Chris and Eric, please work your magic on this guy.

He's the last man born in the US to start at least 100 games as pitcher while making his MLB debut after the age of 30.

A quick survey of his NeL record according to Holway doesn't suggest he's a serious candidate, but I'll gather the data together and post it soon.

Thanks, Chris.

Connie Johnson Data

Born Dec. 27, 1922

Teams 1940 Indianapolis Crawfords, 1941-42 KC Monarchs, 1943-45 Military Service, 1946-1950 KC Monarchs, 1951 St. Hyacinthe (Canadian Provincial League), 1952 Colorado Springs (Western League), 1953 Charleston (AA) and Chicago White Sox, 1954-55 Toronto (IL), 1955 Chicago White Sox, 1956-58 Baltimore Orioles, 1959-60 Vancouver (PCL), 1961 Puebla (MxL)

Seasonal Record according to Holway and Riley (data 1940-48 Holway, 1950-on Riley for non-ML data.)

1940 No Data for Ind.
1941 2-2 for KC; #4 in team dec. (tie); -1.4 WAT
1942 4-0 for KC; #5 in team dec.; 1.2 WAT
1943 Military Service
1944 Military Service
1945 Military Service
1946 9-3 for KC; #1 in team dec.; 0.1 WAT; led league in wins and wp, 2nd in Ks
1947 1-1 for KC; #3 in team dec. (tie)
1948 2-2 for KC; #4 in team dec.
1949 no data for KC
1950 11-2 for KC, 2.17 ERA
1951 15-14, 3.24 ERA, 172 K (led league) for St. Hyacinthe
1952 18-9, 3.38 ERA, 233 K (led league) for Colorado Springs
1953 6-6, 3.62 ERA for Charleston, 4-4, 3.52 ERA for Chicago
1954 17-8, 3.72 ERA for Toronto
1955 12-2, 3.05 ERA for Toronto, 7-4, 3.45 ERA for Chicago
1956 9-11, 3.44 ERA for Chicago and Baltimore
1957 14-11, 3.20 ERA for Baltimore
1958 6-9, 3.88 ERA for Baltimore
1959 8-4 for Vancouver
1960 0-1 for Vancouver
1961 1-0 for Puebla

Career
29-10 in NeL play
77-44 in MiL play
40-39 in ML play
146-93 total

Here’s a first, rough career estimate

1946 232 IP, 115 ERA+
1947 78 IP, 90 ERA+
1948 92 IP, 90 ERA+
1949 161 IP, 97 ERA+
1950 230 IP 105 ERA+
1951 208 IP 100 ERA+
1952 195 IP 114 ERA+
1953 169 IP 100 ERA+
1954 203 IP 140 ERA+
1955 212 IP, 130 ERA+
1956 196 IP, 114 ERA+
1957 242 IP, 112 ERA+
1958 118.3 IP, 92 ERA+
total 2336 IP, 109 ERA+

I don’t see war-credit as likely for Johnson. He was only 23 in the 1946 season. He did pitch in the NeL in 1940-42, but he was clearly not a front-line starter during those years. He might merit about a season’s worth of credit, but that’s the most I could see.

Johnson looks to me like an excellent pitcher, but a notch short of serious HoM contention. He’s close enough, however, that further examination would not be amiss. This projection is rather off-the-cuff, with very little data for 1947-49 and little examination of league-context information for his minor league play. I’m sure fuller data can be gathered.

But the burden of proof, in my mind, would be on the argument that he _is_ a serious candidate.

With only 716 IP but a major league K/W ratio of 497/257, and major league ERA+ of 109, I think there's reason to believe he was pretty good and didn't get a full shot at showing how good he was. Sounds like the Negro League stats don't put him in HoM territory, but still he could be someone we missed.


"Connie (Johnson) was a good pitcher in the major leagues. He was a great pitcher in the Negro Leagues. No comparison. He threw hard for the Monarchs. Hard. He had good control. Could have won twenty games in the big leagues. Oh yeah. Could have won twenty games every year. That's Connie Johnson." - Former Major Leaguer Buck O'Neil in the Lexington Herald-Leader (Joe Posnanski, 12/01/2004)