I wanted to find a list of who holds the record for most no decisions in a career? I have gotten that question numerous times at the bar, and we have discussed it a few times in depth. One of my customers says Tom Glavine has to be up there all-time. If I can be pointed where to get a list I would love you long-time....or at least 30 seconds....

I don’t have a list, although a good place to start would be either Baseball Reference’s list of Career Games Started (http://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/GS_career.shtml) or the Baseball Reference Play Index, specifically the Pitching Season Finder set to “career”.  It doesn’t have No-Decisions, but it does have Games Started and Decisions.  (Unfortunately, you have to pay to see the entire report, but it’s something I highly recommend for reasons that should become obvious pretty quickly.)

At any rate, Glavine has 162; the best I can find is Tommy John at 181, then Don Sutton at 176 and Roger Clemens at 167.

Aardsma, your leaders are probably near-correct, though one should note that Tommy John had 60 relief appearances in his career and some of them were doubtless decisions, so GS-Decisions doesn’t guarantee the exact figure of no-decisions in starts that the question implies.  (Jesse Orosco had over a thousand no-decisions in relief, but that is not an interesting bit of trivia :)

Here is a list of the leaders in no-decisions since 1957. Tommy John is indeed #1. Glavine is 5th.

Though the data isn’t available for players before 1957, I doubt they would change the list much, since relief pitchers were used so much less frequently back then.

DCW3 * - 04 August 2007 01:49 AM

Here is a list of the leaders in no-decisions since 1957. Tommy John is indeed #1. Glavine is 5th.

Though the data isn’t available for players before 1957, I doubt they would change the list much, since relief pitchers were used so much less frequently back then.

It would not have. The only pitcher close to the list who had significant innings before 1957 is Whitey Ford.

-- MWE

Did you know Wakefield has no no-decisions this year?  What’s the most games a pitcher has pitched in a season without getting any no-decisions?

GotowarMissAgnes - 11 August 2007 04:15 PM

Did you know Wakefield has no no-decisions this year?  What’s the most games a pitcher has pitched in a season without getting any no-decisions?

That would be a tough one to figure out for sure, but no doubt it would be some guy from the 1800s. In 1883 Pud Galvin started 75 games and had 75 decisions, but he did pitch one game in relief.