Jamie Moyer is Eppa Rixey's equal

The lefthanded pitcher whose once-record win total Jamie Moyer tied last night had a resumé that contained considerably more than those 266 victories.

While Moyer, the Phillies' 47-year-old lefthander, is one of baseball's most intriguing figures, his story reads like a mundane child's tale when compared to the novel that was Eppa Rixey's life.

Rixey was the son of a wealthy Virginia banker, the nephew of the nation's surgeon general. At 6-foot-5, when he arrived in Philadelphia in 1912, he was the game's tallest player. He not only graduated with a degree in chemistry from the University of Virginia but earned a master's as well. He taught Latin in a Washington high school in the off-seasons, served as an officer in a chemical-warfare unit during World War I and wrote serious poetry.

And when the Phillies traded the future Hall of Famer to Cincinnati in 1921, one of the two players they got in exchange would, 27 years later, coach the Eagles to their first NFL championship.

Still Rixey's belated election to the Hall of Fame, a month before he died in 1963, has continually been cited whenever seemingly more deserving candidates are left out.

While Rixey's 266 victories were a record for National League lefthanders until Warren Spahn surpassed it in 1959, he also lost 251 games. (Moyer has lost 201.)

"Boy," Rixey said when he learned of his Hall selection by the Veterans Committee, "they must be scraping the bottom of the barrel."

Rixey was, by all accounts, a pitcher much like Moyer. He didn't throw hard but his control was excellent, he had a variety of pitches that he could throw for strikes and he could outsmart hitters.

He was born into Virginia gentry on May 3, 1891. His family, descended from European royalty, lived then in Culpeper, but they soon relocated to Charlottesville, home of the university Thomas Jefferson founded.

The tall boy attended a private school before he matriculated at Virginia, where his height made him a star on the basketball team, too.

Rixey was an outstanding student and when he wasn't in the lab doing experiments or on the field setting pitching records, he was writing sonnets and triolets.

"My first one," he said of his poetic bent, "was about the Rivanna [River] and the only rhyme I could come up with was banana."

Despite his baseball success at Virginia, Rixey was determined to become a chemist until he was persuaded to try professional baseball by a National League umpire, Cy Rigler.

When the Phillies offered him a $2,000 bonus and $900 a month to jump directly to the big leagues, he jumped.

He scuffled his first four seasons in Philadelphia, compiling a record of 32-38. In the 1915 World Series - the only one he would reach in his 21 seasons - he surrendered two inside-the-park homers in relief to Duffy Lewis and Harry Hooper in the Red Sox' Game 5 clincher.

A year after that, in 1916, Rickey had his one great season as a Phillie, going 22-10 and compiling a 2.39 ERA. A season later, he won 16 games, but lost 21.

Throughout his career here, Rixey taught Latin at Episcopal High in Washington during the off-seasons.

When World War I intervened, the Virginian enlisted and rose to captain in an Army chemical warfare division that fought in Europe.

Rixey was back in Philadelphia for the 1919 season, but manager Pat Moran, a mentor, was gone. The lanky pitcher chafed under the two men who followed Moran, Jack Coombs and Gavvy Cravath. His records, 6-12 in '19 and 11-22 in '20, reflected his unhappiness.

When the 1920 season concluded, the Phillies, who wouldn't contend again for decades, traded the 30-year-old lefty to the Cincinnati Reds for Jimmy Ring and Greasy Neale.

Neale, a speedy outfielder, spent just one season with the Phils. He would return 20 years later as coach of Alexis Thompson's Philadelphia Eagles and guide that Steve Van Buren-led team to NFL titles in 1948 and 1949.

Rixey prospered in Cincinnati. His old Phillies boss, Moran, was the manager there and he won 100 games there quickly, in just five seasons. In 1921, Rixey set a mark that might never be surpassed. In 301 innings, he allowed just one home run. A year later, his 25 victories were tops in the NL.

The Reds won no pennants during Rixey's time there, but he settled into a comfortable Midwestern life, starting an insurance agency that, with his grandson, Eppa Rixey IV, now at the helm, still exists.

While there, an Ohio sportswriter gave him the nickname Jeptha, apparently because it sounded vaguely Virginian and because he thought it went well between "Eppa" and "Rixey".

Like Moyer, Rixey was well-liked by writers, who dubbed the erudite lefty "the debonair gentleman of baseball."

After he was elected to the Hall on Jan. 27, 1963, he would use his newly won fame to his advantage in business.

His suburban Cincinnati insurance agency advertised that it provided "Hall of Fame performance for your insurance needs."

Rixey died Feb. 28, 1963, of a heart attack, the first time an electee had died before being inducted.