Ernie McAnally

Starting Pitcher
Los Angeles Outlaws (CLE, BRO, MON, CHI, DEN)
​1971-1985

In his heyday Ernie “McA” McAnally was one of the most respected and feared pitchers in the United League. But how exactly do you measure the Hall of Fame credentials of a very very good starter who happened to toe the rubber during the Golden Age of UL pitching? Taken in the micro, Ernie was a stellar arm any team would have loved to have fronting their rotation. Taken in the macro, he was perhaps the definition of a "journeyman ace" having pitched for more than a third (6) of the league’s now 16 teams.

Drafted in the second round (16th overall) of the 1971 draft, Ernie has more career wins (161) than any of the starting pitchers drafted ahead of him including #1 pick Vida Blue, #2 pick Jon Matlack and #4 pick J.R. Richard. After a couple solid if unspectacular years in Cleveland he was traded to Brooklyn where he immediately suffered a series of arm injuries and recovery setbacks that cost him most of the 1973 and 1974 seasons. Ernie was then shipped to Montreal part way through the 1975 season. It was for the Voyageurs that his true potential began to show as he racked up his first double digit (14) win campaign but it took another trade, this time to the Chicago Colts, to help cement McA among the league’s elite pitchers.

Ernie’s best stretch as a starter came between 1978 and 1982 when he took the bump for the Colts and the L.A. Outlaws. During those years he tallied 85 of his career 161 victories, an average of 17 wins a season. In 1978 he led the league in wins, ERA, and H/9, going 20-6 with a 2.01 ERA, yet finished second in Cy Young voting to Boston’s Don Wilson, a controversial choice bemoaned by many around Chicago, and the league, for that matter. The UL gods set things right the following season as Ernie was awarded the 1979 Cy Young Award after he went 18-6 with a 2.43 ERA. Perhaps the highlight of the five season stretch was 1981. During that year he spun a sparkling 14-6 record with a 2.68 ERA and won three of his four postseason starts as he helped the Outlaws secure their first UL Championship.

Having managed Ernie during his peak years I firmly believe he deserves to be in the Hall, but if we’re measuring purely by grey ink and black ink than 161 career wins and 47.2 career WAR may not be enough for some hardline voters. But let us put on our “Imagining Caps” for a moment and consider what his career totals might have been had he not missed most of the 1973, 1974 and 1976 seasons due to a variety of arm injuries. I’d say it would be a safe bet he would have surpassed 180 wins, the win total of Don Wilson who was just elected to the Hall of Fame, and it wouldn’t be all that outrageous to argue he could have racked up close to 200 victories. Along with the wins during those three lost seasons would also come elevated career totals in all the other major pitching measures. If voting was based on how much UL GMs liked you and wanted you on their squad, than Ernie would be a shoo-in for the Hall and perhaps it will be that good will that gets him over the hump and into the HOF. (Lance Mueller)