Number Twenty-Three: Joe Wood.

Smoky Joe Wood pitched for Boston between 1908 and 1915. In those eight years he won 117 games, which isn't terribly impressive (14.8 wins a year). What is impressive is that he threw 121 complete games. He threw thirty-five of them in 1912; he won thirty-four games that season. And in those eight years, only once did his ERA rise above 2.50 (2.62 in 1914). He won three games (with one loss) in the 1912 World Series and struck out eleven batters in game one of the series.

At that time, pitchers weren't the precious commodity that they now are and injury curtailed what might have been an absolutely mind-blowing career. That and the gambling. In 1926 he was accused by Dutch Leonard of betting on a game that he, Leonard, Ty Cobb, and Tris Speaker had conspired to fix on September 25, 1919. Both Leonard and Wood were out of the game when the allegations came to light but Cobb and Speaker were cleared of any wrong doing.

Wood spent 1923-1942 coaching the baseball team at Yale University. He died in July of 1985 at the age of 95.