Top 25 MLB pitching seasons of all time

18. Christy Mathewson, 1909

• The Numbers: 25-6, 1.14 ERA, 26 complete games, led league in FIP, ERA+, WHIP, H/9, BB/9, SO/BB ratio

Christy Mathewson was the most dominant pitcher of the Deadball Era. His career 2.13 ERA is eighth in MLB history and his 373 wins are fourth. In a time when most professional baseball players were rowdy, rough-around-the-edges carousers, Mathewson was a college man, educated at Bucknell University. He became the idealized example of the gentleman athlete, and we beloved all over the country.

Mathewson had five seasons with a sub-2.00 ERA, but 1909 was his best. In 275.1 innings of work, he recorded a 1.14 ERA that remains one of the top five marks in MLB history. This season came on the heels of 1908 where he went 37-11 with a 1.43 ERA in 390.2 innings. Mathewson also had a 1.28 ERA in 1905 at the age of 24.

From 1903 to 1914, Mathewson reeled off 12 straight years with more than 20 wins. He was blessed with impeccable control and a devastating fadeaway pitch (more commonly known today as a screwball). He was the toast of the town in New York, and one of the first superstar athletes to cross over as a marketing sensation. With the Giants, Mathewson pitched in the World Series four times and had a 0.97 ERA in 101.2 innings.

After his playing career ended, Mathewson began managing the Giants. He went overseas to France during World War I and was exposed to influenza and mustard gas. His lungs were weakened, and he died of tuberculosis at the young age of 45. Mathewson became one of the original Hall of Famers inducted in 1936.