Two more in 1930
If crowds made you nervous the perfect place to be in 1930 was Fenway Park as the last place Red Sox had a bit over 444,000 shuffled through the gates. The team was awful. The park was a wreck with ruins from a 1926 fire never replaced. There was some good news, however, as the Red Sox had two pitchers lead the league. Trouble is, it was losses.
Milt Gaston and Jack Russell combined for 40 of the 102 losses that Boston registered. Both were right-handers who had reasonably long if not statistically successful careers. Russell pitched for 15 seasons and twice led the American League in saves while toiling for a Senators team that made it to the World Series in 1933. Russell also managed to become an All-Star in 1934 and led the league in games that season with 54.
Gaston first broke in with the New York Yankees in 1924, but was shipped to the St. Louis Browns were Gaston worked on perfecting his ability to lose games. Gaston was 15-14 in his first Browns season and then dropped 18 games the following year to “win” the loss title.
Gaston was sent to Boston where he immediately lost 19 games as a preamble to his 20 loss season in 1930. From there Gaston went to the White Sox for three seasons going 21-48 for a career 97-164. One positive is Gaston could swing the bat hitting a career .200 with six home runs and 75 RBI.
Alex Gaston – Milt’s brother – played for Boston when Milt was in the rotation so you did have a brother’s battery combination. Not quite Rick Ferrell and Wes Ferrell.
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