Charles Herbert "Red" Ruffing (May 3, 1905 – February 17, 1986) was an American professional baseball player.

After he lost four toes from his left foot in a mining accident, he became unable to run in the field, and switched to pitching.

He played in minor league baseball in 1923 and 1924 before making his MLB debut with the Red Sox.

[1][3] He was supposed to begin his professional baseball career in the Kentucky–Illinois–Tennessee League that year, but he found himself unable to run as fast as he previously could.

[3] Doc Bennett, the manager of a nearby semi-professional team, suggested that Ruffing should try to continue pursuing a baseball career by becoming a pitcher.

[1] Bennett helped arrange for Ruffing to sign his first professional contract when he reached the age of 18.

[1][3] The Red Sox assigned Ruffing to the Dover Senators of the Class D Eastern Shore League to pitch at the start of the 1924 season.

He had a 9–18 win–loss record with a 5.01 ERA in the 1925 season, as the Red Sox finished in last place in the eight team American League (AL).

[3] During the 1930 season, Bob Quinn, the owner of the Red Sox, was in debt and afraid he would lose the team due to foreclosure.

[18] On August 13, 1932, Ruffing threw a complete-game shutout and hit a home run in the tenth inning off of Washington Senators' pitcher Tommy Thomas to give the New York Yankees a 1–0 victory.

[23] Ruffing had a 9–14 win–loss record with a 3.91 ERA in the 1933 season, as the Yankees finished in second place in the AL.[24] He threw a one-hitter on June 20, 1934, against the Cleveland Indians.

[25] Two weeks later, Joe Cronin selected Ruffing for the 1934 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

[4] In June of that year, Ruffing pitched the longest outing by a New York Yankees pitcher, logging 16 innings in a complete game win against the Cleveland Indians.

[30] His 3.85 ERA was the sixth-best in the league, and his 20 wins tied him for third place, with Johnny Allen and Wes Ferrell, behind Tommy Bridges and Vern Kennedy.

[33] In a salary dispute with the Yankees, Ruffing did not report to spring training, and he held out at the start of the 1937 season, missing the first month.

[36] His performance earned him eighth place in AL Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award voting.

[48] He missed several weeks late in the 1939 season due to an arm injury,[44] but managed to start Game One of the 1939 World Series.

[53] He was named to the 1940 All-Star team, and Cronin, acting as manager, selected Ruffing as his starting pitcher.

[57] He had a 15–6 win–loss record during the 1941 season, and was named the starting pitcher for Game One of the 1941 World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers.

[72] Pitching for the Yankees as a spot starter in 1946, he had a 5–1 win–loss record and a 1.77 ERA when he suffered a broken kneecap from a line drive hit by Hank Majeski, and missed the remainder of the season.

In May, the White Sox removed Ruffing from their active roster after he was hit in his bad knee with another line drive.

[79] According to AL umpire Bill Summers, "[O]n account of Red Ruffing, the slider got to be the thing.

[80] A combination of his extensive career workload, the offense-heavy era he pitched in, poor early ERAs prior to a mid-career change in his delivery, and the fact he pitched his entire 22-year career in a single league, Ruffing holds the AL record for most runs and earned runs allowed.

This two second-place finishes were to Hall of Famer Lefty Grove, who dominated the 1930s with seven league leads during the decade en route to his all-time AL record of nine.

[82] Ruffing was an excellent hitter for a pitcher, good enough to frequently be called on to pinch hit[4] and even play the outfield in emergency situations.

After he retired from pitching, Ruffing stayed with the White Sox organization to instruct their players.

[86] In 1950, Ruffing managed the Daytona Beach Islanders of the Florida State League, a Cleveland Indians' affiliate.

[1] He returned to baseball again for the 1969 season, at the request of former teammate Don Heffner, who was managing the Denver Bears of the American Association.

Bob Feller wrote an article in The Saturday Evening Post in 1962, calling Ruffing, Satchel Paige, and Luke Appling the three most deserving players who had yet to be elected.

[96] In 2013, the Bob Feller Act of Valor Award honored Ruffing as one of 37 Baseball Hall of Fame members for his service in the United States Army Air Force during World War II.