Since 1926, the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Athletics had shared control of the American League pennant. The Yankees won the pennant in 1932, breaking off a string of three in a row by the Athletics. Waiting in the wings all this time were the Washington Senators, who had remained a surprisingly good team since their last pennant in 1925.
        This year, the Senators were surprise winners of the pennant. The Athletics glory days were over; the Yankees stumbled, hurt by a poor pitching staff. So the Senators snuck in and won the pennant, then lost in the World Series to the Giants. It was the last pennant they would ever win in Washington.

         The Athletics' pitching staff was awful, the worst in the league; imagine how bad it would have been if they hadn't had Lefty Grove on the staff? This was Grove's last year in Philly; owner Connie Mack was in the process of selling off his big stars, and Grove was sent to Boston after the season. The great lefty was also at the end of his days as a great power pitcher; arm woes ruined his fastball, and Grove's first season in Boston was a disaster. But he adjusted, improved his curveball, and won four more ERA titles while pitching in Fenway Park.
        After Grove, it is a bit of a tough decision between Mel Harder, who was probably the best pitcher in the league, and Earl Whitehill, who had the best season of his career for the Senators. Whitehill was a gamer, a guy without great stuff who managed to pitch well and remain durable for a long time. He won 218 games in his career, and won more than he lost. This year was his one shot at glory; the rest of his career, he averaged about 15 wins a year, pitching just a little better than the average hurler.
        Mel Harder's career record is almost exactly the same as Whitehill's; Harder won five more games (223 total), and had one more loss. But he did it differently; Harder was an outstanding pitcher from 1932-1935, one of the best in baseball. The rest of his career was an up-and-down affair. This year, he pitched as well as anyone- but his team, the Indians, had the worst offense in the league, and stuck him with a losing record.
         Despite the losing record, I will rank Harder third in the league behind Grove and Whitehill. The Indians eventually improved, and Mel had better luck in other years. He spent all twenty years of his career with the Indians; after he retired he became their pitching coach, working with a staff that included Feller, Wynn, Lemon, and Garcia.
        After Harder, I'm not sure who to take. General Crowder won 24 games for the Senators, but I don't think he pitched as well as that. Lefty Gomez and Firpo Marberry both had good years that are difficult to distinguish between. I think I will take Gomez, who led the league in strikeouts, and was one of the few Yankee pitchers to have a good year.