Earl Hamilton - Career Overview

Career Overview

Born in Gibson City, Illinois, Hamilton played his first major league game on April 14, 1911. Through the early to mid-teens, Hamilton was considered a quality pitcher and was one of the better pitchers on some terrible Browns teams. In 1914, Hamilton had a very quality season, going 17-18 with a 2.50 ERA in 302 and 1/3 innings pitched.

After being purchased by Detroit in 1916, he was waived back to the Browns less than a month later. Then, in 1918, he finally left St. Louis for good after an 0-9 season, being purchased by Pittsburgh before the season began. That season, in 6 starts, he had one of the most amazing seasons ever recorded. Hamilton was 6-0 with a 0.83 ERA in 54 innings that year. He finished with 1 shutout in his 6 complete games. Hamilton had only given up 7 runs (5 earned) in 6 games. Oddly, he picked that season to enlist in the Navy. Hamilton returned for more fair seasons with the Pirates. Along with Wilbur Cooper, Whitey Glazner, and Babe Adams, he helped make up a good rotation for Pittsburgh, culminating with a second place finish in 1921 (behind only the New York Giants, 4 games). However, they never made the World Series with Hamilton.

Before he retired in 1924, Hamilton was selected off waivers by the Phillies, and he went 0-1 with them, with a 10.50 ERA. Hamilton made sparse appearances on leaderboards throughout his career, such as a 9th place finish in the ERA leaderboard (3.36, 1921) and a 7th place finish in wins in 1914, when he had 17. He also made the top 10 in losses three times (1914, 15, 21), and ended up finishing only two years of his career with a winning record; his 6-0 season of 1918 and 1922 (11-7).

In 14 years, he was 116-147 with a solid 3.16 ERA in 410 games (261 starts). He pitched 140 complete games, 16 of them shutouts. Hamilton recorded 790 career strike outs and allowed 1075 runs (822 earned) in 2342 and 2/3 innings pitched.

He died in Anaheim, California at the age of 77.