[1] Charles Radbourn (the elder) had immigrated to the United States from Bristol, England, to find work as a butcher; Caroline followed soon after.

As a teenager, Radbourn worked as a butcher with his father, and as a brakeman for the Indiana, Bloomington and Western Railway company.

He played in six games, batted .143, and never pitched an inning, but practiced so hard he developed a sore shoulder and was released.

Ownership brought in a new manager, Frank Bancroft, and made it plain: win the pennant or the team would be disbanded.

Radbourn, who had a reputation for being vain, became jealous as Sweeney began to have more success, and the tension eventually broke out into violence in the clubhouse.

Radbourn was faulted as the initiator of the fight and was suspended without pay after a poor outing on July 16, having been accused of deliberately losing the game by lobbing soft pitches over the plate.

From that point, July 23 to September 24 when the pennant was clinched, Providence played 43 games and Radbourn started 40 of them and won 36.

He began his warm up by throwing just a few feet, increasing the distance gradually until he was pitching from second base and finally from short center field.

[8] Radbourn finished the season with a league-leading 678.2 innings pitched and 73 complete games, and he won the Triple Crown with a record of 60–12, a 1.38 earned run average, and 441 strikeouts.

[11] Other sources, including Baseball Almanac, MLB.com, and Edward Achorn's 2010 book, Fifty-nine in '84, give Radbourn 59 wins.

There is no dispute about the 678+2⁄3 innings pitched, only over the manner in which victories were assigned to pitchers; the rules in the early years allowed more latitude to the official scorer than they do today.

Radbourn came in to relieve, and pitched shutout ball over the final four innings, while the Grays went on to score four more and win the game, 11–4.

He then jumped to the rebel Players' League and spent 1890 with its Boston club and, after the PL folded, played the 1891 season with Cincinnati, where he recorded his 300th victory before retiring.

After retiring from baseball, Radbourn opened up a successful billiard parlor and saloon in Bloomington, Illinois.

It is speculated Radbourn might be the namesake of the charley horse, a painful leg cramp not unlike that from which he suffered.