Trivia question: since 1920 there have been only two pitchers to win two-thirds or more of their starts in a season more than twice (minimum 30 starts). Who are they? While you think about that I'll give you some idea of how special this achievement is.

Since 1954 a pitcher has started 30 or more games in a major league season more than 3000 times. Only 30 times has a pitcher started 30 or more games and won two-thirds of his starts. That's less than 1% of the 30-start seasons since 1954.

Since 1954 only four pitchers have accomplished this feat more than once. Can you name them? Here are some hints. Sandy Koufax never did it, narrowly missing in '66. Greg Maddux never did it, either, although he came close in '95 when he won 19 of 29 starts. Whitey Ford came close in '56 and '63, but never did it. Steve Carlton never did it, although he won 27 of his 41 starts in '72.

The following all-time greats did it once: Bob Gibson, Randy Johnson, and Tom Seaver. What year do you think Gibson did it? No, it wasn't '68, it was '70. Doc Gooden did it in his great '85 season. Denny McLain did it in '68 when he won 31 games.

Here are three of the four post-1954 pitchers who did it more than once: Roger Clemens did it twice, in '86 and '90. Juan Marichal did it twice, in '66 and '68. Pedro Martinez did it in '02 and would have done it '99, when he won 22 of his 29 starts. Let's give Pedro credit for that season, however, because he would have done it even if he hadn't won that 30th start.

The answer to our trivia question? Here's another hint first: both pitchers to have won 2/3s of their starts in a season more than twice are lefties. The answer? Lefty Grove did it four times, in '28, '30, '31 and '32. And Ron Guidry did it three times, in '78, '83 and '85. They are the only two pitchers since 1920 to have won 2/3s of their starts in a season more than twice.*

Bob Welch won an extraordinary 77.1% of his starts in 1990. The only other pitcher to have started 30 or more games in a season and won 75% or more of them is Denny McLain in his great '68 season when he won 75.6%. Pedro won 75.9% of his 29 starts in '99. The only other pitchers to have topped the 70% mark are Clemens in '86 (72.7%), Seaver in '69 and Guidry in '78 (71.4%), and Cliff Lee in '08 (71.0%). Dave McNally won precisely 70% of his starts in '71.

The only pitchers since '54 to turn the trick while winning 25 or more games are McLain, Welch, Marichal, Seaver, Guidry, Newcombe and Stone.

Doc Gooden, of course, was the youngest pitcher to turn the trick - 20 years old. Warren Spahn, of course, was the oldest - 42 years old.

Lefty Grove's 1931 season deserves special mention. Grove went 31-4 in '31, making 30 starts and 11 relief appearances. Grove won 27 of his 30 starts. Yes, you read that right: Grove won 90% of his starts in '31. He lost his first start of the season to the Senators. He lost his last start of the season to the Yankees. In between he won 27 of 28 starts, losing only a 1-0 decision to the St. Louis Brownies on August 23rd. Grove was outdueled that day by Dick Coffman, who would go 9-13 for the season and would win finish his career with only 72 wins and a .431 winning percentage. However undistinguished Coffman's career, for one Sunday in August in 1931 he was better than the man many believe to be the greatest pitcher of all time.

Here are some more pre-1954 seasons where pitchers won two-thirds of their starts:

Warren Spahn. In addition to his great '63 season, Spahnie won 23 of his 32 starts in 1953, making him one of the very select club of pitchers two have accomplished the feat more than once.

Hal Newhouser. Prince Hal won 2/3s of his starts in '45 and '46. He almost certainly did it in '44 as well, but splits aren't available for that year. However, unless Hal won 6 of his 13 relief appearances that year (very unlikely) he also won 2/3s of his starts in '44.

Bob Feller. Rapid Robert accomplished the feat twice, in '40 and '51. He also narrowly missed in '39, winning 23 of his 35 starts.

Carl Hubbell. King Carl won 24 of his 34 starts in his great '36 season.

Dizzy Dean. The Diz won 26 of his 33 starts in his great '34 season. He won 24 of 36 the next year.

Robin Roberts. Roberts won 28 of his 37 starts in '52.

Bucky Walters. Bucky won 27 of his 36 starts in '39. He won 2/3s of his starts in '44, too.

Dazzy Vance. Dazzy did it in '24 and '25. Dazzy joins Lefty, Dizzy and Hal Newhouser as the only pitchers to accomplish the feat in consecutive seasons.

Paul Derringer. Oom Paul did it in '39, the same year his teammate Bucky Walters turned the trick. They are the only teammate tandem to ever accomplish the feat.

Lefty Gomez. Lefty won 2/3s of his starts in '32 and '34.

Bob Lemon. Bob won 22 of 33 starts in '54.

That's not a comprehensive pre-1954 list, but it demonstrates how difficult it was for even great pitchers to win 2/3s of their starts in a season.

Here is the full list since 1954, including Pedro's '99 season in which he made only 29 starts:





































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* As noted above, Hal Newhouser might have done it, too, but the game logs for 1944 aren't available. However, even if Hal did it three times, two of those times would have occurred during the depleted WWII years.