Bob Ewing - The Cincinnati Reds

The Cincinnati Reds

While at home from Kansas City, Bob played ball with a local club in Sidney, Ohio. On October 10, 1901, the Cincinnati Reds arrived in Sidney after going through local Ohio teams looking to find some competition with the Sidney semi-pro team. As the Reds warmed up, they could not have anticipated what they were about to see. The visitors were up to bat first. On the mound stood all six feet six inches of Long Bob Ewing. Ewing dueled Schwab, his Reds counterpart, to a 3 to 3 tie when the game was called because of darkness after eight innings. Ewing struck out many more batters than Schwab. Within two weeks he was under contract to the Cincinnati Reds.

Long Bob Ewing made his major league game debut on April 19, 1902. He walked ten batters, seven of them in one inning, in a 9–5 loss to Chicago. It was nearly a month before he gained his first victory; then he missed the second half of the season with a sore arm.

Bob fought for a place on the roster the next two seasons before establishing himself as one of the Reds' top pitchers. Ewing finished with a 6 and 6 won-lost record. He pitched ten complete games in twelve starts and compiled a fine 2.98 earned run average. A sore arm limited his playing time toward the end of the season.

In 1903, Long Bob developed into the workhorse of the staff. Completing 27 of the 28 games he started, Ewing posted 14 wins and lowered his ERA to 2.73. He delivered at the plate as well. That season, Ewing hit an impressive .253.

The season's highlight came on August 18, 1903. The headline in the "Cincinnati Post" told the story: "Kelley Claims Ewing Pitched a No-Hitter" He blanked the New York Giants 7 to 0, giving up one infield hit by Jack Dunn in the eighth inning. The official scorer recorded the play as an out, but was ordered to score it as a hit. A dispatch from New York after the game stated: "Long Bob Ewing, fed on raw meat and clams for a week, was taken out of his cage and sent against the Giants...Old Wapak fired the leather down the alley so fast that the haze in its wake looked like the smoke in a shooting gallery." A seasoned and confident Bob Ewing barnstormed with the Reds after the season concluded.

On September 30, 1903, the Cincinnati Reds came to Sidney for a rematch. Long Bob was on the mound for Reds, which had just pummeled Lima 9 to 1 the day before. After the game, the "Journal's" editor, William Binkley, wryly observed that the Reds came to town to show "...what a difference there is between a professional team and pumpkin puller aggregations in smaller towns...and to prick what bubbles of vanity they entertain." After Long Bob took his seat at the end of the first inning, Sidney led 5 to 1. Binkley chortled: "The Reds were amazed, and in a figurative sense, more blue than red."

The Reds outfielders were "as busy as a cow's tail in fly time," according to Binkley, while Sidney's infielders "guarded the infield like watch dogs fed on electricity." In the end, Long Bob and the Reds absorbed a 14 to 2 beating. Mr. Binkley appropriately summed up the event: "In short, the Reds were outclassed, the spectators were given a treat of rare sport, and the visitors gracefully acknowledged the corn."

The Cincinnati Reds returned to Sidney the next year for what the Wapakoneta newspaper described as "Ewing Day in Sidney." Fifty wagons circled the court square, and banners proclaiming 'Ewing Day' were hung everywhere. A local baker sold 'Ewing pies' and bartenders served 'Ewing highballs.' Two thousand fans jammed the ball field. As the first Sidney batter whiffed, the crowd screamed: "Don't throw so hard, you'll kill the catcher!" Ewing and the Reds prevailed, 6 to 1.

In professional baseball after the turn of the century, the spitball was a legal pitch and Ewing was known as having one of the best in the majors. By late 1904 Ewing became one of the National League's first notable exponents of the wet one. A newspaper writer of the era described him as also having "great speed and a puzzling drop curve." With that new weapon he enjoyed his best year in 1905, securing his 20th victory in the last game of the season. Long Bob won 20 games in 34 starts with only 11 losses during the 1905 season. He still batted over .250.

September 11, 1906, Ewing duels Deacon Phillippe and Vic Willis to a scoreless tie in Pittsburgh, scattering eight hits over fifteen innings. He ended 2006 with an ERA of 2.38 and almost 300 innings pitched.

The highlight of the 1907 season came early when he was handed the ball for opening day on April 11, 1907. The opponent was the Pittsburgh Pirates, led by the immortal future hall-of-famer Honus Wagner. Ewing pitched a complete game, four hit, 4 to 3 victory. In what he always viewed as the highlight of his career, Ewing fanned the first six Pirate batters he faced, including such outstanding hitters as Wagner, Fred Clarke and Ginger Beaumont. The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that "He used the spitball when he found himself in a tight place and it was very effective in his hands." The Reds come from behind with two runs in the ninth inning.

Long Bob did his best to ensure his own success in 1907. Pitching over 330 innings, he compiled a career-best ERA of 1.73 and averaged almost twice as many strikeouts as bases on balls. Although he won 17 games, little offensive help from his teammates resulted in 19 losses. Ewing accomplished all this at the age of 34 that year.

Bob Ewing concluded his career with the Reds after the 1909 season. In his eight year stint with the Cincinnati club, he compiled an overall earned run average of 2.37. Almost 90 years later, it still stands as the best Reds' career ERA record ever compiled.