Addie Joss
Joss was barely 31 years old and one of the MLB’s best pitchers when he was suddenly struck down by meningitis shortly before opening day of the 1911 season.
Less than two weeks after he collapsed on the field prior to an exhibition game in Chattanooga, Tenn., Joss died. Medical error may have played a role in his death; at the time of his collapse, his own physician diagnosed his problem as pleurisy.
At the time of his death, Joss was already a 160-game winner with a lifetime 1.89 ERA for the Cleveland Indians. He was a 20-game winner annually between 1905 and 1908 with two no-hitters, one a perfect game, to his credit.
He is one of a handful of pitchers with more complete games (234) to his credit than wins.
Given that Joss was a front-rank star barely into his 30s when he died, it’s fair to engage in projecting what he might have done over the course of a full, healthy career. In his particular case, however, the question is probably illusory.
Lost in the mourning over the tragedy of Joss’s premature death is the reality that he was very likely already on the downside of his career. Through his age 29 season, 1909, he had already pitched 2,220 innings, an average of 277 innings per season for eight seasons.
Midway through his 1910 season, that wear and tear appeared to be catching up with him. Complaining of a sore arm, Joss made only 12 starts that season, just three of those after June 1. When he returned during the spring of 1911, he declared his hope that he might be able to return, but not before mid-season.
In other words, it’s entirely possible that Joss was suffering from chronic arm injuries of the type that routinely ended the careers of MLB pitchers in his era, and for decades afterward.
In that context, we are safest projecting that the numbers Joss had posted when he died suddenly may actually have turned out to be his career numbers – or at least something closely approaching them – had he lived a normal lifespan.