The 20 Victory Man

A rare breed

The 20 Victory Man

I was surprised to run into this the other day:

You’re probably wondering what I found so surprising about this. After all, 20 game winners haven’t really been a major thing in baseball for decades now.

The surprising thing here is that this is from an article printed in The Sporting News back in 1949.

And, honestly, the analysis here is not all that bad.

It is true that pitcher usage changed quite a bit during between around 1920 and 1948, and it has continued to change since.

In fact, this helpful chart illustrates the gradual decline of the 20 game winning pitcher in those days:

Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find a chart quite like this for more modern seasons. And, of course, even talking about pitcher wins is likely going to get me on a black list somewhere of “unsabermetric behavior” or some nonsense like that.

But it’s easy to see how the trend has continued.

Check out this list of 20 game winners in the American League from 1976 to 1980:

And now check out the same list from 2015 to today:

The Senior Circuit shows a similar trend; in other words, this isn’t just Earl Weaver deficiency syndrome. Here’s the National League from 1976 to 1980:

And here is the National League from 2015 to today:

Now, this doesn’t mean anything other than that pitcher usage has changed quite a bit over time. And that’s a topic that needs more coverage than I can fit in a single post.

However, I’m guessing that you haven’t thought much about 20 game winners recently. Like I said, the subject is taboo. Talking about it makes me worry, almost like I’m trying to sell you on a religion or on buying part of the Brooklyn Bridge or something like that.

Now, if there’s anything that we’re missing in the modern game, it’s excellent cartoons like this one:

Clippings from The Sporting News, January 12, 1949, page 3

I’d gladly trade you all the advanced statistics in the world for more cartoons like that.