Jack Chesbro

John Dwight Chesbro (June 5, 1874 – November 6,  1931) was a Major League Baseball  pitcher at the turn of the 20th century. He was nicknamed "Happy Jack".

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 * Team(s) = Pittsburgh Pirates (1899-1902), New York Highlanders (1903-1909), Boston Red Sox (1909)

Background
Chesbro, a spitballer (spitballs were legal until 1920), broke into the majors in 1899 with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He pitched for the Pirates until 1902 and in his final year went an astonishing 28-6 with a 2.17 ERA.

In 1903 Chesbro moved to the newly formed New York Highlanders (soon to be New York Yankees) and pitched the franchise's first game. In 1904, he had one of the finest years in the history of pitching, starting 51 games and finishing 48 while posting a 1.82 ERA, struck out 239 batters, and 41 wins over 454.7 innings pitched. He nearly led the Highlanders to the 1904 American League pennant over the Boston Americans, but lost the last game of the season when one of his spitballs got away from him in the top of the ninth. Boston scored on the resulting wild pitch, and the Highlanders were shut out in the bottom frame.

His 41 wins are the most ever for a modern-era baseball season. It is one of the oldest major records in baseball, or in any other sport. Like many of the pitching records set in baseball's first half century, it is virtually unbreakable under current pitching practices. In addition to his 51 starts, he also made 4 relief appearances, getting a decision in 96% of them, for a record of 41-12. Today, complete games are a rarity. The most recent pitcher to have even as many as 40 starts in a season was Charlie Hough in 1987.

Chesbro retired in 1909, having accumulated a 198-132 career record and been part of two pennant-winning teams (in 1901 and 1902).

Chesbro was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1946.