Major League history records nine pitchers who have won 20 games in a season and their team has finished last. This latter designation originally referred to teams finishing bottom of their league, but was expanded from 1969 to include those clubs finishing bottom of their respective divisions. The most recent of these nine pitchers to do so was Roger Clemens in 1997 when he went 21–7 and his Toronto club finished 76-86 to finish last in his division. Then Atlanta’s Phil Niekro went 21-20 in 1979 and his team went 66-94; Nolan Ryan, of the Angels in 1974 with a record of 22-16 and his team finished 68-94; Steve Carlton with the Phillies was 27-10 in 1972 and the Phillies were 59-97; Ned Garver of the St. Louis Browns in 1951 went 20-12 and his team finished 52-102; Sloppy Thurston, of the White Sox in 1924 with a record of 20-14 and his team was 66-87; Howard Ehmke 20-17 with the Red Sox, a team that went 61-91 in 1923; Scott Perry going 20-19 in 1918 with the Philadelphia Athletics went 52-76 and Cincinnati’s Noodles Hahn in 1901 went 22-19 as the team finished 52-87.
