Pete Alexander's record breaking season

In 1916, Phillies ace Grover Cleveland Alexander, known as "Ol' Pete" to his teammates, dominated National League opponents as no one has since. By season's end, he led all major league hurlers in almost every significant pitching category. His 33 wins were tops in either league as no other pitcher had more than 25. He made 45 starts and went the distance in 38 of them, both of them the highwater mark in the majors. His ERA of 1.55 and his 388 innnigs of work were tops in either league and his 167 strikeouts led the National League. But far more impressive than any of those numbers were Alexander's 16 shutouts.

As the season progressed, Alexander played no favorites as he blanked every one of the other seven N.L. clubs at least once. In fact, he seemed to excell against the Phillies' biggest rivals that year as he shut out the eventual-champion Brooklyn Robins twice and third-place Boston three times. On two occasions, Alexander threw back-to-back shutouts and in mid-August he ran off three straight versus the Reds and Giants. Despite his incredible workload, Alexander all but demanded the ball in key situations. In the final 10 days of the 1916 season, with the Phillies locked in a tight three-way pennant race, Alexander took the mound at the Baker Bowl for both games of a doubleheader against Cincinnati. He won the first game 7-3 and completed the sweep with a 4-0 blanking of the Reds.

But it's also important to consider that Alexander's feats took place as he pitched half his games in the most hitter-friendly park in the National League. The right field wall at the Baker Bowl in 1916 was a miniscule 272 feet from home plate. Despite being topped with a 40-foot tall tin wall, that meant that hitters were 38 feet closer than today's sluggers are to Boston's famed "Green Monster" at Fenway Park. In addition, league rules at the time allowed that any ball that bounced into the grandstand was considered a home run. The left field wall at the Baker Bowl, while a more ordinary 335 feet from home plate, was only three feet high. And yet, nine of Alexander's 16 shutouts occurred at his home park.

Finally, when compared with the most dominating pitching performances in recent memory, Alexander's 1916 season really holds up. Even Bob Gibson's 13 shutouts in 1968, Sandy Koufax's 11 in 1963 or Jim Palmers' 10 in 1975(all done in a 162 game season) fall way short of Alexander's mark. With the advent of five-man pitching rotations and the age of bullpen specialists, Alexander's mark seems unlikely to ever be seriously challenged.