Harry Feldman - Major League Career

Major League Career

Feldman did the bulk of his pitching for the Giants during the World War II years (1942–45).

He won his first major league game in his second start, a 4–0 shutout over the Boston Braves in the second game of a doubleheader at the Polo Grounds (September 21, 1941).

He was turned down by the Army due to evidence of his having had TB as a child.

Early in 1944 he decided to temporarily leave the team due to his wife's poor health and his mother's death. He returned and became a mainstay of the New York rotation for the next couple of seasons.

In 1944 he was 9th in the NL with 40 games pitched.

In 1945 he was 6th in the NL in games started (30) and shutouts (3), and 9th in innings (217.7) and batters faced (933). He was 12–13, with a 3.27 ERA.

His career totals include a 35–35 record, 143 games pitched, 78 starts, 22 complete games, 6 shutouts, 28 games finished, and 3 saves. In 666 innings pitched he struck out 254, walked 300, and had an earned run average of 3.80.

In 1946 he joined what became a total of 27 major league players, including Max Lanier, Mickey Owens, Vern Stephens and George Hausmann, in jumping to the "outlaw" Mexican League. Feldman signed with the Veracruz Blues, along with teammate and friend Ace Adams. The players who had jumped to the Mexican League had trouble getting back into organized baseball. The following year he played in Havana, Cuba. In 1949 he pitched for a while in the Provincial League for Sherbrooke, Quebec, and then moved to San Francisco where he pitched his last two seasons with the San Francisco Seals, going 6–9 with a 4.31 ERA in 1949 and 11–16 with a 4.38 ERA in 1950. He retired after that season at age 30.

Feldman was 8th lifetime in ERA of all Jewish major league pitchers through 2010, behind among others Sandy Koufax and Ken Holtzman.