Best Season ever by a ML pitcher?

[profholt82]

You could argue that it's even more than two eras when it comes to pitching. The deadball era was just that. The ball was soft, pitchers were allowed to score, scuff and dirty it up which not only allowed them to put more english on their pitches, but it made the ball much more difficult to see for hitters.

Then there's the first several decades of the liveball era in which pitchers still had a higher mound, but also still pitched complete games for the most part. Then the mound was lowered and relief pitchers and righty-lefty specialism became the norm. Then the steroid era came along. And since the mid-aughts or so, since the testing has taken over, we're in a new era.

So it could be argued that there is a pre-MLB era of before 1900 or so, the deadball era of the beginning of the 20th century through the early 20s when the ball was changed. The 20s through the 60s, where while there were certainly changes in the game, the pitchers were still expected to pitch complete games and the ball was roughly the same. Then the lowering of the mound at the end of the 60s and the growth in popularity of the reliever. And then the late 80s through the early aughts would be the steroid era.

Sheesh, that was a mouthful. But if you're going to be totally fair and impartial about the greatest pitchers of all time, the parameters of their eras are important.