Bob Purkey

HandednessBats Right · Throws Right

Listed at6 ft 2 in · 175 lb

BornJuly 14, 1929 · Pittsburgh, PA, USA

MLB debutApril 14, 1954

Final gameJuly 26, 1966

Seasons13 (1954–1966)

Pittsburgh Pirates 1954–1957; Cincinnati Redlegs 1958–1959; Cincinnati Reds 1960–1964; St. Louis Cardinals 1965; Pittsburgh Pirates 1966

Percentile snapshot

1964 season — qualified pitchers

26.9

13.4

28.4

68.7

56.7

44.8

SHO

40.3

181

68.7

76.1

82.1

1.5

71.6

195.7

31.3

ERA

3.04

67.2

WHIP

1.175

65.7

K/9

3.59

FIP

3.88

32.8

FIP-

106.8

31.3

ERA+

119.5

67.2

sWAR

3.0

55.2

of 68 qualified 1964 pitchers (min 163 IP)

Career, era-adjusted

ERA+

102.8

49.4

sWAR

22.1

94.4

ERA+ measured against qualified careers (1,000+ IP), 1,334 of them; sWAR measured against every career in history, 24,011 of them. Only era-adjusted career stats carry a percentile — a raw career total gets a rank instead, because pooling the 1890s with the 2020s is a choice, not a measurement.

Season by season

Batting

Season	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	wRC+	OPS+	wOBA	sWAR
1954	36	33	26	2	2	1	0	0	4	4	12	.077	.200	.115	.315	-20.2	-15.3	.172	-0.2
1955	14	22	19	1	6	0	0	1	4	0	4	.316	.316	.474	.789	106.3	106.6	.346	-0.1
1956	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	0.1
1957	48	52	45	3	5	0	2	0	6	3	22	.111	.180	.200	.380	-1.5	4.0	.180	1.5
1958	37	94	81	9	9	2	0	1	4	6	42	.111	.170	.173	.343	-23.9	-10.7	.165	3.9
1959	38	77	66	8	11	2	1	1	6	6	34	.167	.247	.273	.519	35.4	36.8	.244	2.0
1960	41	96	83	6	11	0	0	0	5	7	44	.133	.200	.133	.333	-11.7	-7.1	.169	3.0
1961	36	90	80	6	8	2	0	1	4	2	32	.100	.133	.163	.295	-31.9	-22.2	.137	3.0
1962	37	119	107	9	11	2	0	2	3	4	56	.103	.134	.178	.311	-29.2	-17.6	.144	6.5
1963	21	49	41	3	4	0	0	0	2	4	22	.098	.174	.098	.271	-26.7	-19.8	.144	0.9
1964	34	69	58	3	3	0	0	0	1	1	33	.052	.082	.052	.134	-79.0	-61.7	.069	3.0
1965	32	43	35	3	1	0	0	0	3	1	21	.029	.056	.029	.084	-98.3	-76.0	.046	-2.3
1966	11	4	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	.000	.000	.000	.000	-126.4	-100.0	.000	0.7

Pitching

Season	G	GS	W	L	SV	CG	SHO	H	ER	BB	SO	HR	IP	ERA	WHIP	K/9	FIP	FIP-	ERA+	sWAR
1954	36	11	3	8	0	0	0	145	74	62	38	3	131.3	5.07	1.576	2.60	3.71	90.1	81.2	-0.2
1955	14	10	2	7	1	2	0	77	40	25	24	5	67.7	5.32	1.507	3.19	3.76	93.0	75.9	-0.1
1956	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	1	0	1	1	4.0	2.25	.500	2.25	4.98	134.4	164.8	0.1
1957	48	21	11	14	2	6	1	194	77	38	51	10	179.7	3.86	1.291	2.55	3.42	91.1	97.3	1.5
1958	37	34	17	11	0	17	3	259	100	49	70	25	250.0	3.60	1.232	2.52	3.88	93.4	115.5	3.9
1959	38	33	13	18	1	9	1	241	103	43	78	25	218.0	4.25	1.303	3.22	4.07	100.5	95.3	2.0
1960	41	33	17	11	0	11	1	259	101	59	97	23	252.7	3.60	1.259	3.46	3.87	101.3	106.3	3.0
1961	36	34	16	12	1	13	1	245	102	51	116	27	246.3	3.73	1.202	4.24	3.84	94.8	108.8	3.0
1962	37	37	23	5	0	18	2	260	90	64	141	28	288.3	2.81	1.124	4.40	3.82	95.2	142.7	6.5
1963	21	21	6	10	0	4	1	143	54	33	55	12	137.0	3.55	1.285	3.61	3.60	108.0	93.9	0.9
1964	34	25	11	9	1	9	2	181	66	49	78	16	195.7	3.04	1.175	3.59	3.88	106.8	119.5	3.0
1965	32	17	10	9	2	3	1	148	80	33	39	20	124.3	5.79	1.456	2.82	5.06	136.5	64.1	-2.3
1966	10	0	0	1	1	0	0	16	3	4	5	0	19.7	1.37	1.017	2.29	2.77	77.0	262.2	0.7

sWAR is the season TOTAL for a player who both hit and pitched: the record book carries one figure per season, not a split, so the same number appears on both lines rather than being counted twice.

Career totals

Batting

387

748

645

RBI

325

.1101

OBP

.1633

SLG

.1612

OPS

.3245

Pitching

G (P)

386

276

433rd-most career GS

129

383rd-most career W

115

392nd-most career L

464th-most career CG

SHO

478th-most career SHO

2,115

388th-most career IP

SO (P)

793

BB allowed

510

ERA

3.792

WHIP

1.2673

414th-lowest career WHIP

K/9

3.38

A total is called out only where it ranks in the all-time top 500; hover a figure for its rank and the size of the field it was ranked in. Ranks are absolute facts and carry no percentile — the population for "career home runs" would be an editorial choice, and the rank is not.

Best games

Batting

Date	Game	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	TB
1959-08-01	CHC @ CIN Gameday	4	1	2	1	0	1	4	6
1962-06-05	CIN @ STL Gameday	3	2	2	0	0	1	1	5
1959-05-27	PHI @ CIN Gameday	3	1	2	0	1	0	2	4
1955-06-05	CIN @ PIT Gameday	2	1	1	0	0	1	1	4
1958-06-05	CIN @ LAD Gameday	3	1	1	0	0	1	1	4

Pitching

Date	Game	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR
1963-08-17	CHC @ CIN Gameday	7.1	8	1	1	2	9	1
1954-09-06	PIT @ LAD Gameday	7.2	4	1	1	5	8	0
1960-04-24	CIN @ PHI Gameday	7.0	9	6	6	1	8	2
1960-06-21	LAD @ CIN Gameday	7.0	8	4	4	1	8	2
1957-07-10	ATL @ PIT Gameday	9.0	6	2	2	2	7	1

Ranked from our own play-by-play game log, which begins in 1901 — not from the record book, so a career played outside it shows nothing here rather than a short list.

Honors

3× All-Star

Major awards only — the awards table also records Player of the Week, and forty of those would bury seven MVPs. Hover for the years.