It’s Hall of Fame consideration season. For the rest of the calendar year, Connections will be looking at some of the names on the 2025 ballot.
On September 28, 2013, Andy Pettitte made the final start of his 18-year career. In one of those magical convergences where timing dances with drama, the left-hander was also on the mound for the 27th out, a ground ball to third that sealed a 2-1, complete game victory. There was no Bernie Williams in center or Derek Jeter at short or Jorge Posada behind the dish. And there was no call for Mariano Rivera to save the day. And yet, even without those others who had supported him so many times before, the outcome – a win on Pettitte’s ledger – was sealed.
Pettitte made 521 starts, tied with Jim Palmer for the 42nd most all-time. He and Palmer share another bit of statistical matchmaking: they are two of 30 pitchers ever with at least 300 starts and a career win tally outdistancing their sum of losses by at least 100. Virtually all of the names in this coterie will be easily recognizable.
300 Starts & 100 More Wins Than Losses
Began Career in the 19th Century
Al Spalding, Tim Keefe, Old Hoss Radbourn, John Clarkson, Bob Caruthers, Cy Young, Kid Nichols, Joe McGinnity
Began Career 1900-1919
Christy Mathewson, Eddie Plank, Three Finger Brown, Walter Johnson, Pete Alexander
Began Career 1920 –>
Lefty Grove, Bob Feller, Warren Spahn, Whitey Ford, Juan Marichal, Jim Palmer, Tom Seaver, Roger Clemens, Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, Randy Johnson, Mike Mussina, Pedro Martínez, Andy Pettitte, Justin Verlander, Clayton Kershaw, Max Scherzer
There’s a simple reason for the acquaintance of names – most have been inducted into the Hall of Fame. Aside from the three who pitched in 2024 (and have yet to initiate their eligibility window), the only outsiders are Caruthers, Clemens and Pettitte, who has been evaluated and fallen short of the 75% threshold six times.
Pettitte’s shallow support (he crested at 17.0% in 2023) makes him an outlier among the 30 (Caruthers doesn’t have much relevance to this discussion), portending a world in which there will be no plaque, no chance for an artisan to break away from the normal mode of depiction and instead choose to portray one of the more arresting images baseball has produced in the past 30 years: Pettitte, eyes barely visible beneath the lowered cap brim and just above the glove top, peering and glaring, focused on a sign from the catcher. For almost all of his 18 years on a mound, that visage would be accompanied at some point by a fog of exhalation, a sign that Pettitte was again readying for a postseason pitch.
This part of his narrative – perennial playoff pitcher – might occupy a larger portion of his presence than any good/great hurler baseball has seen. The numbers and ranks are almost liturgy for the game’s worshippers: the most starts, innings and wins for any postseason hurler; top-eight marks in the same three categories for World Series competition. In 44 playoff starts, through 276.2 innings, Pettitte uncannily was pretty much the same pitcher – and produced pretty much the same results – as when the calendar showed April, May, June, July, August and September. Here’s what his regular season looks like in comparison with his playoff résumé.
| Time | W-L | Win % | IP/GS | ERA | H/9 | WHIP | K/9 | BB/9 |
| 162 Game Avg | 17-10 | .626 | 6.1 | 3.85 | 9.4 | 1.351 | 6.6 | 2.8 |
| Postseason | 19-11 | .633 | 6.1 | 3.81 | 9.3 | 1.305 | 6.0 | 2.5 |
A quartet of his 19 postseason wins came in 2009, when the 37-year-old converted all of those locked-in stares into an undefeated, five-start run that was a little more center stage than usual. A victory in the Game 3 ALDS clincher, another in Game 6 of the ALCS to usher the Yankees into the Fall Classic: these were the preludes to a Game 3 win to give New York a 2-1 series advantage and set the stage for the capper, a scuffling but ultimately triumphant outing in Game 6 to capture the title. In all, Pettitte went 4-0 over 30.2 innings with a 3.52 ERA – support beams for a title as the first starter to win three clinching postseason games in the same year.
That crowing effort marked the last of his Fall Classic appearances, the fifth win of his World Series career and like his ultimate membership in the 100-more-wins-than-losses collective, established a bond with a celebratory roster. The apex for the times a pitcher appeared in a World Series for the victorious team is six, a number just out of reach for Pettitte, who can claim five. In his grouping, he shares space with Lefty Gomez, Eddie Lopat, Catfish Hunter, David Cone, and the man who finished off so many of his regular and postseason wins, Rivera. Residing a notch above that sextet: Johnny Murphy, Red Ruffing, Allie Reynolds, Vic Raschi and the winningest pitcher in Fall Classic history, Whitey Ford.
Ford and Pettitte – two southpaws who presided over extended stretches when October runs frequently pointed in the direction of their clubs. Two lefties who drove and cruised along those journeys by filling up the tanks with 100-plus more victories than defeats. Two portsiders who fashioned remarkable careers with some similar numbers: Andy Pettitte v. Whitey Ford.
It took Ford a second turn on the Hall of Fame ballot to gain entry; it appears such an exclusive invitation (at least from the BBWAA) will elude Pettitte. But he and Ford do share another home – along a certain wall in Yankee Stadium where the franchise’s retired numbers shine with memories and calls to celebrate – just like those 274 times when Pettitte made a start and ended with a win.
Thanks to Baseball Reference and its extraordinary research database, Stathead, for help in assembling this piece.
Roger Schlueter
As Sr. Editorial Director for Major League Baseball Productions from 2004-2015, Roger served as a hub for hundreds of hours of films, series, documentaries and features: as researcher, fact-checker, script doctor, and developer of ideas. The years at MLB Production gave him the ideal platform to pursue what galvanized him the most – the idea that so much of what takes place on the field during the MLB regular and postseason (and is forever beautifully condensed into a box score) has connections to what has come before. Unearthing and celebrating these webs allows baseball to thrive, for the present can come alive and also reignite the past.