WILD PITCHES AND PASSED BALLS 1876-1993

by Clifford Blau, Member of SABR



Chart of wild pitch and passed ball rates














All data provided by Retrosheet




















Initial year in chart is 1892, last year is 1993


Earlier years omitted because of missing and possibly incorrect data


High team totals in passed balls are generally associated with knuckleball pitchers, unsurprisingly


Passed ball figure for 1900 certainly looks like it could be erroneous


Increase in wild pitches in 1936 AL is due in part to the work of three Philadelphia Athletics pitchers:



Stu Flythe, Carl Doyle, and Red Bullock combined for 28 wild pitches (and 116 walks) in 94 2/3 innings


Errors rather than wild pitches were charged to pitchers when the batter reached base on a wild third strike from 1950-1956






































Progressive team records:










Most Wild Pitches Fewest Wild Pitches Most Passed Balls Fewest Passed Balls



1876 46 1876 3 1876 109 1876 31



1877 52 1892 31 1878 103 1879 69



1878 58 1893 29 1879 150 1880 61



1879 67 1894 21 1880 135 1881 49



1881 72 1895 20 1882 136 1883 26



1882 76 1897 16 1883 213 1887 44



1883 81 1898 18 1884 200 1888 41



1884 126 1901 12 1886 203 1890 34



1886 128 1907 11 1987 73 1892 30



1915 68 1919 9

1893 28



1958 70 1921 8

1894 18



1965 83



1896 17



1970 91



1897 14



1986 94



1898 16









1899 13









1905 11









1906 10









1907 6



Extra data added due to different schedule lengths and changing standards 1920 5



Record for fewest passed balls in 1883 by Columbus may well be erroneous 1922 3



I'm rather suspicious of that 1876 wild pitch total of 3 for Chicago as well 1931 0



Only includes teams that played a full schedule