When it comes to pitching nuggets in the early 1900s, right-hander Grover Cleveland Alexander dominated. He qualifies as the first among Phillies Royalty.

As a rookie (1911), Alexander won 28 games (13 losses) and pitched 367 innings -- Phillies rookie records that still stand. One of the wins was 1-0 vs. 44-year-old Cy Young on Sept. 7. It was Young’s final season.

• Phillies Alumni

In Alexander’s first seven seasons, he won 20 or more games six times. His miss came as a 19-game winner (1912). Of those six 20-game seasons, half were 30-win campaigns (1915-17). Nobody has won 30 games for the Phillies since.

He's the only Phillies pitcher to win a Triple Crown twice, leading the league in wins (31), ERA (1.22) and strikeouts (241) in 1915 and 33 wins with a 1.55 ERA and 167 K's the following season. He did it a third time while with the 1920 Cubs (27 wins, 1.99 ERA and 173 K's).

The right-hander pitched the Phillies to their first National League pennant (1915). He opened the season with a shutout in Boston and clinched the pennant with a shutout in Boston. In the World Series, he won the opener, 3-1, over the Boston Red Sox, his team’s lone victory. His third-inning single was the Phillies' first hit.

By the way, the Dow average was 99.15 in 1915.

At age 29 (1916), he threw 16 shutouts, a Major League record that will never be broken. Almost half of his 33 wins were shutouts of which four were one-hitters. The previous NL shutout record was 12 by him the previous season. Jack Coombs (Philadelphia Athletics) held the MLB record, 13, in 1910.

Shutout nuggets: Half came in the cozy Baker Bowl … in four other wins, he allowed one run … four times, he was shut out … four wins were 1-0 decisions, including a 12-inning game vs. Chicago. In that game, he walked two batters intentionally in the bottom of the 12th to face the pitcher whom he struck out to end the game … total innings pitched in the shutouts: 144. Total number of walks: 9.

Alexander also owns the club record for consecutive shutouts (four): Sept. 7, 13, 17 and 21 in 1911. During that streak, he had 41 consecutive scoreless innings, yet another unmatched Phillies record. Cliff Lee came the closest, 34 innings in 2011.

So, how do four Phillies Hall of Fame pitchers stack up for most shutouts in a single season? Steve Carlton’s high was eight (1972); Jim Bunning, seven (1965); Robin Roberts, six (1951); and Roy Halladay, four (2010).

Twice, Alexander won both games of a doubleheader. His 30th win came in the first game of a Sunday, Sept. 23, 1916, doubleheader vs. Cincinnati at the Baker Bowl. Less than a year later (Sept. 3, 1917), he won both games in Brooklyn, 5-0 and 9-3; wins Nos. 22 and 23. He faced a total of 139 batters in those four DH complete games and walked two.

With concerns that Alexander might get drafted because of World War I, Phillies ownership traded its ace on Dec. 11, 1917. He and catcher Bill Killefer went to the Cubs for catcher Pickles Dillhoefer, right-hander Mike Prendergast and $55,000.

He pitched in three games with the Cubs (1918) before being drafted. Alexander spent most of the that season in France as a sergeant with the 342nd Field Artillery. Seven weeks were spent on the warfront where he suffered several injuries.

“Under relentless bombardment that left him deaf in his left ear. Pulling the lanyard to fire the howitzers caused muscle damage in his right arm. He caught some shrapnel in his outer right ear, an injury thought not serious at the time, but which may have been the progenitor of cancer almost 30 years later. He was shellshocked. Worst of all, the man who used to have a round or two with the guys and call it a day became alcoholic and epileptic, a condition possibly caused by the skulling he’d received in Galesburg,” Jan Finkel wrote (SABR Bio Project).

He returned in 1919, pitched nine years with the Cubs followed by four with the St. Louis Cardinals. He won two games in the Cardinals' 1926 World Series win over the Yankees.

Pitching four scoreless relief innings for the St. Louis, the 42-year-old Alexander won his 373rd and final game on Aug. 10, 1929. It was against the Phillies.

That December, the Phillies reacquired him in a four-player trade. His 1930 record: 0-3 in nine games, the only losing season in a 20-year career. His final game was four relief innings at Braves Field in Boston on May 28. A few days later, he was released.

Final Phillies numbers: 190-91, 2.18 ERA and 61 shutouts, a number that will never be touched.

He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1938, and he was among a group of 10 at the induction ceremony when the HOF officially opened on July 12, 1939; Honus Wagner, Tris Speaker, Nap Lajoie, George Sisler, Walter Johnson, Eddie Collins, Babe Ruth, Connie Mack and Cy Young.

(First of a Phillies Royalty series featuring the franchise’s greatest players since 1900.)