1968-1969
DICK ELLSWORTH   P

Richard Clark (“Dick”) Ellsworth was born March 22, 1940, in Lusk, Wyoming, the eldest child of Virgil C. Dick and wife Katherine Gertrude [nee Carpenter]. Having immigrated to Wyoming from Nebraska with his parents and four younger siblings some 20 years earlier, Virgil would pick up his new family and relocate over 1,200 miles to Fresno, California when Dick was only three years of age.

Dick was a major contributor to the Fresno High squad that, to this day, is considered one of the greatest California prep baseball teams of all time. Dick was the unquestioned ace, compiling a 15-0 record for a team that featured four other players who would sign professional baseball contracts – including future Cincinnati Reds hurler Jim Maloney and major-league catcher/manager Pat Corrales (Fresno High alumni from other graduating classes include, but are not limited to, one-time Mets hurlers Tom Seaver, Dick Selma, and Bobby J. Jones). The team drew considerable attention from prominent scouts such as former major leaguers Dolph Camilli, Carl Hubbell, and Jerry Coleman as well as Babe Herman and Gene Handley.

Three days after graduating from high school, Dick unexpectedly found himself hurling from the major-league mound at Comiskey Park in Chicago. The original intent was for Dick to accompany the Cubs under the strict tutelage of pitching coach Freddy Fitzsimmons, but manager Bob Scheffing decided to showcase their $60,000 bonus baby for an inning or two in the annual charity event with the crosstown Chicago White Sox. Instead, Dick twirled a four-hit, complete-game shutout which immediately caused the Cubs to rethink their strategy with the 18-year-old lefty.

A move made as much from desperation as calculation caused Ellsworth to take the mound in Crosley Field against the Cincinnati Reds, but the results were far different from the exhibition against the White Sox six days earlier. Dick did not survive the third inning, giving up four runs (three of which scored when reliever Glen Hobbie yielded a grand slam), two wild pitches, and a hit batsman, prompting a one-way ticket to the Cubs’ Double-A affiliate in Fort Worth, Texas for the lefty just weeks removed from his high school graduation.

In 1959, the Fort Worth Cats – along with the Dallas Rangers and Houston Buffs – bolted from the Texas League to the American Association (Triple-A) when the latter expanded for one season from eight to 10 teams.

Dick paced the Cats resulting in his recall to the Cubs when major-league rosters were expanded in early September.

In 1960, he was assigned to the Cubs’ newly-affiliated Houston Buffs. The Cubs were convinced that there were no further challenges for Dick in the minors, and he was promptly recalled to the parent team. The promotion provided immediate dividends as Dick won his first two starts in fine fashion, carving a 0.56 ERA in 16 innings pitched.

In many respects the 1961 campaign mirrored Dick’s efforts of the preceding year, losing some heartbreaking outings while placing among the team leaders in many of the same pitching categories.

In 1962, the Chicago Cubs posted its first 100-loss season in franchise history, spared a last-place finish by the mere existence of the expansion New York Mets. Ellsworth joined three other National League pitchers (all from the expansion Mets or Houston Colt .45s) in posting his first 20-loss season.

As terrible as the Cubs were in 1962, the team abruptly realized its first winning season in 17 years during the following campaign. Entering the 1963 season, confidence in Dick still abounded from all sectors, including the lefty himself. He thereupon went out and led the Cubs during the exhibition season, turning in a snappy 0.90 ERA for 20 spring innings.

With this additional pitch as part of his overall arsenal, Dick would go on to post one of the most productive seasons in Cubs franchise history, and relish in the accolades that followed. Remarkably, the 22 victories, accompanied by a 2.11 ERA.

From the season’s outset, Ellsworth amassed league-wide recognition for his numerous accomplishments. He would go on to garner votes toward the N.L.’s Most Valuable Player Award, and lockdown the league’s Comeback Player of the Year Award. His hometown proceeded to induct both Dick and Jim Maloney into the Fresno County Athletic Hall of Fame.

For the first time in nearly two decades, the Cubs entered the 1964 season with realistic expectations of taking part in the pennant chase. But they suffered a 19-34 tailspin beginning in late July, effectively eliminated the team from any pennant consideration.

The team’s late season futility would be mirrored in Dick’s mound efforts as well. Dick started the season strong, and a 10-6, 2.87 ERA would result in his selection to the National League’s All-Star squad – the only such honor in his 13-year major-league career. Not long after returning from the Midsummer Classic, Dick’s numbers abruptly turned south. His 1965 campaign was remarkable in the manner by which it so closely resembled the preceding season.

That winter the Cubs made a bold move in an attempt to end the continuing frustration by hiring Leo Durocher to take the helm. Only 13 games into the 1966 season, the Cubs took possession of last place and never relinquished that hold.

While Ellsworth posted his second-ever 20-loss season. In so doing, Dick joined the ranks of only 16 other major league pitchers who, since 1920, have posted two such campaigns. In compiling 22 losses overall, Dick holds the franchise post-1900 record for losses by a left-handed hurler in a season, as well as setting the mark for hits allowed (321), runs allowed (150), and earned runs allowed (119).

On December 7th the Cubs traded him to the Philadelphia Phillies for righty Ray Culp and cash considerations in what amounted to a swap of each team’s once-prized bonus babies.

The trade united Ellsworth with an already strong pitching staff that included future Hall of Fame inductee Jim Bunning, fellow-lefty Chris Short, and former teammate and childhood idol Larry Jackson (who, along with Bob Buhl, was traded to the Phillies in April 1966).

Indeed, the pitching thrived, with a team ERA of 3.10 that ranked fourth in the National League. Dick struggled likewise but there were the occasional glimpses of the former 22-game winner, as demonstrated by the six-hit shutout hurled against his late teammates, resulting in his first career shutout since 1964. Dick recorded a 0-6 mark with an unenviable 10.53 ERA, resulting in Dick being relegated to the bullpen throughout various parts of the campaign.

On December 15, 1967, Dick was packaged 300 miles north to the Red Sox, thereby initiating his American League endeavors. Historic Fenway Park is alleged to be the graveyard for left-handed pitchers, but Dick arguably posted his second-best major-league campaign while hurling for the Red Sox in 1968. Boston was still basking in the wake of the “Impossible Dream” season – the 1967 American League Championship. The acquisition of Ellsworth, coming on the heels of gaining Ray Culp 15 days earlier (the very same Ray Culp traded to the Cubs for Dick less than a year earlier) was deemed to have met that goal.

Nine days after Dick was acquired, the Sox’ reigning American League Cy Young Award winner, Jim Lonborg, was severely injured in a skiing accident at Lake Tahoe, and Boston suddenly found itself in need of an Opening Day starter. That role was filled by Ellsworth on the merits of a solid spring training that included a strong seven-inning victory over the team that had just discarded him, and on April 10th Dick twirled a complete-game Opening Day victory over the Tigers in Detroit that would set the tone for his fine season overall. His 16 victories qualified him for the most wins by a Boston lefty in 15 years, and further anointed him co-leader in team victories with Ray Culp (largely on the strength of a combined 23-4 to finish the season). Interestingly, the events surrounding Ellsworth and Culp, beginning December 7, 1966, are believed to be a one-time-only sequence in the history of the game, as no other pair of pitchers is known to have been traded for one another, only to become teammates the following season in which they both became co-leaders in that team’s victories (adding to this unique twist is the fact that the pair were not only close friends, they were also roommates when the team travelled on the road).

It is also worth pointing out that Ellsworth lost approximately four or five starting assignments when he contracted mumps in August (prompting roomie Culp and 11 other teammates to receive immediate immunization shots). At the time he was hospitalized, Dick was in the midst of a 6-1 run. After a layoff of more than three weeks, he picked up right where he left off, concluding the season with a comparable 5-1 mark (a fine 2.40 ERA accompanied this entire run that started on July 1). Considering the pace he’d set for himself over this extended period, one wonders if Dick could’ve gone on to win 20 games during the 1968 campaign had he not lost time while falling victim to the infectious disease. Still, his overall 16-7 mark placed him among the American League leaders in both wins and winning percentage while also garnering attention in a former haunt, as the Chicago baseball writers selected Ellsworth its chapter’s recipient of the William Wrigley, Jr. Memorial award for the comeback of the year.

Surprisingly, the 1969 campaign was barely underway when Dick was traded again – this time to the Cleveland Indians in a large six-player transaction. Whether it was a case of velocity lost, the results of a nagging injury – Dick sustained a chipped bone in his left ankle during spring training that was aggravated again in April – or another reason altogether, the 1969 campaign came eerily close to statistically replicating the poor season Dick had with the Phillies in 1967.

Although Ellsworth was not traded during the offseason, he was eventually purchased by the Milwaukee Brewers during the 1970 campaign, marking Dick’s fifth different team in as many years. He closed out his career with a .456 winning percentage, a number which would seemingly mar his overall record, but there remains far more to the story.

Through the end of the 2012 season, Dick still remains one of only six lefthanders to top the Cubs staff in wins since World War II.

Dick returned to Fresno after his playing career and became immersed in the real estate profession. The skills gleaned from his offseason work in sales and public relations with Serta Mattress Company while in Chicago mapped over nicely to a long and very successful venture (including attaining the level of Senior Vice President, Land Division) in commercial transactions with Grubb & Ellis/Pearson Realty.

Perhaps it is deeply imbedded in the blood, but Dick’s post-retirement connections with the baseball world could never be described as a distant relationship, evidenced by an ownership stake he has in the Fresno Grizzlies, a San Francisco Giants’ Triple-A affiliate in the Pacific Coast League since 1998.

Dick Ellsworth died of cancer on October 9, 2022 in Fresno, California.