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Jeff Pfeffer took the loss in an 18 2/3-inning complete-game effort that featured the longest relief outing in big league history. The June 17, 1915 contest came at Chicago’s West Side Grounds. Dodger moundsman Pfeffer scattered 13 hits, struck out six, and surrendered just two earned runs. It wasn’t enough.

The marathon relief outing for the Cubs was necessitated in the first inning. Two outs into the game Chicago starter Bert Humphries took hard comebacker off the bat of Zack Wheat.

With Humphries unable to go, manager Roger Bresnahan summoned Zip Zabel out of the bullpen. The right-hander went the rest of the way to set the big league standard for most relief innings in a game.

Cy Williams recorded two hits for the Cubs and drove in the first run. He was also the final batter of the game.

In the bottom of the 19th inning Bob Fisher led off with a single against Pfeffer. After recording an out and surrendering a hit, Pfeffer held Fisher at third on an infield groundout.

Needing just one more out to move to the 20th inning, Pfeffer induced a routine grounder from Williams. Second baseman George Cutshaw fielded it cleanly then made an errant throw to allow the deciding run to cross the plate. Despite the gutty performance. Pfeffer took the walk-off loss.

Zabel’s 18 1/3 inning relief performance stands the test of time as one of baseball’s most unbreakable records.

Shown here is Cy Williams’ signature on a personal check. The four-time league leader in homers, Williams held the NL’s career homer mark from 1923-1929. For more on Cy Williams, click here.

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Rogers Hornsby is arguably the greatest right-handed hitter in the history of baseball. His .358 lifetime average remains #1 among the game’s righties. Over the five-year period from 1921-1925, the two-time Triple Crown winner hit .402. Hornsby is the only player to slug 40 homers while topping the mythical .400 mark.

The Rajah’s first career home run was an inside-the-park job on May 14, 1916 off of Brooklyn’s Jeff Pfeffer. Overall Hornsby went 19-for-59 against Jeff, good for a .339 average. His on-base mark against the hurler is .371 and his slugging percentage stands at .429. Though solid, those numbers are all well below Hornsby’s career slash line of .358/.434/.577.

Shown here is the signature of Hornsby, Cooperstown class of 1941.

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Jeff Pfeffer was one of baseball’s best pitchers from 1914-1917. Owner of 78 wins during that period, he pitched to a 2.05 ERA.

Then in 1918 Pfeffer appeared in just one game. He made the most of it with a two-hit complete-game shutout against the eventual National League champion Chicago Cubs.

In the letter above Pfeffer explains his abbreviated campaign.

“The reason for my one game appearance during the season of 1918 – I was busy with duties at the Great Lakes Naval Station as a member of the Armed Services where I was stationed for two months during the First World War. I pitched the one game for Brooklyn when they came to Chicago on one of their regular trips of that season.”

Pfeffer’s signature is at the bottom.

Interestingly the correspondence is dated June 17, 1965 from Chicago, a half-century to the day after his 13 2/3-inning complete-game loss in the same city. On June 17, 1915 Cub hurler Zip Zabel established a still-standing MLB record by throwing 18 1/3 innings in relief for the win.

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Jeff Pfeffer pitched for Brooklyn from 1913-1921. His time there included six full seasons mixed in with 5 appearances in his first year, a lone start in 1918 during WWI, and 6 appearances in 1920.

In those six full campaigns, he tallied 111 wins, a 2.27 ERA and 33.3 WAR. During the run the menacing 6’3″, 210-pound right-hander twice hit the most batters in the league. Four times each he finished in the top-10 in the pitching Triple Crown categories wins, ERA and strikeouts. Five times he finished in the top-5 in pitchers WAR.

His two best seasons came in 1914 and 1916. In the first of those two campaigns Pfeffer went 23-12 with a 1.97 ERA and a career-best 7.8 WAR. The performance ranks as one of the best ever by a Dodger hurler.

In 1916 Pfeffer won 25 with a career-low 1.92 ERA. He finished second in the league in both complete games (30), and shutouts (6). For good measure he set career highs at the plate in hits, triples, RBI, and batting average. In a losing effort in the World Series Pfeffer made three appearances and pitched to a 1.69 ERA.

Though his Dodger career ended more than a century ago Pfeffer remains on the career leaderboard of the pitching-rich franchise. He ranks 7th in complete games, 8th in both shutouts and pitchers’ WAR.

Pfeffer’s 2.31 career ERA stands atop the all-time Brooklyn list and is bettered only by Zack Greinke (2.30) in the history of the franchise. If 600 innings is the minimum threshold, Greinke is tops. When considering hurlers with at least 700 innings, it’s Pfeffer. Click here to see more on Greinke.

Shown here is an ESPN SportsTicker questionnaire filled out entirely by Greinke on August 3, 2002. That’s just two months removed from his senior year in high school and still two years away from his Major League debut.

Though he won the 2009 Cy Young Award for Kansas City, his finest season came in 2015 with the Dodgers. That year Greinke led the league in ERA (1.66), WHIP (0.844), and Winning Percentage (19-3 .864) while earning the second of three consecutive Gold Gloves. Click here to see more about Greinke.