Josh Billings

Who was Josh Billings?

Haskell Clark "Josh" Billings was a Major League Baseball pitcher who played for the Detroit Tigers. He was born in New York City, New York and attended Brown University. He joined the Tigers in 1927 and made his major league debut on August 17, becoming the 3rd youngest player in the American League that season. In 1927, he pitched in ten games and 67 innings for the Tigers, and was credited with five wins against 4 losses. His earned run average of 4.87 was worse than the league average. He had more than twice as many walks as strikeouts.

Despite his underwhelming statistics in 1927, Billings was the Tigers' Opening Day starting pitcher in 1928. The Tigers lost that game by a score of 4–1 to the St. Louis Browns at Briggs Stadium. In total, Billings pitched in 21 games and 110⅔ innings for the Tigers in 1928. He was once again credited with five wins, this time against ten losses. Once again, he had a worse than league average earned run average of 5.12. And once again he had more walks than strikeouts. He also had the fourth highest number of wild pitches in the American League, with seven. As a 20-year-old, he was still the eighth youngest player in the American League in 1928.