page_title: Jack Warhop
section_title: 1908–1912
hierarchical_section_title: Jack Warhop / Major League Baseball career / 1908–1912
caption_attribution_description: Jack Warhop
context_page_description: John Milton Warhop was an American baseball pitcher who played eight seasons in Major League Baseball from 1908 to 1915 for the New York Highlanders/New York Yankees. He is best known for giving up Babe Ruth's first two career home runs.
  Considered by baseball insiders and historians as an unlucky pitcher, Warhop had a career 69–92 win–loss record, but with a 3.12 earned run average while playing for mostly second division Highlanders/Yankees teams. Of his 92 losses, the Yankees did not score a run in 23, and he holds the MLB record for losing the most 1–0 games with five in 1914. He was released after the 1915 season and played a number of seasons in minor league baseball and semi-professional teams until his late 40s or early 50s.
  Warhop had an underhand submarine delivery, which gave him the nickname "Crab". He was also known for his rather small size, which is a subject of some conflict, although most historians and statisticians agree that he measured between 5 feet, 8 inches, used by several historians like Marty Appel or 5 feet 9 inches, used by Baseball-Reference.com.
context_section_description: Warhop made his debut on September 9, 1908. He ended up with a 1–2 win–loss record with a 4.46 earned run average (ERA) in five games that year. Warhop became a regular fixture in the starting rotation in 1909. He pitched a three hitter against the Cleveland Nats on August 10, 1909 and finished the year with a 13–15 win–loss record, a 2.40 ERA, and 21 complete games in 36 games pitched as the Highlanders finished fifth in the American League (AL). However, Warhop led the AL in hit batsmen in 1909 (26) and 1910 (18), which might have been caused by his unorthodox pitching style. In 1910, Warhop pitched to a 14–14 win–loss record, a 3.00 ERA and 11 errors (the most among AL pitchers). He was respected throughout baseball, and Baseball Magazine once called him the "unluckiest pitcher in the American League".
  The 1911 season saw Warhop post a 12–13 record, a 4.16 ERA and 15 hit batsmen (the third highest in the league).  His starts throughout the season were mixed; some were poor or marred by bad luck.  He was shelled on May 9 in a 10–0 loss against a Detroit Tigers lineup featuring Ty Cobb, Sam Crawford and Jim Delahanty, giving up runs in each of the first four innings.  However, he improved a few weeks later on May 20, when he limited the St. Louis Browns to four hits.  This began a quality stretch for Warhop, who won five consecutive games by July 17—a result of an improvement in his control.  Then, during an August 21 road game against the Tigers, he lost a 5–4 walk-off game in the eleventh inning, in part due to his own unsuccessful strategy in fielding two bunts.  On both occasions, he threw to second base but was too late, and the baserunners were able to advance safely and load the bases.  The Highlanders lost when Earle Gardner booted a routine ground ball by Bill Donovan in an rushed attempt to throw out the go-ahead runner at home plate.  His desperation culminated in him unsuccessfully requesting the league at the end of the season to change his win–loss record to 14–11, under the mistaken belief that his 12–13 record was incorrect.
  Warhop's penchant for tough luck was best exemplified in the 1912 season, when he finished with a 10–19 record—the second highest number of losses in the AL—despite compiling a 2.86 ERA and 6.7 Wins Above Replacement (WAR).  Both his ERA and WAR were tenth best in the AL, though he also finished second in hit batsmen (16) and fifth in errors as a pitcher (7).  In a July 5 road game against the Washington Senators, he entered the game in the second inning and lost 6–5 in a walk-off, despite dueling Walter Johnson up to the 16th inning.  Then, in a game on August 22, he held the Chicago White Sox to just two hits and no runs in the first five innings.  While pitching with a 3–0 lead, Warhop surrendered one run in the sixth inning, before getting shelled in the seventh, giving up four runs and the lead.  After another four runs were given up in the ninth inning, the Highlanders lost the game 9–4.  Towards the end of the season, Warhop was again on the losing side of a bad luck game, when he lost a 3–0 pitchers' duel against the St. Louis Browns, having held them scoreless for the first five innings.
caption: Tobacco card of Jack Warhop
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