Revisiting Major League Baseball’s 20-20 Days

I have the MLB Audio App and while listening to some out of market games, many of the commercials are repeated. One of them is a clip for either MLB Network or the MLB app. They play some highlights from the previous season and one of them is when Ronald Acuna stole his 70th base to become the only member of the 40/70 club. It made think about the good old days in Major League Baseball when reaching the 20-20 club was pretty special. Oh, I’m not talking about 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases in the same season. No way. I’m talking about something that is about as rare as snow in June:

That would be a pitcher winning and losing 20 games in a single season.

How exclusive is this membership? Since 1916, it has been accomplished only twice. Fortunately, they both happened during the first six years of my existence. It also speaks to how well my memory can work at times, much to the frustration of those important people in my life who mock me for my sometimes forgetful nature. It also speaks to my absolute love for baseball cards as when I was growing up, I would stare at the stats on the back of those pieces of cardboard for hours on end. Without further adieu, meet the powerhouse duo that is responsible for this post.

Wilbur Wood (1973) Outside of his near exclusive membership of the 20-20 club, Wood was also a left-handed knuckleballer. The only other pitcher I can think of that was a lefty knuckler was Danny Boone, who pitched for the San Diego Padres in the early 1980’s. This combination of rarefied facts may get Wood his own post in this blog. He had a run of four straight 20 win seasons in the early 70’s, finishing second in the Cy Young race in 1972. Wood started an astounding 48 games in 1973, surrendering an unsightly 381 hits. His record was 24-20 with a 3.46 ERA and he finished fifth in the Cy Young race. He would pitch for a total of 17 years, accumulating 164 victories on the mound with two top ten finishes in MVP balloting.

Phil Niekro (1979) The Hall of Famer won 318 games over a remarkable 24 year career. At at the age of 40 in 1979, Niekro went 21-20 with a 3.39 ERA in 44 starts. He finished sixth in the Cy Young voting and captured the second of his four Gold Gloves. “Knucksie” tossed a career-best 342 innings and completed 23 of his starts. I was fortunate to watch Niekro’s 300th career victory on the final day of the 1985 season, a year in which he won 16 games at age 46. At that time, I was fascinated with the fact that he was once a teammate of the legendary Hank Aaron. Niekro led the National League with a 1.87 ERA in 1967, an astounding feat not associated with knuckleball pitchers.