Historic Photos: Calvin Coolidge, 1924 World Series

On October 4, 1924, President Calvin Coolidge threw out the first ball of the 1924 World Series between the Washington Senators and the New York Giants.  The series would end up as one of the most memorable in World Series history, with Washington tying the score in the bottom of the 8th inning of Game 7 thanks to a 2-out, bases loaded ground ball that took a bad hop over third baseman Freddy Lindstrom.  Washington would go on to win it in the 12th inning behind the relief pitching of Walter Johnson, with the winning hit coming on another ground ball that took a bad hop on Lindstrom (Giants players named Fred seem to have problems fielding the ball in extra innings in the final game of the World Series. See Snodgrass, Fred). In the end, though, Walter Johnson, possibly the greatest pitcher in baseball history, finally had his first and only World Series title.  Things would also end well for Calvin Coolidge - exactly a month after this photo was taken, he was re-elected in a landslide.

Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.

1925 Cy Young Awards

1925 American League - Stan Coveleski, Washington Senators

20-5, 2.84 ERA, 58 K

For once, there's a Washington Senators pitcher featured here whose name isn't Walter Johnson.  Johnson did pitch for the Senators in 1925, and they did win the AL pennant again, but this time their best pitcher was 1920 winner Stan Coveleski, who was just acquired from the Indians.  Although 35 years old, the future Hall of Famer had one of his best seasons, leading the league in ERA, and finishing second in wins.  He also had an impressive, league-leading win-loss percentage of .800, and finished third in WHIP (1.257), hits per 9 innings (8.589), and first in WAR (6.0) and ERA+ (150).  Along the way, he helped the defending World Series winners to win the AL pennant again, although he was the losing pitcher in two of the games in the World Series, which the Pirates ultimately won four games to three.

1925 National League - Dolf Luque, Cincinnati Reds

16-18, 2.63 ERA, 140 K

This was a tough call; it's hard to name someone as the best pitcher in the league when he had a losing record, but that was the case for Luque, the 1923 winner, in 1925.  Although other pitchers had more wins and better records, Luque was so far above them in every other category that it was hard to hold his record against him.  After all, a pitcher only has so much control over getting the win or loss.  In Luque's case, the Reds scored two runs or less in 13 of his starts, which accounted for over a third of his starts.  Ironically, he pitched best in games that his team scored two or fewer runs - his record was 3-10 in those games, but his ERA was 1.83, which suggests that it was bad circumstances, rather than bad pitching, that accounted for his sub-.500 record.  What Luque did do was lead the league in ERA (by a lot, with an ERA+ of 156), shutouts (4, 2 of which accounted for 2 of his 3 wins when his team scored 2 or fewer runs), WHIP (1.172), hits per 9 innings (8.134), and WAR (6.2).  He also finished second in innings pitched (291) and third in complete games (22).  Overall not bad for a pitcher who finished under .500.

1924 Cy Young Awards

1924 American League - Walter Johnson, Washington Senators

23-7, 2.72 ERA, 158 K

It had been a while for Walter Johnson, who had not won the award, or had even a moderately spectacular season in five years, but he had one of his finest years in 1924 at the age of 36.  At an age when most pitchers had since moved on to different careers, Walter Johnson won the Triple Crown and led the Senators to their first World Series title.  It was his third Triple Crown, and the second time (along with 1913) that he won the MVP Award.  In addition, it's the seventh time that I've chosen him for a Retroactive Cy Young, the same number of real Cy Young Awards that Roger Clemens has won.  He led the league in many other categories too, including WHIP (1.116), hits per 9 innings (7.552), ERA+ (149), and shutouts (6).  After 1924, Johnson played for three more seasons, and in 1936 was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame as part of their first induction class.  His 110 career shutouts are the most ever by a pitcher, his 417 wins are second only to Cy Young, his 3509 career strikeouts were first all-time for many years, and his ERA+ of 147 is fifth all-time.

1924 National League - Dazzy Vance, Brooklyn Robins

28-6, 2.16 ERA, 262 K

Walter Johnson won the Triple Crown in the AL, and fellow Hall of Famer Dazzy Vance easily did so in the NL, winning each category by a huge margin.  He had 6 more wins than anyone else (he could've stopped pitching after August 23rd and still have led the league), an ERA lower than anyone else by over half a run, and nearly twice as many strikeouts.  Vance had 262, followed by Burleigh Grimes's 135, and then Dolf Luque's 86.  He also led in WHIP (1.022), hits per 9 innings (6.947 - nearly a hit lower than anyone else), ERA+ (174) and WAR (9.1 - twice that of any other pitcher).  It was the third of seven consecutive seasons in which he led the NL in strikeouts, and he easily won the league MVP Award.  Although he was certainly a great pitcher, 1924 was definitely his best, and without it, it's very unlikely he would've ever made it to the Hall of Fame.

1919 Cy Young Awards

1919 American League - Walter Johnson, Washington Senators

20-14, 1.49 ERA, 147 K

It's the sixth such award for Johnson, who was actually better even than his numbers suggest.  Although he won two thirds of the Triple Crown, he finished fifth with 20 wins and a seemingly mediocre win-loss record of 20-14.  However, he did so on a Senators team that finished seventh out of eight teams in the NL, with a 56-84 record.  That means that Johnson alone accounted for 36% of his team's wins.  All of this makes it easy to imagine how good Johnson would've been if he had spent his entire career on contender teams, instead of pitching for a mostly mediocre to poor Senators team for his entire career.

1919 National League - Hippo Vaughn, Chicago Cubs

21-14, 1.79 ERA, 141 K

Hippo Vaughn and Grover Cleveland Alexander, the only two NL pitchers to win a Retroactive Cy Young Award in the past four seasons, were both contenders in 1919, but Vaughn's substantially more innings pitched and substantially more wins gave him the edge over Alexander's marginally better ERA.  Vaughn led in strikeouts, and he also finished second in ERA and wins, the only pitcher to finish in the top three of all three categories.  It was the second year in a row that he was the best in the league, but Vaughn quickly declined; he had a decent 1920 season but was 3-11 with a 6.01 ERA in 1921 and never pitched in the majors again after that.

1918 Cy Young Awards

1918 American League - Walter Johnson, Washington Senators

23-13, 1.27 ERA, 162 K

This was another contest that wasn't even close.  Johnson easily won the Triple Crown; the only category that was even close was wins, which Johnson led by one.  Considering Washington's mediocre offense, Johnson could've easily won more with a better team.  His ERA was more than half a run lower than anyone else, and he had an ERA+ of 216.  He also led in shutouts (8),  WHIP (0.954), and WAR (8.7), and it was the 5th time in his career that Johnson was the best in the league.

1918 National League - Hippo Vaughn, Chicago Cubs

22-10, 1.74 ERA, 148 K

It literally took a World War to keep Grover Cleveland Alexander from winning the Retroactive Cy Young Award for the fourth year in a row; he was drafted and spent most of the season in the army.  In any case, that fact doesn't take anything away from Hippo Vaughn, who won the Triple Crown and led the Cubs to the NL pennant.  However, Vaughn is probably best known for two other incidents, with one being getting stabbed by his father-in-law, and the other being his participation in the closest thing MLB has ever had to a double no-hitter, which occurred in the previous year when neither he nor Cincinnati's Fred Toney allowed a hit in the first 9 innings, the only time that has happened in MLB history.  However, he lost the no-hitter (and the game) in the 10th inning, but made up for it by winning the Triple Crown in 1918.  He led in many other major categories, including starts (33), innings (290.1), WHIP (1.006), and hits per 9 innings (6.7).  The counting stats such as wins, starts, and innings are all fairly low because the season was shortened due to World War I; his Cubs played just 129 games.

1915 Cy Young Awards

1915 American League - Walter Johnson, Washington Senators

 27-13, 1.55 ERA, 203 K

This season was simply more of the same for Walter Johnson, who at the age of 27 has already been the best pitcher in the AL four times by now.  Had it not been for Smoky Joe Wood beating him in ERA by 0.06 runs, it would've also been Johnson's second Triple Crown season.  As it was, he led the league in wins, strikeouts, innings pitched (336.2), shutouts (7), WHIP (0.933), and WAR (9.5).  He also had the highest ERA+, even higher than Wood's, at 191.  This was the third consecutive year that Johnson led the league in wins, and the fifth year (and fourth in a row) that he led in strikeouts.  Just another typical year for Walter Johnson.

1915 National League - Grover Cleveland Alexander, Philadelphia Phillies

31-10, 1.22 ERA, 241

Grover Cleveland Alexander might be one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history, but he is also the answer to an odd trivia question: "Who is the only baseball player named after one US president and portrayed by another in a movie?" with the presidents in question being Grover Cleveland and Ronald Reagan.  In any case though, by 1915 he had consistently been among the best pitchers in the league, but 1915 was his first great season.  Along with winning every Triple Crown category by a substantial margin, he led in shutouts (12), innings (376.1), ERA+ (225; 14th all-time), WHIP (0.842), winning percentage (.756), complete games (36), and WAR (9.8).  Although he would go on to have more great seasons, 1915 was definitely the best of his career, and one of the greatest of all time.

1915 Federal League - Eddie Plank, St. Louis Terriers

21-11, 2.08 ERA, 153 K

Unlike in the AL and NL, there was no clear-cut best pitcher in the Federal League in 1915, its second and final year of operation.  However, Hall of Famer Eddie Plank was overall the best, finishing second in ERA (first in ERA+ with 153), fifth in wins, fourth in strikeouts, and first in WHIP (0.991).  Dave Davenport was a worthy candidate as well, and I considered choosing him, but he was lower than Plank in most categories, although he led the league with 392.2 innings pitched, over 100 more than Plank.  However, his relatively mediocre 22-18 record, along with an ERA that was higer by 0.12 runs, suggested that Plank was the better pitcher.  For Plank, it would be his third to last season in the majors, and the only time that he would win a Retroactive Cy Young Award.  Interestingly, although he won over 300 games and is in the Hall of Fame, he never led any league in any of the Triple Crown categories.  Still, he was remarkably consistent over 17 years, averaging 19 wins a year, with an ERA of 2.35 and an ERA+ of 122.

1913 Cy Young Awards

1913 American League - Walter Johnson, Washington Senators

36-7, 1.14 ERA, 243 K

In 1912, Walter Johnson missed the Triple Crown by one win, but he won it in 1913, for the first of three times in his career.  It was the best season of his career, which says something considering how great Johnson's career was.  Along with the Triple Crown, he led in most other major categories, including winning percentage (.837), complete games (29), shutouts (11), innings pitched (346), ERA+ (259; sixth all time, sandwiched between 1968 Bob Gibson and 1995 Greg Maddux), WHIP (0.780; second in post-1893 baseball, behind only 2000 Pedro Martinez), hits per 9 innings (6.035), walks per 9 innings (0.988), and WAR (12.4, compared to second place 7.3).  His 1.14 ERA, aside from being a career high, is also the 6th lowest of all time, and he also set career highs with 36 wins and 11 shutouts. Plus, he did all of this while playing for a Washington team that only barely improved upon its hitting, finishing 5th out of 8 teams with a .252 team batting average.  Even Walter Johnson himself had a higher batting average, and he finished third on the team in home runs (with 2).

1913 National League - Christy Mathewson, New York Giants

25-11, 2.06 ERA, 93 K

At this point, Mathewson has now been the best pitcher in the league for five consecutive seasons, and I see no reason to deny him a sixth; his 1913 season, while not as great as some of his previous ones, was still enough to make him the best in the league.  There were others, particularly Pittsburgh's Babe Adams, who had good seasons, but Mathewson led the league in ERA, ERA+ (152), and WHIP (1.020).  In addition, he finished second in wins and WAR (7.6), and third in shutouts (4), although Grover Cleveland Alexander pitched as many shutouts (9) as Mathewson and the second place pitcher combined.  In any case, if the Cy Young Award had been given out during this time period, Mathewson would now be at eight, including six straight, according to my assessment.  No pitcher has ever won more than seven, and none have won more than four in a row.  However, it was the last great season for Mathewson, who pitched two more full seasons with the Giants.  After pitching part of the year for the Giants, he was traded to Cincinnati, where he pitched one game, against longtime rival and fellow Hall of Famer Mordecai Brown.  Cincinnati won 10-8 in what would be the final game for both of these all-time greats.  Mathewson finished his career with 373 wins, tied with Grover Cleveland Alexander for third all-time.

1912 Cy Young Awards

1912 American League - Walter Johnson, Washington Senators

33-12, 1.39 ERA, 303 K

The man who is arguably the greatest pitcher ever was one win away from winning his first Triple Crown in 1912; instead, Boston's Smoky Joe Wood had 34 wins to his 33.  But, although Wood had a great season, Johnson's was even better.  His incredibly low ERA was over a half a run better than Wood's second place 1.91, and his ERA+ of 243 is 9th all time, which, to put it into a modern-day perspective, is tied with Pedro Martinez's 1999 season.  He also led in WHIP (0.908), fewest hits per 9 innings (6.317), strikeouts, and WAR (11.8).  Just like in 1910, Johnson's Senators finished third to last in batting average though, which leaves open to speculation just how well he could've done with more run support.


1912 National League - Christy Mathewson, New York Giants

23-12, 2.12 ERA, 134 K

Nobody has ever won five consecutive Cy Young Awards (Greg Maddux and Randy Johnson have each won four in a row), but Christy Mathewson would've, had it existed during his playing career.  This was also the seventh time that he would've earned the award in his career; as many times as Roger Clemens won it.  In this case, there was no single pitcher who was clearly dominant in the AL, but Mathewson was overall the best.  He had the second-best ERA (behind someone who pitched far fewer innings), fourth most wins, second lowest WHIP (1.113), second highest ERA+ (161), and second highest WAR (7.2).  Interestingly, Mathewson finished 12th in MVP voting in 1912, second among all pitchers.  Only Rube Marquard finished higher than he did, although the stats seem to suggest that Mathewson was better; he led Marquard in almost every major statistic except wins.  Interestingly, it was a career year for Marquard, who is featured in this blog post of mine as being the worst pitcher in the Hall of Fame.  The same cannot be said for Mathewson.

1910 Cy Young Awards

1910 American League - Walter Johnson, Washington Senators

25-17, 1.36 ERA, 313 K

This one was a toss up between Johnson and Philadelphia's Pat Coombs.  Either one would have deserved to have won the award, but In the end I gave it to Johnson.  Both had very similar ERAs, with Coombs finishing second at 1.30, and Johnson third at 1.36.  However, when looking at their ERA+, it is actually reversed, with Johnson at 183.  Coombs also had a better record (31-9), but he was backed up by the league's best lineup, while Johnson's Senators finished third to last in batting average.  Johnson also led the league by a substantial margin in strikeouts (the first of twelve times that he would do so in his career), and finished ahead of Coombs in WHIP (0.914), starts (42), complete games (38) and innings pitched (370).  It was the first of many great seasons for Johnson, and the first time in four years that he actually finished the season with a winning record; the previous year he had been 13-25 despite a respectable 2.22 ERA.

1910 National League - Christy Mathewson, New York Giants

27-9, 1.89 ERA, 184 K

For the second year in a row, Christy Mathewson and Mordecai Brown were the top two pitchers in the NL, but once again I have to give the edge to Mathewson, who became the best pitcher in the league for the third consecutive year and the fifth time in his career.  It wasn't quite as good of a season as his previous ones were, but it was still enough to be the best; he led the league in wins, finished third in ERA, second in WHIP (1.106), second in ERA+ (157), and first in WAR (7.2, a win higher than anyone else).  Brown also had a good season; he finished ahead of Mathewson in ERA, although Mathewson's ERA+ was ahead of his, and Brown pitched fewer innings.