Candy Cummings

Being a fanatical baseball fan, I have no idea how I have never heard of Candy Cummings (that's not exactly an easily forgotten name like Joe Smith). Born William Arthur Cummings, Candy claims to have been the first person to ever pitch a curveball in a game back in 1867, and for this he's in the Hall of Fame. Candy, or Mr. Cummings, pitched for such noteworthy teams as the New York Mutuals, Baltimore Canaries, Philadelphia White Stockings, Hartford Dark Blues, and the Cincinnati Red Stockings. Those were some great team names back in the day, weren't they? Career stats: 145 wins, 241 starts and 231 complete games (rubber arm?), 2.49 era, and 1.22 whip. My favorite stat, Candy pitched 2149.7 innings while only striking out 130 batters...were they batting with telephone poles? Candy Cum (is that appropriate?) even played some outfield when he wasn't pitching and was a decent batter with a career .212 average and 227 hits. I think it's time we pay our respects to the late William Arthur "Candy" Cummings for what he's done for the game of baseball and what's he's done for amusing names of the world...Thanks!