Tuesday Trivia: Pitcher consecutive win streaks
 

Questions: 1) Which pitcher has the longest consecutive wins streak, and how many wins did he have? 2) Which two pitchers have the longest consecutive win streaks in a single season, and how may wins did they have?

Carl Hubbell? 21?

Carl Hubbell does indeed have the longest winning streak, which took place over two seasons, but he won more than 21 games straight.

Rube Marquard rings a bell too.

Yes, as detailed in "Glory of their Times", Rube Marquard had 19 consecutive wins to start the 1912 season.

What other pitcher had 19 consecutive wins in one season?

Dave McNally?

Great guess. McNally started 15-0 in 1969, but then his streak ended.

Clemens?

Great guess. Clemens won 20 straight wins, but it was over two different seasons, and in two different uniforms, beginning with the Blue Jays as he pitched his way to a second straight AL Cy Young Award and then continuing it after he was traded to the Yankees. Clemens needed a little luck along the way, escaping with a no-decision in seven different starts in which he allowed three earned runs or more -- including a seven-run implosion against the Orioles and a five-run start against the Rangers in early 1999. Still, Clemens went nearly an entire calendar year (June 3, 1998 - June 1, 1999) without suffering a loss.

Hint: The other player that won 19 consecutive games in a single season did it in the 19th century.

Aha, wasn’t his name O’Keefe?

Close enough. Between June 23 and August 10, 1888 Tim Keefe won 19 straight games in the same season.

During his stretch of 19 straight wins, Keefe allowed just 50 runs; the Giants scored 111. His record was snapped against the Cubs, when he allowed just 2 earned runs in a 4-2 loss. The crowd on hand to watch Keefe try for 20 straight included some of the city’s rich and famous. Among them were the cast of McCaull’s Light Opera Company, including Colonel McCaull and such headliners as DeWolf Hopper, Mathilde Cottrelly, and Marion Manola. The next morning the New York Times reported that about 80 members of the opera company “came up to the game in large horse drawn tally-ho coaches, and kept cheering the New-Yorks from start to finish” despite the Chicago victory.

Even in defeat, the Light Opera Company honored an invitation it had extended the day before to host both teams to their performance of Prince Methusalem that evening.

In formal attire, the members of both teams arrived at Wallack’s Theatre to the cheers of those outside and inside. But the evening’s highlight was still yet to come. During the intermission of Prince Methusalem, Hopper strode to the center of the stage. After much applause for his performance up to that point, he began a recitation of a poem that had never been heard publicly before. The audience was in a state of rapture. When Hopper finished, the place went wild with cheering. Tim Keefe’s incredible streak of 19 straight victories ended on the afternoon of August 14, 1888, but DeWolf Hopper’s streak—reciting “Casey at The Bat” well into the next century (10,000-15,000 times by his estimate)—had just begun.


Like Keefe, Rube Marquard lost his bid for a 20th win when his Giants faced the Cubs.

A third Giant, Carl Hubbell established the consecutive wins streak at 24, when he started out 8-0 in 1937, to go along with the 16 games he won in a row at the end of 1936.

Close enough. Between June 23 and August 10, 1888 Tim Keefe won 19 straight games in the same season.

During his stretch of 19 straight wins, Keefe allowed just 50 runs; the Giants scored 111. His record was snapped against the Cubs, when he allowed just 2 earned runs in a 4-2 loss. The crowd on hand to watch Keefe try for 20 straight included some of the city’s rich and famous. Among them were the cast of McCaull’s Light Opera Company, including Colonel McCaull and such headliners as DeWolf Hopper, Mathilde Cottrelly, and Marion Manola. The next morning the New York Times reported that about 80 members of the opera company “came up to the game in large horse drawn tally-ho coaches, and kept cheering the New-Yorks from start to finish” despite the Chicago victory.

Even in defeat, the Light Opera Company honored an invitation it had extended the day before to host both teams to their performance of Prince Methusalem that evening.

In formal attire, the members of both teams arrived at Wallack’s Theatre to the cheers of those outside and inside. But the evening’s highlight was still yet to come. During the intermission of Prince Methusalem, Hopper strode to the center of the stage. After much applause for his performance up to that point, he began a recitation of a poem that had never been heard publicly before. The audience was in a state of rapture. When Hopper finished, the place went wild with cheering. Tim Keefe’s incredible streak of 19 straight victories ended on the afternoon of August 14, 1888, but DeWolf Hopper’s streak—reciting “Casey at The Bat” well into the next century (10,000-15,000 times by his estimate)—had just begun.


Like Keefe, Rube Marquard lost his bid for a 20th straight win in the same season when his Giants faced the Cubs.

A third Giant, Carl Hubbell established the consecutive wins streak at 24, when he started out 8-0 in 1937, to go along with the 16 games he won in a row at the end of 1936.

I was thinking of Roy Face who had that 18-1 season as a reliever. Looks like he is actually second to Hubbell (over more than one season) with 22 consecutive wins, all in relief!