Tuesday Trivia: Most shutouts in a single season
 

Which two pitchers are tied with the most shutouts in a single season?

I'll guess Nichols and Keefe.

Great guesses, but Nichols' high was 7 and Keefe's was 8.

The two pitchers I am looking for had twice as many as Keefe.

Without looking I would never have guessed...

I know 1 is Grover Cleveland Alexander, the other I don't know, I'll guess Walter Johnson

Correct! Grover Cleveland Alexander is one of two players to have 16 shutouts in a season, which he accomplished in 1916.

Walter Johnson was a great guess, and is the only person with more career shutouts (110) than Alexander's 90. Alexander has a pretty big lead over the 3rd place Christy Mathewson's 79 or Cy Young's 76.

But the Big Train's single season high was 11 in 1913.

Bob Gibson in 1968?

Ed Walsh the year he won 40?

I thought Alexander was the only one with 16.

Great guess! Bob Gibson had 13 shutouts in 1968, the year before they lowered the mound. He is tied for the 3rd most Jack Coombs who had 13 in 1910.

The only other live-ball era players with double digit shutouts in a single season are Sandy Koufax (11 in 1963), Dean Chance (11 in 1964), Mort Cooper (10 in 1942), Bob Feller (10 in 1946), Bob Lemon (10 in 1948), Jim Palmer (10 in 1965), Juan Marichal (10 in 1975), and John Tudor (10 in 1985).


Good guess. Ed Walsh had 11 in 1908, the year he had 40 wins.


Well, when you hear the other guy with 16 shutouts, you might feel like he shouldn't be counted because you have to go WAAAY back.
But it was in the National League, which makes it legitimate to me.

Al Spalding the year he won 50?

Al Spalding won 52 games in 1874 and 54 games in 1875. But the most shutouts he ever had was 8 in 1876.

I guess they weren't watching his pitch count. :)

HINT: He is widely credited as having pitched the first no-hitter in National League, and by some historians' standards MLB history. This no-hitter occurred in the same year as his 16 shutouts.

It should be noted that some historians claim that a different pitcher, Joe Borden, who had pitched a no-hitter the year prior in the National Association League also pitched the first no-hitter in NL history, but contemporary newspaper accounts do not support that.


Here is the account of the no-hitter by our trivia answer during his 16 shutout season:

"The Globe-Democrat yesterday morning announced the fact that the St. Louis Base Ball club intended accomplishing the greatest feat in the annals of the game, if sharp play could bring about the result prayed for, which was nothing less than the whitewashing of the famous Hartford nine for the third consecutive time. They did it and thereby covered themselves with glory and sent their admirers into ecstacies. A large crowd was present to witness the discomfiture of the Dark Blues. In the matter of the toss, luck for the first time in a long while deserted McGeary, which was considered a favorable omen for Hartford, but, as the sequel showed, failed to prove such. St. Louis won the game in the first two innings by the fine batting of Clapp and Blong, and four unfortunate errors by their opponents. In the last seven innings Bond was so well supported that the Browns could not possibly increase their score. XXXXXXX's pitching, and the magnificent backing given it by the fielders, won the day for St. Louis. For the first time in the annals of the League, nine innings were played without a single base hit being placed to the credit of one of the teams. The Hartford's utterly failed to do anything whatever with XXXXXXX's twisters. Weak infield hits and easy flies were the order of the afternoon on their side, and a chance for an out was rarely missed. XXXXXXX has good reason to be proud of his record. His associates, especially Clapp, whose beautiful batting was a marked feature of the game, did fairly off Bond's curves, and thereby won the game. Three such games as have been played during the past week by the St. Louis and Hartford Clubs have never been witnessed, the scores being 2 to 0, 3 to 0, and 2 to 0, all in favor of St. Louis. They will be placed on record as the most wonderful struggles in the history of the national pastime. When it is stated that until last Tuesday Hartford had not been whitewashed this season, and that for twenty-seven consecutive innings they were retired by the Browns without scoring, and almost in one-two-three order, some idea of the magnificent manner in which they must have fielded the stinging hist of such men as Burdock, Higham, Ferguson, and the other Blue Legs can be formed.
-St. Louis Globe-Democrat, July 16, 1876

I had to peek, so I won't reveal the answer.


I will admit to having dropped, in the darkness of the Museum at Cooperstown (in 1999), a very worn-out baseball 'signed' by this guy...just to see if anyone reacted once it was discovered...and I have no idea if it caused any fuss at all.
But, it was fun...'back in the day'.


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Sorry for the dumb question, but when you say you "dropped" a baseball, do you mean "dropped" literally, like on the floor, or does dropped mean something else?

HINT Not sure how helpful this will be because he didn't go by his middle name, but the pitcher in question's first and middle name were named after a founding father/very famous president that lived in Virginia near Washington DC. Instead of being called by his given name, he was usually referred to as "Grin" because he seemed perpetually happy.

Well the first part of it has to be George Washington.

I thought it would be fun to give someone 'something to discover'- I actually dropped it gently to the floor in a dark corner fairly close to the display of Cy Young's 500th Win ball.

George Washington "Grins" Bradley threw 16 shutouts in 1876 for the St. Louis Browns.

He was later matched by Grover Cleveland Alexander (love those presidential names) in 1915.

On July 15, 1876, less than two weeks after the Centennial observance took place in Philadelphia and less than three weeks after George Armstrong Custer met his doom at Little Bighorn, Bradley became the first pitcher in National League history to throw a no-hitter. As the box score shows, his team committed 8 errors, but still managed a 2-0 shutout.

The following game, Bradley took another no-hitter into the 9th before Charley “Baby” Jones broke it up with a two-out double, extending a scoreless streak to 37 innings. This record stood until Christy Mathewson hurled 39 consecutive scoreless innings in 1901.

Bradley lead the League in ERA in 1876 with 1.23, just his 2nd year in MLB.

"Along with Bradley’s range of pitches, pinpoint control, having the best catcher in the league (John Clapp), and having a withering grin, an unseemly side to his success in 1876 involved gamesmanship (or cheating, depending upon one’s view). According to Bradley’s former manager Frank Bancroft, Bradley learned from teammate Mike McGeary how to steam open the sealed box containing the new ball to be used for the game, put the ball in a vise to crush it, and then reseal the box, creating a new mushy ball.32Aside from the process enhancing Bradley’s curve, the ball usually lost its shape over the course of the game, allowing a crafty pitcher like Bradley to alter its plateward course with more trickery." (Source)

Bradley never reached the same heights again as he did in 1876 and he retired in 1884.

He did, however, manage to play every single position in the League except Catcher. He particularly excelled at third base, where he was a fine fielder.

After he retired, Bradley first worked as a night watchman and then joined the Philadelphia police force where he worked until retirement in 1930. He died a year later of liver cancer.