While looking through some random stats I noticed that this season Tim Wakefield has started 20 games and is 11-9, meaning he has had 0 no decisions. In the age of 6-7 inning starters this is remarkable. Wakefield has pitched 8 innings once and 7 innings six times. Nothing shocking there. It seems that when he has the lead, his bullpen holds it and when he doesn't have the lead his hitters fail to score.
So I decided to search for the most starts in a season without a no decision. Obviously, this would lead me to some 19th century pitcher who pitched the entire season. And if you're interested, Pud Galvin had 75 starts and 75 decisions in 1883. But he had a relief appearance, so there was 1 game without a decision. The most games with a decision in all of them was Tim Keefe in 1883 with 68.
But thats not too interesting since the usage of pitchers was much different. So I limited my search to 1901 - 2007. This leads me to Dummy Taylor with 45 in 1901. Again, much different pitcher usage. So I'm further refining the search to 1941 - 2007. Our new leader is Lum Harris with 26 in 1942. Who was Lum Harris you ask? I have no clue. He pitched for 5+ seasons and managed a few years, but nothing major of note.
And the next highest season with G = W + L is Wakefield.
Other seasons of note:
Gaylord Perry had a decision in all 40 of his starts in 1972. In his 1 relief appearance he got a save.
Dontrelle Willis had 32 decisions in 34 starts in 2005. The Marlins bullpen blew leads in the other 2 games.
John Smiley had 27 decisions in 28 games in 1997.
So if you're a fan of random, meaningless numbers, root for a decisions every time Wakefield starts which includes tonight.
I also learned in this process that Maddux started 37 games in 1991. Thats a lot of games for a 5 man rotation.
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