Ken Holtzman and Jewish pitchers

Ken Holtzman won 174 games in his career; the 11th, in his rookie season, was his only matchup against Sandy Koufax, Jewish rookie lefty pitcher vs. Jewish all-time great lefty pitcher. Holtzman was better on September 25, 1966, the day after Yom Kippur. Holtzman and the Cubs dealt Koufax the 87th and final regular-season loss of his career. Holtzman’s Cubs scored twice in the first inning, the second on an error. Koufax’s Dodgers didn’t get a hit until the ninth inning, when Dick Schofield led off with a single. The Dodgers got a second, and a run, when Maury Wills’ single knocked in Schofield, and advanced pinch-runner Willie Crawford, who came on after Al Ferrera walked, to second. But Willie Davis lined to second baseman Glenn Beckert, who turned it into an unassisted double play, and the Cubs won, 2-1. Koufax pitched a complete-game (one of six straight in a 22-day span to finish the 1966 regular season, in case there’s any question why he retired) allowing four hits, walking two and fanning five; he made just three more starts in his career, winning the pennant for the Dodgers in the final game of the regular season and losing in the World Series when center fielder Willie Davis misplayed two fly balls in the sixth inning of Game 2. (As Dodgers fans booed Davis off the field, Koufax comforted him.) Holtzman pitched a complete-game two-hitter, walking two and fanning eight. It was the ninth complete game of the 127 Holztman threw; the 135th of the 137 Koufax threw. From stljewishlight.org: “‘Holtzman said he chatted with Koufax when the Cubs played on the NBC Game of the Week and Koufax worked as a broadcaster. Holtzman said he doesn’t recall discussing their 1966 showdown, ‘but we did discuss our favorite kosher delis around the country.’”

Ken Holtzman won more games than any other Jewish pitcher, even Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax, as was duly noted in the lead of every obit on Holtzman when he died last month. But it comes with a caveat.

Holtzman also lost more games than any other Jewish pitcher.

Pete Rose, who has the most hits in MLB history, can empathize. Guess who’s made the most outs.

Holtzman won 174 games, nine more than Koufax. He lost 150, 63 more than Koufax.

That’s no knock on Holtzman but a testament to Koufax, who wasn’t even top five in losses. Dave Roberts (125), Jason Marquis (118), Barney Pelty (117) and Steve Stone (93) all lost more. There’s something to be said for a .655 winning percentage.

But Holtzman’s career was certainly one to kvell about, inevitable and unfair comparisons to Koufax aside.

Holtzman pitched two no-hitters; Koufax pitched four, but he struck out 43 batters in those four games, almost 11 per no-hitter. Holtzman no-hit the Braves on August 19, 1969 without striking anyone out, the only time that’s been done since 1923. Even Koufax couldn’t do that. Holtzman got 12 outs on fly balls to the outfield; it didn’t hurt that the wind was blowing in at Wrigley Field, especially when Hank Aaron hit one into it (Holtzman to mlb.com: “I had one pitch, the fastball, and I didn’t think I was too fast”).

Holtzman won six games in the postseason, including two in league championship series. That’s two more than Koufax, if perhaps because they weren’t played until three years after he retired. Holtzman might have won more, but Yankees manager Billy Martin declined to use him in the 1976 or 1977 postseason. By 1977 Holtzman was so rarely used by Martin — 11 starts, 71.2 innings, just three appearances and 5.1 innings after the All-Star break — that a New York Times headline called him the Designated Sitter.

(More than a decade ago Reggie Jackson said of Martin: “I did not accept the way he managed Ken Holtzman. I thought there was anti-Semitism there. … I struggled to have respect for Billy as a person and had it reinforced with the anti-Semitism that I witnessed.” Reggie may well be right, though in Martin’s defense, Holtzman did have a 4.64 Yankees ERA, 5.78 in 1977.)

Koufax and Holtzman is a pretty good top of the rotation for any team. When Ann Nelson asked for something light to read in the movie Airplane, Julie Hagerty said, “How about this leaflet: Famous Jewish Sports Legends?” Holtzman and Koufax belied that stereotype.

As for the rest of a mythical all-Jewish pitching staff for a mythical World Baseball Classic, it’s not bad either.

• Sandy Koufax: Had an 0.95 World Series ERA. In his three World Series losses, the Dodgers scored one run. He had significantly more difficulty with Mr. Ed. (link here)
• Ken Holtzman: His 2.30 ERA might seem high compared to Koufax’s, but the A’s might not have won three straight World Series without him. During that 1972-74 span, Holtzman won 59 games in the regular season, had a 2.85 ERA, threw 41 complete games and averaged 272.2 innings per season; in the postseason he was 6-2 with a 1.97 ERA.
• Max Fried: He has a better winning percentage than even Koufax — .699 going into play on Tuesday, including 7-0 in the pandemic-shortened 2020. The postseason has been more difficult — 2-4 with a 4.57 ERA. Fried came within two innings of throwing a seventh no-hitter by a Jewish lefthander last week when he no-hit the Mets for seven innings. Reliever Raisel Iglesias lost the no-hitter in the ninth. When Fried started against the Orioles Dean Kremer last season, it was the first matchup of Jewish starting pitchers since 1977 (Holtzman vs. Dave Roberts).
• Steve Stone: Not a bad rotation when the fourth starter is a Cy Young winner. Stone earned his in 1980 when he won 25 games, the most by a pitcher not named Bob Welch (27, 1990) since Ron Guidry won 25 in 1978 (and Guidry needed a 163rd game, the playoff win over the Red Sox, to get to 25). The 25-win season pushed Stone over 100, but was pretty much the end of his career. He pitched just 62.2 innings in 1981 because of injuries, won four more games and retired with 107 career wins.
• Barney Pelty: His career 2.63 ERA is lower even than Koufax’s 2.76, but don’t be too impressed. Pelty pitched from 1903-1912 before the home run was in vogue, and he yielded just 22 longballs in 1,908 innings. Twenty-two home runs allowed would be a season’s worth today, not a career’s worth. Pelty had ERAs of 1.59 in 1906 and 1.99 in 1908, but his career ERA was strictly league average. Nicknamed the Yiddish Curver, he retired with a 100 ERA+.
• Larry Sherry: He saved 82 games, more than any Jewish reliever. Way more, according to the jewishbaseballmuseum.com — Lloyd Allen is next with 22. Sherry is best remembered for his relief work in the 1959 World Series, but despite a 2.19 ERA in 94.1 innings, he saved just three games that season, one more than he did in the World Series. In the 1959 Series, Sherry saved Games 2 and 3 against the White Sox, then won Games 4 and 6 (in between Koufax lost Game 5, 1-0). The year after the World Series, Sherry won 14 games, saved seven, pitched 142.1 innings and was 20th in the MVP voting. His single-season high for saves was 20 with the ’66 Tigers.
• Erskine Mayer: After Koufax, Mayer was the Jewish pitcher with the most 20-win seasons, winning 21 games each in 1914 and 1915. Those two seasons accounted for 46% of his 91 career wins. According to Mayer’s bio at sabr.org, he played in college for famed football coach John Heisman, though he had more problems with academics than tackling. Mayer flunked out. For the Phillies, he pitched 321 innings in 1914 and 274.2 more in 1915, winning the pennant in the latter year. Mayer had far more misfortune in the World Series in his career than either Koufax or Holtzman. Mayer lost Game 2 in 1915, 2-1, and got a no-decision in Game 5 when he was knocked out in the fifth inning. Four years later, he was on the Chicago White Sox team which threw the World Series. According to his bio at sabr.org, the Black Sox scandal, “probably contributed to his decision to retire.” 
• Barry Latman: If not for his pitching — 59 career wins, 16 saves — Latman has to be on the staff for his father-in-law. After Leon Wagner hit 91 homers for the Angels from 1961-63, they traded him to the Indians for Latman, coming off a 7-12, 4.94 ERA season. When Latman’s father-in-law heard about the trade, he was reported to have said: “It’s impossible; is that all they got for Wagner?” That would be the mother of all Jewish in-law reactions. According to Latman’s bio at sabr.org, the pitcher defended his father-in-law and said the line was his. Whoever said it was right. For the Indians, Wagner hit 31 homers and knocked in 100 runs in 1964, hit 28 homers in 1965 and 23 in 1966; for the Angels, Latman pitched two seasons and was 7-11, in line with his 59-68 career record (3.91 ERA).
• Craig Breslow: He majored in molecular biophysics and chemistry at Yale. If nothing else, Breslow pitching to catcher Princeton’s Moe Berg would be the smartest battery ever. Breslow was a mostly effective lefty reliever — 3.45 ERA (122 ERA+), .708 OPS against — who was rarely a stopper. In 574 relief appearances, he had just eight saves. Breslow pitched for seven teams, none longer than the Red Sox, for whom he is now general manager. Breslow was valuable setup man ahead of closer Koji Uehara on the 2013 world champions — 5-2, 1.81 ERA, .635 OPS against — though he had a weird postseason. Breslow pitched seven three-hit shutout innings in the ALDS and ALCS, but faced seven batters in the World Series and retired only one (three hits, two walks, one hit by pitch). His Series ERA is 54.00, his postseason ERA 2.45.
• Harry Eisenstat: The man who outdueled Bob Feller. On the day in 1938 Feller set a record by striking out 18 Tigers, he was outpitched by Eisenstat, who fanned three Indians. Normally a reliever — just 33 of his 165 career appearances were starts — Eisenstat started the first game of a doubleheader on Oct. 1, the last day of the regular season. Feller opposed him, and got 11 straight outs by strikeouts from the second through the fifth innings. The game was scoreless until the sixth, when Birdie Tebbetts doubled in two runs off Feller. Hank Greenberg, entering the doubleheader with 58 homers, fanned twice, doubled and walked against Feller, who fanned Chet Laabs in the ninth for strikeout No. 18 and out No. 27. Eisenstat took a two-hit shutout and a 4-0 lead into the ninth, gave up two hits and a run, and won, 4-1. Tebbetts, from Ira Berkow’s Hank Greenberg: The Story of My Life: “Feller was throwing the ball at about 105 miles per hour and with a curve at about 95 miles per hour. He just mowed us down. Yet we were able to score off of him. Meanwhile, Eisenstat was throwing the ball at about 81 miles an hour and struck out three guys. And he beat Feller. It was kind of funny.” On July 30 of that year, Eisenstat won both games of a doubleheader in which Greenberg homered in each game. Eisenstat was a pretty good reliever in an era the position was underemphasized. He was 25-27, saved 14 games and pitched 11 complete games, one-third of his starts. His 3.84 ERA seems high, but he had a career 116 ERA+ and four seasons of 130 or better.
• Scott Schoeneweis: All-time leader in career appearances for a Jewish pitcher, quite a feat for someone who overcame testicular cancer and Tommy John surgery before starting his professional career. His 577 games pitched is one more than Breslow’s 576. He won 10 games as a starter for the Angels in 2001 and pitched in as many as 80 games for the Blue Jays in 2005. Schoeneweis was such a lefty specialist those 80 appearances were good for just 57 innings. Given his career splits it’s easy to understand why: lefties batted .229 and slugged only .309 against Schoeneweis in his career (.612 OPS), righties hit .295 and slugged .470 against him. It added up to 12 years in the majors (1999-2010), 47 wins (57 losses), nine saves and a 5.01 ERA in an offensive era.
• Dean Kremer: Kremer doesn’t rank very highly on many all-time Jewish pitching lists, but he may soon. He’s won 25 games in four-plus seasons, but pitching for the Orioles, he should win more soon — if he can keep his spot in the rotation. Kremer is 3-4 this year, but with a career-best .674 OPS against and just 38 hits allowed (10 of them homers) in 50 innings. He has a 32.40 postseason ERA after being routed by the Rangers last year, but he should get a chance to improve that. Kremer was traded to the Orioles in 2018 by the Dodgers for Manny Machado. Of the five players acquired, Kremer is the last one who’s still an Oriole.