Top 25 MLB pitching seasons of all time

21. Old Hoss Radbourn, 1884

• The Numbers: MLB record 59 wins, 441 strikeouts, 1.38 ERA, 73 complete games, 678.2 IP, 205 ERA+

One look at the numbers will give away just how much baseball has changed since its early days. Old Hoss (given name Charles) Radbourn started 73 games for the Providence Grays in 1884 and finished every single one of them. He rolled up almost 700 innings of work and won 59 games against only 12 losses. His record will obviously never be broken as it now takes even the best pitchers three years to win almost 60 games.

Even in light of the circumstances, Radbourn’s season in 1884 is impressive. His 59 wins in a single season are still six more than anyone else in baseball history. He also lost only 12 games all season. The Grays won the title in 1884, with Old Hoss winning three games and allowing zero earned runs in 22 innings. By the end of the season, Radbourn was pitching almost every game.

Radbourn started 41 of the final 51 games for the Grays in 1884. In those games, he went 35-4-1. Between August 9 and September 4, Radbourn started every game but one and went 24-4. The workload taxed him almost to the point of breaking, but in the end the Grays won the title.

In his prime, Radbourn was viewed as the greatest pitcher in baseball history, and would only be eclipsed by Cy Young. The annual award for pitchers could very well have been named after Radbourn had his arm not begun to give way by the end of the 1880s. Turns out, modern pitching coaches may have been onto something not allowing their pitchers to throw 700 innings in a season.

Radbourn pitched in a time when pitchers still threw a combination of underhand and overhand, akin to a submariner in today’s game. He experimented and tweaked his delivery on a daily basis to throw off hitters’ timing. In only 11 years in the big leagues, Radbourn won 309 games.