Sports History On This Day: May 22

May 22, 1884 – Pitcher Hugh Daily struck out 13 hitters. That may not sound like an amazing headline but what if you were told that at the age of 13 Daily lost an arm? As a lad in 1861, he was shot through the left wrist with a loaded musket during what was described as teenage horseplay at Baltimore’s Front Street Theater, which at the time during the Civil War was a Union armory.

Hugh “One-Armed” Daily as he was called was a heck of a pitcher, but was, even more, known for his temper. He has often recalled cussing and screaming so angrily that he would never be on the same team two years in a row according to SABR.org. 

His 13 K performance was when he was with the Chicago Unions of the Union League and Daily with Chicago teammates defeated Boston 7-1. The Unions also beat Boston the previous day with Hugh pitching 12 strikeouts. In six other games, he pitched with one day’s rest or on back-to-back days, and his record in those starts: 4-and-2.

This aggressive schedule caught up with him later in mid-June that season when teams started reeling off 10 and 12 hit games against him. The migrant pitcher ended his career in 1887 with a 2.92 ERA over 1410 innings pitched and a 73-87 record.