Josh Billings

Haskell Clark "Josh" Billings (September 27, 1907 – December 26, 1983) was a Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher who played for the Detroit Tigers. Amateur career Billings was born in New York City, New York and played college baseball at Brown University. While at Brown, he pitched for the Falmouth town team in the Cape Cod Baseball League during the summers of 1925 to 1927. Named team MVP in 1925, Billings was described as "studious" and "persevering", and a "brilliant player". Professional career He joined the Tigers in 1927 and made his major league debut on August 17, becoming the third youngest player in the American League that season. In 1927, he pitched in ten games and 67 innings for the Tigers, and was credited with five wins against four losses. His earned run average (ERA) of 4.87 was worse than the league average. He had more than twice as many walks (39) as strikeouts (18). Despite his underwhelming statistics in 1927, Billings was the Tigers Opening Day starting pitcher in 1928. The Tigers lost that game by a score of 4–1 to the St. Louis Browns at Briggs Stadium. In total, Billings pitched in 21 games and 110 innings for the Tigers in 1928. He was once again credited with five wins, this time against ten losses. Once again, he had a worse than league average earned run average of 5.12. And once again he had more walks (59) than strikeouts (48). He also had the fourth highest number of wild pitches in the American League, with seven. As a 20-year-old, he was still the eighth youngest player in the American League in 1928.