Wilbur Good came up as a pitcher, but he quickly started seeing time in the field, and within a few years was exclusively an outfielder. There aren’t many statistics available for Good’s time spent as a pitcher, so it’s unclear exactly why he gave up throwing the rock so quickly. Still, he did, and within a few years of playing professional baseball, he was your run of the mill corner outfielder. For one brief season, he toyed with being a two-way player.
Having been sent back to the minors following a pretty blah 1905 big league campaign Good spent part of the 1907 season playing for the Akron Champs in the C-Level Ohio-Pennsylvania League. That year good ole Wilbur, known as Lefty to his friends and enemies, appeared in a total of 38 games, 21 as a pitcher and the remaining 17 as an outfielder. Outside of his 12-6 record nothing is known about Good’s production from the mound for the Champs. We do know that with the bat Good slashed .257/?/.324 in 136 at-bats. He had 3 doubles and 3 triples, so Lefty had that much going for him I guess.
There’s really not much to say about Wilbur’s two-way season because there simply isn’t enough data to put any sort of statement on what he did that year. In the years that followed Good would only pitch in one more game, a gimmick appearance in his final year of pro ball, 1931. It may just be that Wilbur wasn’t a good enough pitcher to keep getting the ball handed to him. He also wasn’t that good of a hitter or fielder, making Wilbur not a two-way failure but an all-around player that has been easily, and rightly, forgotten.
Lead photo courtesy of Unknown – Unknown
Well that’s a rude write up. But I guess he’s a white guy so that’s ok.
Nah, he wasn’t a good player and got the same negative remarks any bad player would get. Nice try though.