Let’s call ’em “The Magnificent Seven” for being the only pitchers in baseball history for pulling off what seems like a nearly impossible, and certainly most improbable, accomplishment of winning 20 games for last place big league clubs in the 20th century.
The list includes Noodles Hahn, Scott Perry, Howard Ehmke, Hollis “Sloppy” Thurston, Ned Garver, Steve Carlton and Nolan Ryan.
Here’s a box on how they stacked up comparatively in their unusual record years:
| YEAR | PLAYER | WON | LOST | E.R.A. | TEAM | WON | LOST |
| 1901 | Hahn | 22 | 19 | 2.71 | Reds | 52 | 87 |
| 1918 | Perry | 20 | 19 | 1.98 | Phi A’s | 52 | 76 |
| 1923 | Ehmke | 20 | 17 | 3.78 | Red Sox | 61 | 91 |
| 1924 | Thurston | 20 | 14 | 3.80 | Chi WS | 68 | 87 |
| 1951 | Garver | 20 | 12 | 3.73 | Browns | 52 | 102 |
| 1972 | Carlton | 27 | 10 | 1.97 | Phillies | 59 | 97 |
| 1974 | Ryan | 22 | 16 | 2.89 | C Angels | 68 | 94 |
Bill McCurdy (L) & Ned Garver
St. Louis, 1996.
Please note that Ned Garver of the 1951 St. Louis Browns is the only pitcher on the list to have won 20 games for a last place team that lost over 100 games in the same season. Ned, more than any of the others, and probably because I know him on a personal basis through the St. Louis Browns Historical Society, reminds me most of what Turk Farrell used to say about the 1962 season when he lost 20 games for the fairly hapless new expansion club, the Houston Colt .45’s.
“Do you realize how good I had to be to lose 20 games in a single season?” Turk used to ask in complete expectation of an understanding laugh or smile.
Let’s turn it round, Turk. How good does a pitcher have to be to do what Garver did in 1951 – win 20 games for a club that lost 102? As a kid at that time, it was both amazing and inspirational for me to follow the Ned Garver season by radio, the Houston Post sports pages, and the weekly Sporting News.
In recent years, Garver has evolved into something of a comedic toastmaster at annual gatherings of the St. Louis Browns Historical Society and Fan Club. One of his stock deadpan lines goes something like this: “When the old Browns were still alive and playing ball in St. Louis, our fans never booed us. …. They wouldn’t dare. …. We outnumbered them.”
1951 was an equal distribution wins year for Garver. He won 10 games from 3 of the 4 winning clubs above the Browns and 10 games from all 3 of the losing teams that also finished higher than the last place Browns. The only team he never beat that season was the World Series Champion New York Yankees. He also had to defeat Chicago on the last day of the season to reach 20 wins. The effort also required him to hit a homer in that game that was instrumental to his winning cause. It was Garver’s only long ball of the season, but it provided a little cushion at the wrap of another ground-hard year for the St. Louis Browns.
Nothing really good comes easy.
The Pecan Park Eagle 
August 13, 2013 at 10:04 pm |
Carlton’s was the most remarkable because he not only won 20 games on a last place club but he also won the Cy Young Award that year, claiming the pitcher’s equivalent of the triple crown – leading the league in wins, ERA and strikeouts.
Carlton notched 27 wins and the rest of the team won 32.