Iowa Almanac
Iowa Almanac -- Wednesday, September 25, 2024
The last spitballer. More from the Iowa Almanac in a moment. Make plans to attend the annual Camp Courageous Waffle Breakfast and Open House Sunday September 29th from 8am until noon at the Camp Courageous Main Lodge. Enjoy made-to-order Belgian waffles and pork sausage and tour this unique facility. Train rides, live music, zip-line rides and more. See you for the waffle breakfast and open house Sunday September 29th at Camp Courageous near Monticello, Iowa, Camp Courageous.org. When urban Clarence Faber was a child in Cascade, Iowa, his father managed to tavern and ran the hotel Faber in their hometown. Young Faber, known to all as "Red," was athletic and by the age of 16 was getting $2 just to pitch in Sunday afternoon baseball games in Dubuque. Red Faber pitched in the major leagues for 20 seasons, all with the Chicago White Sox. Yes, that included the infamous Black Sox team in 1919, but Red was not involved in game fixing, he missed the World Series due to injury and the influenza epidemic of the time. At one point in 1917, he started and won three games in two days, and later that year, in the World Series, he received pitching decisions in four games, a record which stands to this day, oh and he won three of them. He won 254 games total in the big leagues despite playing for some poor White Sox teams in the 1920s. At the time of his retirement in 1933, he was the last legal spitball pitcher in the American League. He was 45 years of age when he retired and still holds the White Sox franchise record for most games pitched. Faber helped found Baseball Anonymous, a charitable organization that helped former players who had run into financial or physical problems. Red Faber of Cascade was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1964, a dozen years before he died on this state in 1976. And that's Iowa Almanac for September 25th. There's more online at IowaAlmanac.com. Until tomorrow, I'm Jeff Stein.