August

Who is this "Christian gentleman"?

I was born Aug. 12, 1880, in Factoryville, Pennsylvania, and started playing semi-pro baseball when I was 14.

I attended Bucknell University, where I was the Big Man on Campus, playing baseball and football and also serving as class president.

During my 17-year career in the majors (16 with the N.Y. Giants and one with the Reds), I won 373 games (still a National League record), had a career E.R.A. of 2.13, and posted 79 shutouts.

My out pitch was called a "fadeaway," which today we call a screwball. My manager, John McGraw, gave me high praise when he said I knew "as much about hitters as [he did]."

I had three nicknames: "Big Six," "the Christian Gentleman" (I never pitched on Sundays), and ... well, I can't tell you the third because it would give me away.

I retired as a player in 1916 and, two years later, during WWI, I enlisted in the army and was sent overseas. During a training exercise, I was accidentally exposed to poison gas and later developed tuberculosis.

I died on Oct. 7, 1925, in Saranac Lake, New York, at age 45.

I was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1936 as one of the famous "First Five," along with Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, and Walter Johnson. I was the only one of the five not there.