Bill Donovan (baseball)

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For other people with similar names, see Wild Bill

William Edward Donovan (October 13, 1876 – December 9, 1923), nicknamed Wild Bill, was an American right-handed pitcher and manager in Major League Baseball. He played eighteen seasons with the Washington Senators (1898), Brooklyn Superbas (1899-1902), Detroit Tigers (1903-1912; 1918), and New York Yankees (1915-16).

Born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, Donovan made his major league debut on April 22, 1898. During his first three seasons, he was a seldom used reliever on Superbas teams that won consecutive National League pennants, in 1899 and 1900. With the departure of pitchers Joe McGinnity and Gus Weyhing from the team after the 1900 season, Donovan became a starting pitcher of 38 games, posting a 25-15 won-loss record with a 2.77 ERA in 351 innings.

Donovan moved to the American League's Detroit Tigers in 1903, where he would continue his pitching success alongside teammates George Mullin, Sam Crawford, and later Ty Cobb. In the 1907 season, the team won the American League pennant behind Donovan's league-leading winning percentage of .862, in which he went 25-4, a mark that remains the highest single-season winning percentage in Tigers history. Appearing in three World Series (1907-09), he went 1-4 with a 2.88 ERA.

He was player-manager for the Yankees from 1915 to 1917 and a coach for the Tigers in 1918. He made several spot appearances for the Yankees and Tigers, including one final start on the last day of the 1918 season, which he won. [1] He later served as manager of the Philadelphia Phillies for part of the 1921 season, being replaced after 44 games by Kaiser Wilhelm.

In 1923, while traveling en route to Chicago, Illinois, on the 20th Century Limited train, Donovan died when the train wrecked in Forsyth, New York. [2]

In 378 career games, Donovan had a 186-139 won-loss total and threw 2964 ⅜ innings with 289 complete games and a 2.69 ERA.

[edit] External link

• Baseball-Reference.com - career playing statistics and managing record

Preceded by Roger Peckinpaugh	New York Yankees Manager 1915-1917	Succeeded by Miller Huggins
Preceded by Gavvy Cravath	Philadelphia Phillies Manager 1921	Succeeded by Kaiser Wilhelm