On this day in 1905, Charles Herbert "Red" Ruffing was born in Granville, IL. He was 19 in 1924 when he made his major league debut pitching for the Red Sox and went on to pitch 22 major league seasons between that day and 1947, taking a two year hiatus to serve in World War II. He won 273 games over 4344 career innings, and was inducted to the Hall of Fame in 1967.
Ruffing isn't all that relevant to the Brewers right now, but he might be eventually. You see, Ruffing is (by rWAR) the greatest hitting pitcher of all time, and that's a title Yovani Gallardo has a small chance to hold someday.
Ruffing had 13.7 career rWAR as a hitter over 2083 plate appearances. At present, Yovani Gallardo is tied for 107th all time with 2.0 WAR in 204 plate appearances. Assuming he continues to hit at his career pace, Gallardo would eclipse Ruffing's mark sometime around his 1400th plate appearance. He'd have to pick up the pace a bit to make it happen, but if he could average ~80 PAs per season he'd get there sometime in his late 30's.
With help from the B-Ref Play Index, happy birthday today to:
- 1993 Brewer Joe Kmak, who turns 48.
- 2000-02 Brewer manager Davey Lopes, who turns 66.