Cubs' Matthew Boyd joins Hall of Famer who died in 1926 in rare MLB history

Billy Heyen

Cubs' Matthew Boyd joins Hall of Famer who died in 1926 in rare MLB history image

Matthew Boyd is keeping company with a man who has been dead for 99 years.

Does the name Eddie Plank ring a bell? Maybe to the most diehard of baseball fans it sounds familiar.

Plank is a Hall of Famer, but he pitched in the 1900s and 1910s. He died in 1926, nearly 100 years before Boyd joined him in the record books.

Here's the stat from Just Baseball:

"The only left-handed starters in MLB history with a postseason ERA below 1.70 and 0 HR allowed (min. 6 GS): Eddie Plank and Matthew Boyd."

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Boyd was great last year for the Cleveland Guardians, and now he's doing it again for the Chicago Cubs.

Plank was one of the great early pitchers, so that's quite the company to keep.

He was a 5-foot-11 lefty who was from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and attended Gettysburg College.

Eventually, Plank journeyed out to the Philadelphia Athletics, making his MLB debut in 1901 and staying with the A's for 14 seasons.

After that, he spent a single season with the St. Louis Terriers in the short-lived federal league.

And finally, Plank closed his career with two seasons with the St. Louis Browns.

Plank had a 1.79 ERA in his last season when he was a 41-year old southpaw hurling for the Blues.

Boyd isn't going to end up in the Hall of Fame, but he's turned his career around, and it's really cool to watch. The Cubs are definitely grateful that Boyd helped propel them toward what would be a decisive Game 5 of the NLDS against the Milwaukee Brewers.

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Billy Heyen

Billy Heyen is a freelance writer with The Sporting News. He is a 2019 graduate of Syracuse University who has written about many sports and fantasy sports for The Sporting News. Sports reporting work has also appeared in a number of newspapers, including the Sandusky Register and Rochester Democrat & Chronicle