There's a reason pitching statistics are often divided into pre- and post-deadball era. We all know Bob Gibson as the all-time leader for lowest ERA in a single season, but that's not really true. Both Dutch Leonard and Modecai "Three-Finger" Brown had ERAs lower than 1.12 in 1914 and 1906 respectively.
Deadball-era statistics are disregarded for a variety of reasons. For one, the ball was entirely unrecognizable from the one Major Leaguers use today. Changed maybe twice a game, it was covered in coffee grinds and tobacco, dirt and grass, spit and saliva. The ball was black in color after just several innings.
Imagine trying to hit a black baseball at twilight in a stadium with no lights.
Secondly, pitchers performed feats so improbable that not only would they never be repeated in today's game, they never could be repeated.
Enter Ed Reulbach, number-four starter for the 1908 Chicago Cubs. He pitched 297.2 innings, pitched in 46 games with 25 complete games and seven shutouts with a 2.03 ERA.
Yes, there were three starters better than him on the 1908 Cubs' starting staff, but on Sept. 26, 1908 there was no better pitcher in the world.
Facing the last place Brooklyn Superbas, now known as the Los Angeles Dodgers, Reulbach was penned as the starter in the first game of a double header.
That start was as dominant as could be. Reulbach pitched all nine innings, striking out seven, walking one and allowed just five hits. Finishing his shutout in only one hour and 40 minutes — Rob Manfred be damned — the Chicago starter asked his manager if he could pitch the second leg.
So unhittable was he that Cubs manager Frank Chance, of "Tinkers, to Evers to Chance," sent Reulbach out to pitch the second leg of the doubleheader instead of scheduled starter Jack Pfiester.
Reulbach not only repeated his feat, but did one better. This time out he allowed just four hits, walking one and striking out four. On one day, the Chicago Cubs fourth starter pitched 18.0 scoreless innings, facing 62 batters in the process.
Even for the standards of the time, it was an impossible feat, one which had never been completed, and one which will never be attempted again.
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