Quiz – Tom Glavine

Tom Glavine was among the finest pitchers of his time, compiling a distinguished 20-year, 300-win career likely to be recognized with his enshrinement in the HOF. Among Glavine’s many accomplishments was a season performance which, at the time, had not been achieved in either league in almost 60 seasons. What was this accomplishment?

Clues:

      • When Glavine became the ninth pitcher since 1901 to achieve this feat, he was (like most who had done it before him) past age 30
      • The eight pitchers preceding Glavine accomplished this feat within a span of just 23 seasons. None of them are in the HOF.
      • A tenth pitcher achieved this feat  before Glavine retired, becoming the oldest pitcher to do so. Like Glavine, he is probably destined for the HOF.
          • Besides Glavine, there is only one other lefthander among these ten pitchers

Congratulations (and welcome back) to Raphy, with an assist from Richard Chester. Raphy identified search criteria satisfying the above clues. The season I had in mind was Glavine’s 2004 campaign with 200+ IP, ERA+ >= 100, zero wild pitches and zero hit batsmen. The list of pitchers to do this since 1901 satisfies the above clues.

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Jim
Jim
11 years ago

Is it “punching Mark Lemke in the throat”?

bstar
11 years ago
Reply to  Jim

Did that actually happen, Jim? Never heard of that one.

oneblankspace
oneblankspace
11 years ago

In 2003, Glavine gave up 10 triples.

oneblankspace
oneblankspace
11 years ago
Reply to  oneblankspace

Which was the most since Ryan Dempster gave up 11 in 2002.

Hartvig
Hartvig
11 years ago
Reply to  oneblankspace

There had to be a lot of guys back in the dead ball era who did that though- of the top 20 career leaders in triples all but a handful played most of their careers in that era and only 2 of them had careers that started after 1920. Couple that with guys routinely pitching 300 and some even 400 innings and you have to have more than just 8 guys that gave up double figures in triples in a season.

Raphy
Raphy
11 years ago
Reply to  Doug

210+ IP, 0 WP, 0 HBP?
http://bbref.com/pi/shareit/YIlo4

Raphy
Raphy
11 years ago
Reply to  Raphy
Hartvig
Hartvig
11 years ago
Reply to  Raphy

Cha-ching! That’s got to be it!

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
11 years ago
Reply to  Doug

The last player might be Fred Hutchinson.

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
11 years ago
Reply to  Doug

How about 200 or more IP and fewer than 100 ER.

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
11 years ago
Reply to  Doug

# 15 continued. Along with 0 WP and 0 HBP.

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
11 years ago
Reply to  Doug

Doug: The only other thing I can find is fewer than 10 GF.

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
11 years ago
Reply to  Doug

The other stat is WAR > 2.0.

And how come if my reply is too short I am requested to submit a longer response whereas others have posted short comments and have had them posted?

Ed
Ed
11 years ago
Reply to  Doug

Is the other criteria ERA+ greater than 110?

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
11 years ago
Reply to  Doug

It’s got to be Al Smith who did it in 1943 for the Indians but I haven’t figured out what the other criterion is. The animal feeder was the Al Smith who was governor of NYS. And I don’t remember his funeral. I’m eating breakfast now, I will try to find the other criterion later.

I went to the PI under Pitching Seasons, selected 1924-1946, LH, WP = 0, HBP = 0, IP > 200 and sorted by date of death. Up came one name, Al Smith.

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
11 years ago
Reply to  Doug

He had 0 WP, 0 HBP and 0 BK.
Is Ken Raffensberger the other LH pitcher?

Raphy
Raphy
11 years ago
Reply to  Doug

Thanks for the welcome.

This probably isn’t what you had in mind,but I’m pretty sure it meets all of the original criteria:

200+ IP
No more than 10 relief appearances
0 HBP
0 WP

http://bbref.com/pi/shareit/Bg6Es

Hartvig
Hartvig
11 years ago
Reply to  Doug

????

Bob Smith had an ERA+ in 1926 of just 94 so that doesn’t meet the criteria.

John Autin
Editor
11 years ago
Reply to  Doug

And fittingly, Maddux was the next (and last) to do that.

Ed
Ed
11 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

Color me confused Doug. If Raphy’s suggestion produces a different list of pitchers how does that count but my suggestion in #23 gets rejected? Mine was closer to your original idea and leaving out Maddux isn’t actually germane since Maddux was only a clue, not actually an essential part of the criteria.

Ed
Ed
11 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

I see your point Doug but IMHO what should take precedence over anything else is what your original idea was. Accepting a completely different idea, one that is completely unrelated to what you were looking for and in many ways is superfluous to the accomplishment AND results in a different list of pitchers, doesn’t make much sense. If we were really, really far away from solving the quiz, perhaps, but we weren’t.

John Autin
Editor
11 years ago
Reply to  Doug

Milkman Jim Turner, the 33-year-old rookie, ERA champ and 20-game winner for the 5th-place Boston Bees!

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
11 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

And Al Smith, along with Jim Bagby, stopped Joe D’s 56 game hitting streak.

topper009
topper009
11 years ago

Most of credit should go to Milwaukee native Ken Keltner of course

Doug
Doug
11 years ago
Reply to  topper009

That 1941 season was Keltner’s first of four seasons leading AL third basemen in assists. He was 1st or 2nd a total of 6 times in each of putouts, assists and fielding percentage.

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
11 years ago

It looks like Paul Derringer holds the record for most consecutive IP without a WP or HBP. From 9-14-36 to 9-7-38 he pitched in 83 games for a total of 506 innings without either. For the games immediately prior to and after the 83 games it cannot be determined exactly when he had a WP or HBP. So his streak is at least 506 IP.

Brent
Brent
11 years ago
Reply to  Doug

Doug: Rapid Robert Feller is an example of how pitchers did not throw inside in the 30s and 40s. Although he could never be mistaken for someone with great control, hence the post 19th century record for walks in a season in 1938 with 208 (and his 1941 season of 194 is 4th (with 2 Nolan Ryan seasons in between)), he never hit more than 7 batters in a season, with only a career 60 hit batsmen (compared to 1764 walks, which is 5th alltime). I think those stats make it clear that when Rapid Robert missed the strike zone… Read more »