Pitch clock? Who needs a pitch clock?

Detroit Tigers right-hander Howard Ehmke is the winning pitcher in a 1-0 shutout of the New York Yankees 105 years ago today at Navin Field.

Now here is the real headline: Nearly 100 years before the major leagues institute the pitch clock in 1923, Ehmke’s shutout on this day in 1920 lasts just 73 minutes.

Howard Ehmke

Turns out to be the shortest nine-inning game in American League history.

Over his nine innings, Ehmke allows only three singles and a walk (to Babe Ruth, naturally) before a Sunday afternoon crowd of 28,000 in Detroit.

Ehmke also strikes out a season-high eight batters with three of those coming against Rip Collins, the Yankees’ pitcher who allows six hits over eight innings.

The only run off Collins is self-inflicted, coming on a fourth-inning wild pitch with Ty Cobb at third base.

Ehmke’s shutout comes less than a year after the fastest game in major league history, when New York Giants right-hander Jesse Barnes holds the Philadelphia Phillies to an unearned run in a 6-1 victory on Sept. 28, 1919 at the Polo Grounds.

That game, the opener of a season-ending doubleheader, lasts only 51 minutes.

Fifty-one freaking minutes. That’s not a typo.

Now imagine how much faster this game might have gone if the Giants do not take so much time smacking around Phillies starter Lee Meadows for six runs on 13 hits and three walks.

Who knows?

Maybe 28 minutes.

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