Candy Cummings was born on Wednesday, October 18, 1848, in Ware, Massachusetts. Cummings was 27 years old when he broke into the big leagues on April 22, 1876, with the Hartford Dark Blues. His biographical data, year-by-year hitting stats, fielding stats, pitching stats (where applicable), career totals, uniform numbers, salary data and miscellaneous items-of-interest are presented by Baseball Almanac on this comprehensive Candy Cummings baseball stats page.
"In the version of the discovery most often heard, (Candy) Cummings developed the curved pitch after watching the erratic flights of clam shells picked up on a beach near his Brooklyn home and flung into the wind. Martin Quigley, in his book The Crooked Pitch (1984), quotes Cummings, somewhat fancifully, it seems: 'I thought what a wonderful thing it would be if I could make a baseball curve like that.' As the story goes, he started to experiment with the curve in games played among boys in the neighborhood, learning the way that finger pressure and wind direction had a great deal to do with the result." - Author Joseph M. Overfield in Baseball's First Stars (SABR, 1996) [Candy Cummings Quotes]
Candy Cummings |
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Candy CummingsCandy Cummings Pitching Stats |
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| Year | Age | Team | G | GS | GF | W | L | PCT | ERA | CG | SHO | SV | IP | BFP | H | ER | R | HR | BB | IBB | SO | WP | HB | BK | HLD |
| 1876 | 28 | Dark Blues | 24 | 24 | 0 | 16 | 8 | .667 | 1.67 | 24 | 5 | 0 | 216.0 | 913 | 215 | 40 | 97 | 0 | 14 | - | 26 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1877 | 29 | Reds | 19 | 19 | 0 | 5 | 14 | .263 | 4.34 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 155.2 | 709 | 219 | 75 | 144 | 2 | 13 | - | 11 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Career | G | GS | GF | W | L | PCT | ERA | CG | SHO | SV | IP | BFP | H | ER | R | HR | BB | IBB | SO | WP | HB | BK | HLD | ||
| 2 Years | 43 | 43 | 0 | 21 | 22 | .488 | 2.78 | 40 | 5 | 0 | 371.2 | 1,622 | 434 | 115 | 241 | 2 | 27 | - | 37 | 22 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
Candy CummingsCandy Cummings Hitting Stats |
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| Year | Age | Team | G | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | GRSL | RBI | BB | IBB | SO | SH | SF | HBP | GIDP | AVG | OBP | SLG |
| 1876 | 28 | Dark Blues | 24 | 105 | 14 | 17 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 3 | - | - | 0 | - | .162 | .162 | .190 |
| 1877 | 29 | Reds | 19 | 70 | 6 | 14 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 | - | 6 | - | - | 0 | - | .200 | .243 | .271 |
| Career | G | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | GRSL | RBI | BB | IBB | SO | SH | SF | HBP | GIDP | AVG | OBP | SLG | ||
| 2 Years | 43 | 175 | 20 | 31 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 4 | 0 | 9 | - | - | 0 | - | .177 | .196 | .223 | ||
Candy CummingsCandy Cummings Fielding Stats |
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| Team | POS | G | GS | OUTS | TC | TC/G | CH | PO | A | E | DP | PB | CASB | CACS | FLD% | RF |
| 1876 Dark Blues | P | 24 | 24 | 648 | 38 | 1.6 | 36 | 9 | 27 | 2 | 0 | n/a | n/a | n/a | .947 | 1.50 |
| 1877 Reds | OF | 3 | - | - | 7 | 2.3 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | n/a | n/a | n/a | .857 | 0.00 |
| 1877 Reds | P | 19 | 19 | 467 | 40 | 2.1 | 37 | 6 | 31 | 3 | 0 | n/a | n/a | n/a | .925 | 2.14 |
| Career | POS | G | GS | OUTS | TC | TC/G | CH | PO | A | E | DP | PB | CASB | CACS | FLD% | RF |
| P Totals | 43 | 43 | 1,115 | 78 | 1.8 | 73 | 15 | 58 | 5 | 0 | n/a | n/a | n/a | .936 | 1.77 | |
| OF Totals | 3 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 2.3 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | n/a | n/a | n/a | .857 | 0.00 | |
| 2 Years | 46 | 43 | 1,115 | 85 | 1.8 | 79 | 20 | 59 | 6 | 0 | n/a | n/a | n/a | .929 | 1.91 | |
Candy CummingsCandy Cummings Miscellaneous Stats |
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| Baserunning Statistics | Other Positions | Common Hitting Ratios | Common Pitching Ratios | |||||||||
| Team | SB | CS | SB% | PH | PR | DH | AB/HR | AB/K | AB/RBI | K/BB | K/9 | BB/9 |
| 1876 Dark Blues | - | - | - | 0 | 0 | n/a | 0.0 | 35.0 | 15.0 | 1.86 | 1.08 | 0.58 |
| 1877 Reds | - | - | - | 0 | 0 | n/a | 0.0 | 11.7 | 17.5 | 0.85 | 0.64 | 0.75 |
| Career | SB | CS | SB% | PH | PR | DH | AB/HR | AB/K | AB/RBI | K/BB | K/9 | BB/9 |
| 2 Years | - | - | - | 0 | 0 | n/a | 0.0 | 19.4 | 15.9 | 1.37 | 0.90 | 0.65 |
Candy CummingsCandy Cummings Miscellaneous Items of Interest |
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| Team | Roster | Uniform Numbers | Salary | All-Star | World Series |
| 1876 Hartford Dark Blues | n/a | Undetermined | n/a | n/a |
| 1877 Cincinnati Reds | n/a | Undetermined | n/a | n/a |
| Candy Cummings Stats by Baseball Almanac | ||||

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