It was a close pennent race this year between three perennial losers: the Brooklyn Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies and Boston Braves. The Braves had won the pennant in 1914, the Phillies in 1915; this year, it was Brooklyn's turn. The traditional favourites (New York, Pittsburgh, Chicago) were all in slumps, and so the second division got a chance to shine. It was brief, however; after the end of the dead-ball era, none of these teams returned to the limelight for another 20 years.
         All three teams had outstanding pitching staffs. The Dodgers were the best, but the Phillies had the league's best pitcher, Pete Alexander.

         This was Alexander's second consecutive 30+ win season. I'm not sure if it was the best season of his career, but he did set career highs in wins, innings, complete games, and shutouts. Alexander's 16 shutouts this year are a major league record, matched only by George Bradley in 1876. Alexander was at the peak of his career; he was King of the Hill in the National League, and was rivalled in the AL only by Walter Johnson. His team, the sad-sack Phillies, were contenders. He was born Grover Cleveland Alexander, and is still sometimes referred to be that name, but as far as I know everyone called him Pete.
        Alexander's name is not hard to find in the record books. He won 373 games in his career, tied for third all-time with Christy Mathewson. He pitched for 20 years, with one year lost to service in the First World War. His 90 shutouts are second all-time to Walter Johnson, and he ranks near the top in most other pitching categories. The secret to his success was simple: a fastball and a curve, both thrown with great control, and an easy motion that didn't wear down the arm. Alexander's life story was not always a happy one, and I'll talk about it in another space, but he certainly is a top candidate to rank among the top ten pitchers of all time.
        Brooklyn's best pitchers were Jeff Pfeffer and Rube Marquard. Pfeffer is not to be confused with Big Jeff Pfeffer, nor Jack Pfiester, two other dead-ball pitchers. This Jeff Pfeffer was better than Big Jeff, who was also his brother. Jeff had a number of good years for the Dodgers and the Cardinals, and won 158 games in his career. Marquard, on the other hand, was in a new phase of his career; his salad days with the Giants were over, and they had exiled him to Brooklyn. But he had a couple of decent years with the Dodgers, and pitched for them in two World Series.
        I'm choosing Pfeffer as runner-up to Alexander. In the third and fourth spots, I'm choosing Eppa Rixey and Dick Rudolph. Rixey is in the Hall Of Fame; he was a teammate of Alexander's, and had the first big year of his career. Rudolph was a fine pitcher who had led the Braves into the World Series two years earlier, and was still working hard and winning ball games for them.
        Also noteworthy was the remarkable year that Ferdie Schupp had. The Giants had a disastrous season in 1915, and Schupp was part of that disaster. But this year, at age 25, he put it together for half a season, and was brilliant. And it wasn't a fluke; next year he pitched brilliantly for a full season. But he missed all of 1918, likely to war service. When he came back he didn't pitch well at all, and his career ended ingloriously.