Midwest League Reference Pages

Twenty Game Winners

Floyd Melliere was our league's first twenty-game winner; he managed a 21-4 record for the West Frankfort team in 1948, leading the Cardinals to the Illinois State League championship and (of course) leading the league in wins. The ISL was a predecessor of the MWL and our league claims those records.

Twenty-win seasons were fairly common in the '50s; four pitchers had 22-win seasons in that span. 1950 and 1956 had 3 twenty-game winners; only 1953 had none.

1961 had two 20-game winners. Then they stopped.

31 years later, John Fritz went 20-4 for the 1992 Quad City River Bandits. The Bandits lead the league in wins, but lost the championship playoff to Cedar Rapids.

This is a terrible predictor of big-league success, by the way. Juan Marichal we all know about. Joe Schaffernoth pitched three big-league summers. I think Dave Hill had 2 IP with the Kansas City A's. That's it.

Fritz made it to AAA at Vancouver and New Orleans, but was out of organized ball after 1995.

19 pitchers have managed 20-win ISL/MOV/MWL seasons. Here's the list:

1948  Floyd Melliere    West Frankfort   21-4
1950  Gene Pisarski     Centralia        22-3
      Barry Dosser      Paducah          20-7
      David Hill        Mattoon          20-10
1951  Lee Tunison       Centralia        20-8
1952  Kenneth Gohn      Danville         22-5
      Neil Maxa         Paris            21-6
1954  John Bumgarner    Decatur          22-8
      David Jimenez     Clinton          20-6
1955  Allen Evens       Kokomo           21-10
1956  Arturo Miro       Clinton          22-5
      Charles Smith     Lafayette        21-4
      Joe Schaffernoth  Paris            21-6
1957  Emerson Unzicker  Kokomo           20-11
1958  Juan Marichal     Michigan City    21-8
1959  Joel McDaniel     Decatur          22-9
1961  David Busby       Waterloo         21-7
      Thomas Newton     Quad City        20-7
1992  John Fritz        Quad City        20-4

This page originated as the March 6, 1999, Midwest League Tidbit on the Midwest League Mailing List.