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Ed Walsh enjoyed a 14-year big league career from 1904-1917. He pitched all but one of those seasons for the Chicago White Sox.

The Deadball Era hurler was six days shy of his 23rd birthday when he threw his first pitch in the majors in 1904. In his first two seasons Walsh split time between starting and relieving in his 40 appearances. The big right-hander completed 15 complete of his 21 starts and pitched 19 games out of the ‘pen.

In 1906 Walsh hit his stride. Each of the next 5 seasons he posted a sub-2.00 ERA. From 1906-1910 he averaged 23 wins per year. Walsh’s best season came in 1908 when he led the league in appearances , starts, wins, complete games, shutouts, strikeouts, and saves. No pitcher has matched his 40 victories of ’08 since.

The versatile Walsh led the league in shutouts three times, saves five times, and innings pitched four times. Walsh’s 1.82 ERA remains the lowest career mark in baseball history.

When interviewed for Larry Ritter’s The Glory of Their Times, Tiger Hall of Famer Sam Crawford said, “Big Ed Walsh. Great big, strong, good-looking fellow. He threw a spitball. I think that ball disintegrated on the way to the plate, and the catcher put it back together again. I swear, when it went past the plate, it was just the spit went by.”

For his work Walsh was elected to Cooperstown in 1946.

In the collection is a 3×5 index card signed by Hall of Fame pitcher Ed Walsh.