This Day in Reds History: The Apollo of the Box

On this day in 1859, Reds Hall of Famer Tony Mullane was born in Cork, Ireland. Mullane pitched for Cincinnati from 1886 to 1893 when the Reds traded him to the Baltimore Orioles in June. Known as the "Apollo of the Box" for his striking good looks, teams would often schedule "Ladies' Day" promotions for Mullane's starts.

Mullane threw right-handed, but developed the ability to throw with his left after an injury. Although he reverted to throwing right-handed after his injury healed, he would still occasionally toss a few pitches as a lefty, even switching during an at-bat. As fielding gloves were rare during his player career, Mullane would hold the ball with both bands before pitching to disguise which hand he was to use.

Unfortunately, Mullane was also a noted racist. While with Toledo in 1884, Mullane played with catcher Moses Fleetwood Walker, who was the first - and for more than 60 years, only - black ballplayer in the major leagues. While Mullane later called Walker "the best catcher [he] ever worked with", the pitcher also admitted that he would sometimes throw the wrong pitch per the catcher's signals in an attempt to hurt Walker.

After baseball, Mullane had a long career with the Chicago Police Department as a detective. He died in Chicago in 1944 at the age of 85.

On this day in 1919, the Reds hired Pat Moran as manager after the club could not contact former manager Christy Mathewson while Matty was traveling in Europe for the winter. In his first season with Cincinnati, Moran led the Reds to their first National League pennant, their first World Series championship, and their highest winning percentage (.686) in the modern era.

On this day in 1958, commissioner Ford Frick awarded the All-Star vote to the coaches and players after Cincinnati fans stuffed the ballot in 1957. The public selected seven Reds players as All-Stars for the 1957 Midsummer Classic in St. Louis.

On this day in 1959, the Reds traded Harvey Haddix, Smoky Burgess, and Don Hoak to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Whammy Douglas, Frank Thomas, Jim Pendleton, Johnny Powers, and cash.

On this day in 1978, Bowie Kuhn vetoed a trade between the Reds and the Oakland Athletics that would have sent Vida Blue to Cincinnati.

On this day in 1984, former Red Jeremy Hermida was born in Atlanta.

Ken earned both points yesterday. Below are the current standings. Any blank space means that a question or questions from that post remain unanswered. If you wish to answer one of those questions, please do so in this thread or a future TDIRH thread. In the event that I made a mistake in tabulating these standings, please let me know.

1) Tony Mullane has the third most wins of any pitcher not in the Hall of Fame (among players who have passed through the balloting process. That means that Greg Maddux, Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, and Tom Glavine are not included in this group). Which two pitchers are ahead of him? You must get both right to earn the point.