In 1911, 'Smoky Joe' Wood, with his one of-a-kind fast ball, won 23 games including a no-hitter and his greatest season was 1912 with his 34-5 record, including 16 in-a-row, plus three more in World Series' play.

Here is 'Smoky Joe's' account of what happened next, "In the spring of 1913, I was only 23 years, I went to field a ground ball on wet grass and I slipped and broke my thumb on my pitching arm. It was in a cast for three weeks. Something happened to my shoulder at the same time. I never pitched again without a terrific amount of pain in my right shoulder. Never again. I did manage to go 9-3 the next season and struck out on average of 10 men. But it wasn't the same. The pain was almost unbearable. In 1915, I did lead the league with a 1.49 ERA and was 14-5, but the old zip was gone from my fastball, it didn't hop anymore. So in 1916, I retired, stayed on my farm, fed the chickens. Just think, at the age of 26, I was all washed-up". Baseballhistorian.com archives Baseball History