Joseph Jerome McGinnity (March 20, 1871 – November 14, 1929) was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the late 19th and early 20th century.

[1] Including his time in the minor leagues, McGinnity won close to 500 games as a professional ballplayer.

[10] His family headed west, stopping in the Indian Territory on their way to Montana, where Hannah's sister struck gold in their coal mine.

[19] Combined for Montgomery and Kansas City, McGinnity had a 21–29 win–loss record, while walking more batters than he could strikeout, and allowing more than a hit per inning pitched.

[3] According to a Western League umpire, catcher Tim Donahue tipped McGinnity's pitches to opposing batters due to a personal feud.

[21] McGinnity also pitched locally for semi-professional teams in Springfield and Decatur, receiving a salary between $1 and $3 (between $35.22 and $109.87 in current dollar terms) for each game.

[3][21] During this time, McGinnity developed a sidearm pitch he nicknamed "Old Sal", described as a "slow curve",[22] which became a feature of his later success.

[25] Armed with "Old Sal", McGinnity compiled a 9–4 record for Peoria, allowing only 118 hits and 60 walks while striking out 74 batters in 142 innings.

With the ownership consolidation, Orioles player-manager Ned Hanlon, who received an ownership stake in the clubs, moved from Baltimore to Brooklyn and assigned many of his best players to Brooklyn, including Joe Kelley, Dan McGann, Hughie Jennings and Willie Keeler.

His 28 wins led the NL, while he ranked second with 48 games, third with a 2.68 earned run average (ERA), and fourth with 366+1⁄3 innings pitched.

McGinnity also pitched two complete games in the Chronicle-Telegraph Cup, as the Superbas defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates.

[34] He received a salary of $2,800 ($98,603 in current dollar terms),[3] choosing less money in an upstart league for the chance to be reunited with McGraw, who was player-manager and part-owner of the Orioles.

During a brawl that erupted during a game against the Detroit Tigers on August 21, 1901, McGinnity spat on umpire Tom Connolly.

Joe Kelley, star player for the Orioles and son-in-law of part-owner John Mahon, reported that the team owed as much as $12,000 ($422,585 in current dollar terms).

[37] Unable to afford that debt, Mahon purchased shares of the team from Kelley and player-manager John McGraw.

That day, Freedman and Brush released McGinnity, McGraw, Kelley, Roger Bresnahan, Jack Cronin, Cy Seymour, and Dan McGann from their Oriole contracts.

McGinnity did not hear back from Johnson, who had left his phone off the hook that night to avoid being contacted, and joined his teammates with the Giants.

[3][39] Jack Chesbro, pitching for the New York Highlanders of the American League during the 1904 season, set the current MLB records with 55 games started and 454+2⁄3 innings.

[3] After the season, McGinnity and some of his teammates threatened to quit the Giants, accusing Brush, now the Giants owner, of going back on a promise to pay the team a monetary bonus for having finished among the top three teams in the NL, as well as a share of the gate receipts from exhibition games, for which they were paid $56.35 ($1,911 in current dollar terms), though Brush allegedly had made over $200,000 ($6,782,222 in current dollar terms).

McGinnity claimed that he would pitch in the California League, as he had received a salary offer for "$1,000 ($33,911 in current dollar terms) more than [he] got in New York".

[45] In 1904, McGinnity had a 35–8 record, leading the NL in games (51), innings pitched (408), shutouts (9), saves (5), and his career-best 1.61 ERA.

[3] With the Giants competing for the pennant, McGinnity again won both games in a doubleheader three times in a matter of weeks.

[46] However, they did not compete in the 1904 World Series as Brush and McGraw refused to face the AL champion Boston Pilgrims, following their altercations with Johnson.

[3] This came in spite of a suspension McGinnity served for fighting Pirates catcher Heinie Peitz, which NL president Harry Pulliam described as "attempting to make the ball park a slaughterhouse.

[53] McGinnity purchased the Newark Indians of the Class-A Eastern League (EL) for $50,000 ($1,695,556 in current dollar terms) in 1909 from Frank J.

McGinnity sold the Tigers and purchased the Butte Miners of the Northwestern League in 1916, serving as player-manager and bringing with him several players from Tacoma.

[3][21] McGinnity joined the coaching staff of former teammate Wilbert Robinson, along with Kelley, for the Brooklyn Dodgers during the 1926 MLB season.

[3] Because of his nickname and connection to the foundry, John McGraw named McGinnity the starter for the Giants' March 23, 1904, exhibition game against the Southern Association's Birmingham Iron Men which was scheduled to raise funds for the Vulcan statue then being cast for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition that summer in St. Louis, Missouri.

At his own request, McGinnity was allowed to visit the downtown foundry and personally pour some of the iron into the moulds for the statue.

[70] Lawrence Ritter and Donald Honig included McGinnity in their 1981 book, The 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time.