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American baseball player
the baseball player

Wesley Cheek Ferrell (February 2, 1908 – December 9, 1976) was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball from 1927 through 1941. Primarily a starting pitcher, Ferrell played for the Cleveland Indians (1927–33), Boston Red Sox (1934–37), Washington Senators (1937–38), New York Yankees (1938–39), Brooklyn Dodgers (1940) and Boston Braves (1941). He batted and threw right handed.

Wesley Cheek Ferrell was born on February 2, 1908, in Greensboro, North Carolina, to Rufus Benjamin "Lonnie" and Alice Clara Carpenter. His father was employed by the Southern Railroad, Wes was the fifth of seven children who were all boys. They each played baseball for the local high school team, and two others went on to enjoy long careers in baseball: Rick, a Hall of Fame catcher, and George, an 18 year minor league veteran. Wesley starred in baseball and basketball while playing for Guilford High School, and later for the Oak Ridge Military Academy in 1926. Although, he initially made the Indians' roster in 1928, he was soon demoted to the Terre Haute Tots, of the Illinois–Indiana–Iowa League. He pitched well for the Tots, winning 20 games against eight losses, and had a 2.74 earned run average. In September, he was re called to majors, and pitched two games before the season ended. He started both games, completed one of them, and while he pitched well, he received the loss in both.

In 1929, he joined the Indians for good. Though only a spot starter at first, he established himself as one of the best pitchers in the American League (AL) by season's end. He was noted to have had an excellent fastball, which he complemented with a good curveball and a deceptive changeup. In 1930, he began the season as the Indians' number two starting pitcher behind Willis Hudlin, who made the team's opening day start. He quickly established himself as the team's ace by significantly improving his pitching performance. He increased his win total to 25 which finished second in the league, this time behind Lefty Grove's 28, and lowered his ERA to 3.31. His batting skills improved in 1930; his batting average jumped from .237 in 1929 to .297 in 1930. On May 8, he experienced pain in his right shoulder while warming up for a start against the Red Sox, and for the rest of the season his fastball became largely ineffective, forcing him to rely upon his other pitches. On August 31 he hit two home runs against the Chicago White Sox in 13–5 victory at Comiskey Park, the first of five times he would achieve the feat. and was named to the inaugural Major League Baseball All Star Game representing the American League. He was not called upon to play in the game, but his brother Rick was also selected to the team, and played the entire game. For his first 100 starts in his career, Ferell went 63 32 (.663), with the winning percentage being among the highest in MLB history for first 100 starts. On May 25, 1934, the Indians traded him, along with Dick Porter, to the Boston Red Sox in exchange for Bob Weiland, Bob Seeds and $25,000 cash. He made his debut for Boston on May 30 in relief, as were his next two appearances. He entered the starting rotation on June 10. On August 12, in front of a record crowd of 46,766 fans (with about 20,000 turned away), Babe Ruth made his farewell appearance as a New York Yankee in Boston. He singled and doubled against Ferrell, but Boston prevailed against Ruth and the New York Yankees by a score of 6–4. From that point until the end of the season, he was consistently effective, lowering his ERA from 4.64 on July 25, to a season ending 3.63. In 1935, Ferrell continued the success he had in the latter part of 1934, and arguably had his greatest season. He compiled league leading totals with victories with 25, as well as innings pitched, games started, and games completed. He also finished within the leaders in shutouts, bases on balls per nine innings, and strikeouts. As a batter, he had a .347 batting average, and hit seven home runs, the third, and last, time he reached this plateau. Ferrell had another effective season in 1936, with a 20–15 record, while leading the league in games started, complete games, and inning pitched. This was his sixth and last time he achieved the 20 win mark during his major league career. His 1937 season began slow and he was unable to turn it around, by June 11, he had just three victories against six losses, and his ERA was a lofty 7.61. On June 11, the Ferrell brothers and Mel Almada were traded to the Washington Senators in exchange for Ben Chapman and Bobo Newsom. Joining him on the team was his brother Rick, and the game was played on July 7, although neither of the Ferrell brothers played. Although he had a lackluster pitching record of 14–19, he led the AL in innings and complete games for the third consecutive season. In his book, The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, Bill James, noted that Ferrell's high career ERA of 4.04 is not surprising due to the heavy hitting era in which he played. The average AL ERA during his playing time was lofty 4.54. However, when Ferrell's ERA is adjusted with what he produced as a hitter, he was effectively 22% better than the league average. In this regard, he is comparable to other high ERA pitchers that helped themselves by being a good batter such as Ted Lyons, a Hall of Fame member, and Carl Mays. He also has the record of most homeruns hit batting as a pitcher with 37 and has a career BA of .280, a career OBP of .351, a career SLG of .446, and an OPS of .797. Although he, unlike his brother, has not been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, in 1981, Lawrence Ritter and Donald Honig included him in their book The 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time, in celebration of his being not just a star pitcher but the best hitting pitcher of all time—noting that Babe Ruth did most of his hitting when he was no longer a regular pitcher. In February 2008, Ferrell was inducted to the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame. He is the only pitcher since 1900 to win 20 games in his first four full major league seasons. He retired with the seventh highest winning percentage (.601) among pitchers with at least 300 AL decisions (for teams that never won the pennant) and also with the fourth highest fielding percentage (.975) in AL history. "I didn't see any big deal in being a good hitter as well as a good pitcher", said Ferrell, a two time minor league batting champion as an outfielder after his major league days were over. When he went on to be a manager, Ferrell was slapped with suspensions for incidents such as removing his team from the field, which through erroneous reports grew into legends of Ferrell having physically attacked umpires. He was a fiery competitor and a brilliant player with natural talent, whose achievements may have been obscured by his irascibility.