Rey Kremer: The Best Bucco Righty You Don't Know

Ray Kremer spent his prime pitching years tossing in the Pacific Coast League, and after a decade was beginning to doubt that he would ever get the call to the show.

He twirled mainly for his hometown Oakland Oaks, tossing over 2,100 frames with 214 wins. But our Golden State (and ager!) was considered a "warm weather" pitcher due to his rheumatism, which was easier to deal with in the sunny climes of California. Eventually he was spotted by scout Joe Devine, who sold Kremer's arm to Barney Dreyfuss and then it was off to Pittsburgh.

(from Pittsburgh Baseball Hero Deck)

The Pirates sent IF Spencer Adams with pitchers Earl Kunz & George Boehler and the tidy sum of $20,000 to Oakland for the righty. He started out on a rocky road, bumping heads with Dreyfuss because Kremer thought, as did many players of the era, that he deserved a cut of any sales price. But the team and he got over it; Ray spent the next decade (1924-33) as a Pirate.

Kremer had a great beginning to his big-league career as a 31-year-old rookie. He posted an 18-10 slate in 1924, then followed that with seasons of 17-8, 20-6 and 19-8. He was third in the vote for the NL's most valuable player in 1926 and led the NL in ERA from 1926-27.

The Pirates won a pair of pennants during that stretch. Kremer split two complete games in the 1925 World Series against the Washington Senators. After winning Game Six behind a six-hitter, Ray followed with 4-1/3 IP of scoreless relief in Game Seven, allowing the Pirates to rally in the rain against Walter "Big Train" Johnson and take a 9-7 win, with Ray credited with the victory. He had less luck in 1927, as did the team, which was swept by the "Murderer's Row" Yankees.

Ray Kremer 1933 Goudey

Kremer was on top of his game in 1930 at the age of 37, leading the league in wins (20), games started (38) and innings pitched (276) even though his ERA (5.26) was the worst of his career. Baseball, go figure. He bounced back with a 3.33 ERA the nest season, but just 11 wins as run support was hard to find. But in 1932, age caught up with Remy, and in 1933 he was kept around for seven games and was done in July. He went back to the Oakland Oaks for a couple of seasons before retiring and taking a mailman's route while waiting for a coaching call that never came.

For his Bucco career, he compiled an 143–85/3.76 slash in 308 appearances (247 starts). Kremer's 143 wins with rank him eighth in franchise history, his .627 winning percentage ranks seventh, and his 1,954- 2⁄3 innings pitched rank tenth. And on a final note, he was a man of many names in Pittsburgh - "Ray" was short for Remy, the newspapers called him the “Frenchman” because of his ancestry (both parents were born in France), and he also went by “Wiz”/”Bush Wiz” as a nod to his long and impressive minor-league career. In fact, he was called just about everything but Remy.

(main research credits: Wikipedia, Gregory Wolf/SABR, and Baseball Reference)