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It seems odd to me that there aren't more old films of baseball games in existence. There is only one very short film of Christy Mathewson, for instance, and in it he is warming up. I would love to see Rube Waddell or Tinker-Evers-Chance. Even for Ty Cobb there seem to be only a few short disjointed takes.

It's true that from the beginning of professional baseball, pitchers have continually pitched fewer and fewer games. If you go back to the 1870s and 1880s, you had guys starting 70 out of a teams 100 games, guys like Old Hoss Radbourne winning something like 56 games in a year. Of course early on they threw underhand, and then you had a lot of very short careers too. But the decline in starts continued throughout the 20th century -- the fact that there hasn't been a 30 game winner in the National League since -- what -- the mid-30s at least -- doesn't mean there hasn't been a great pitcher in that time. And now the 20 game winner is almost extinct. Hard to win 20 when you only make 30 starts at best and the manager is programmed to take you out after seven innings. I wouldn't be surprised if another 25 or 30 years we go to six man rotations and it becomes automatic to let no one throw more than 50 pitches per game. That six-man no-hitter probably has a lot of General Managers studying the situation.

"Of course early on they threw underhand ..."
Correct. I umpire youth baeball, but I really enjoy reading about the vintage rules. I think the "overhand" pitch was first legal after 1876. Of course, even today there are a couple of good sidearm/submarine pitchers ... Kim and Meyers come to mind. A few years ago I remember Quisinberry was pretty good too.
The funny thing about the six-man no hitter was that the starter got hurt. If he had not left the game early, there probably would not have had that series of relievers. I guess the Astros don't have a "long relief" guy, or used him recently.

You make good points about the pre-modern (prior to the A.L. in 1901) pitchers. Lots of starts. I wonder today if anyone has a chance to win 30 in a season. Was it McLain who last did it? Late 60's?? It's so long ago, I can't remember ... it was in my ... errr ... youth.