43 Years Ago Today

[Jaypers]

Sept 14, 1968: McLain wins 30th

McLain gets 30th win

DETROIT, MICHIGAN - Denny McLain of the Detroit Tigers won his 30th game of the year on this date in 1968. The Tigers beat the Oakland Athletics 5-4. Reggie Jackson's second home run of the game had put the A's ahead 4-3. The Tigers scored two in the bottom of the ninth to win and give McLain the victory. The tying run scored by Al Kaline who had pinch hit for McLain.

Nobody has won 30 games since McLain did it over 40 years ago, and you have to go back to Dizzy Dean in 1934 for the last time it had been done before McLain.

Nineteen sixty-eight was the year of the pitcher. McLain finished with 31 wins, 28 complete games and an ERA of 1.96. In the National League, St. Louis Cardinals' hurler Bob Gibson finished the season with a 1.12 ERA and a remarkable 13 shutouts on his way to a record of 22-9. Starters today get multi-million dollar contracts for winning 13 games in a season. Gibson went that many games without allowing a runner to score.

http://www.todayinbaseball.com/cms/091410-mclain

 

[Bonds73]

How did Gibson lose 9 games that season? One of these days I will do the research and look into that.

 

[Hallsgator]

How did Gibson lose 9 games that season? One of these days I will do the research and look into that.

Because Wins and Loses for pitchers are meaningless.

 

[bigpapiMA32]

How did Gibson lose 9 games that season? One of these days I will do the research and look into that.

Because Wins and Loses for pitchers are meaningless.

This.

Gibson had quality starts in all nine of his losses.

 

[TomMurry]

How did Gibson lose 9 games that season? One of these days I will do the research and look into that.

I think the answer you are looking for is "Lack of Run Support."

 

[promodeltodd]

Keep a couple things in mind...


...the mound was a little higher at that point in baseball...


...and while it was 1934 that Dizzy won that many, look at how many ***** League pitchers won as many as 50 games in a season around that time including Dick "Cannonball" Redding who accomplished the feat not just by dominating, but dominating in pitching both ends of a double header in back to back days and winning them all...

...and we will probably never see another 30 game winner under the current rules and conditions of MLB...

 

[uniquebaseballcards]

That makes sense. There will be more 30 game winners if/when four-man rotations are used and/or the number of teams expands again.