
TOT 40 76 -- 176 127 59 988.2 401 285
AVG 10 19 4.52 44 32 15 247 100 71
During those years Mulcahy's 40-76 record meant he had a winning percentage of .344, which was higher than his team’s. The Phillies, with records of 61-92 (7th place), 45-105 (8th), 45-106 (8th), and 50-103 (8th), had a winning percentage of .331.
In 1937, Hughie's first full season, he was the fourth starter and went 8-18. The Phillies' biggest winners were Claude Passeau at 14-18 with a 4.34 ERA, Bucky Walters at 14-15 and 4.75, and Wayne LaMaster, who led the league in losses at 15-19 and 5.31.
In 1938, when Passeau went 11-18 with a 4.52 ERA, Mulcahy's 10-20 record left him the club's only other double-digit winner.
In 1939 and ‘40, Mulcahy and Kirby Higbe were Philadelphia's mainstays, with Higbe going 10-14 in 1939 for the Phillies (plus 2-1 with the Cubs, before he was traded) and 14-19 in 1940.
Further, in his All-Star season, Hughie's 21 complete games ranked third in the NL behind Bucky Walters, who hurled 29, and Paul Derringer’s 26. Mulcahy's 280 innings ranked fifth, with Walters tops at 305.
Hughie didn't use a wind-up. He had a natural motion, bringing his hands up over his head and delivering the pitch. Mainly he fired fastballs. He threw the curve, but it wasn't a sharp-breaking pitch. Later, he added a change-of-pace, which helped him in 1940. Hughie always had good speed, but his control hurt him at times—as indicated by the fact that his big league walk totals always exceeded his strikeout totals.
Humble, modest, and pleasant, Mulcahy could laugh at himself. He reminisced about his minor league managers:
“Another thing I learned, you learned so many things when you're young, it helps you to win ball games.
“Andy High, the manager, came out to yank me out of one game. Leave it to me: I said it wasn't me. I started complaining about the mound!
“He said, ‘That's the same mound that you've been pitching on.’
“Those are the stupid things you do, you know!”
But Mulcahy enjoyed his time in the major leagues. When he first played for the Phillies, the club offered him $375 a month. Hughie asked for more. The Phillies boosted his salary to $425.
The pay and the living were good for the Depression era. “We used to get $3.50 a day for meals,” he recollected. “You could eat well on $3.50 during those years.”
There were other perks for ballplayers. For example, Hughie kept the check stub for $100 that he and Bill Atwood received for being featured in a newspaper ad.
Pitching for the offense-thin Phillies, Mulcahy experienced up-and-down seasons. He kept improving, but often he won or lost by close scores. Even his best year, 1940, illustrates that a good pitcher on a weak club can have plenty of tough luck.
After losing, 5-2, to the New York Giants on April 24, when Babe Young connected for a three-run home run in the eighth, Mulcahy won four in a row—and number three was his 3-RBI shutout of the Cardinals.
But Hughie was unable to win two in a row for the remainder of the season. On Thursday, May 23, he lost to the Chicago Cubs, 4-3 in 13 innings. Five days later he fell to the Brooklyn Dodgers, 4-2. On June 1 he bounced back to beat the Cardinals, 5-4, but he was relieved after seven frames.
Mulcahy's roller coaster season continued. Five days later he lost to the Cubs, 3-2. But on Sunday, June 9, he upped his record to 6-4 with a 6-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. After losing to St. Louis, 6-2, Hughie scattered eight hits to stifle the Reds, 3-1.
His record had improved to 7-5 by the time managers were making All-Star choices. The NL pilots selected Mulcahy and teammate Kirby Higbe.
Ironically, Mulcahy then lost four straight games, two by one run, which dropped him to 7-9 by the All-Star break.
Three days before the eighth mid-season classic, which was played at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, Hughie suffered a 15-2 pounding from the Giants. Bill Terry's club sent the Phillie workhorse to the clubhouse after only one and one-third innings.
In the All-Star game, the underdog National Leaguers won their third victory in a series that originated in 1933. In the bottom of the first, Pirate Arky Vaughn singled, Cub Billy Herman followed with a hit-and-run single, and Boston Bee outfielder Max West blasted a 3-run homer off Yankee right-hander Red Ruffing, all before the game's first out. Giant Harry Danning singled home the game's fourth run in the eighth inning.
Mulcahy never had a chance to take the mound. Five NL hurlers pitched eight innings and allowed only three hits to the likes of Detroit's Hank Greenberg, New York's Joe DiMaggio, and Boston's Ted Williams. Chicago's Luke Appling stroked a single and a double, and Detroit pitcher Buck Newsom got the AL's other hit.
National League hurlers, who pitched two innings each except for New York's Carl Hubbell, were Paul Derringer and Bucky Walters of Cincinnati, Whitlow Wyatt of Brooklyn, Larry French of Chicago, and Hubbell. At the end, manager Bill McKechnie had only Mulcahy and Higbe left in the bullpen.
Honored to be selected, Hughie returned to Philadelphia, resumed his mound duties, and finished the summer at a respectable 13-22. It was his winningest big league season.
By the time Mulcahy blanked the Cards on May 14, 1940, big leaguers, sports fans, and most Americans were reading newspaper reports and listening to radio broadcasts about Nazi conquests. The German Blitzkrieg had conquered Poland in the fall of 1939.
On June 22, 1940, when France surrendered to Germany, most of Western Europe was under Nazi domination. Intervention in World War II seemed imminent for America, and many ballplayers pondered the future of baseball itself.
The Selective Service Act passed Congress on September 16, 1940, as the German Luftwaffe bombed England. On March 8, 1941, while President Franklin Roosevelt worked with Congress to pass the Lend-Lease Act, Mulcahy became the first major leaguer inducted into the Army. He asked for a five-month postponement in order to pay off some debts, but to no avail.
Hughie does not regard that as an important feat. For him to be the first ballplayer inducted was the luck of the draw. Once in the Army, like most other patriotic Americans, he gave the military his best shot, serving four and a half years.
Assigned to the Twenty-Sixth Infantry Division, Mulcahy's unit trained near Cape Cod, carried out maneuvers in North Carolina, and was shifted to Second Army Headquarters in Memphis. In 1944 he was shipped overseas, where he was stationed on New Guinea and later in the Philippines. While in New Guinea, however, most of the men in Hughie's outfit became ill.
Mustered out in August 1945, Mulcahy returned to the Phillies. By then he weighed 170 pounds—a loss of 35 pounds since joining the Army. During the last month of the season, he pitched 28 innings. He notched a 1-3 record with a 3.81 ERA, walking nine and striking out two.
Hughie returned to Philadelphia for the 1946 season, but he was hardly the pitcher he had been in 1940. Four years in the Army and the long illness had cost him strength and speed. In 16 games he compiled a 2-4 ledger and a 4.45 ERA, walking 33 and fanning only 12.
Philadelphia released him after the ‘46 season, and he signed with Pittsburgh in 1947. The result was worse: no record and a 3.81 ERA in two appearances. Released again, Hughie pitched for Oakland in the Pacific Coast League. After a 1-6 season, he was released.
Mulcahy still loved to play the game. He pitched three seasons with Memphis in the Southern Association, enjoying winning seasons of 14-7 and 14-11 in 1948 and 1949, respectively. But after losing seasons at Memphis in 1950 and at Albany of the Eastern League in 1951, he retired.
A few months later John Rigney signed Mulcahy as the minor league pitching instructor for the Chicago White Sox. Hughie served in a roving capacity for years, finally becoming supervisor of the Chisox minor league camp.
In 1970 he became the assistant pitching coach for the White Sox. Retiring after one season, he was induced to spend two more seasons directing the minor league camp. Finally, he hung up his spikes in 1974.
For years Hughie and his buddies used to play nine holes of golf, Monday through Friday.
“Saturdays I save for doing chores for my wife,” he once remarked, with a chuckle, “and Sundays are for God.”
On October 19, 2001, Hugh Mulcahy passed away after a battle with cancer.
Danny Litwhiler, an outfielder who made the Phillies as a rookie in 1940 and who averaged .281 in his 11-year career, was always impressed with Mulcahy.
Litwhiler recalled, “Hugh was the kind of gentleman all major leaguers should be. He was kind and thoughtful. A really good pitcher, Hugh was a winner in my book, and he always will be.”
An underrated pitcher who performed well on ball clubs with losing records, Hugh Mulcahy was a true professional who gave the national pastime his best shot every time he walked on the diamond.
Also by Jim Sargent
» Remembering Harvey Riebe: Pursuing the Baseball Dream During World War II and the Forties
» Gene Woodling -- A Champion Outfielder in Baseball's Glory Years
» Wayne Ambler
» Remembering Hal White
» More submissions
Posted October 29, 2001.
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