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 103 years ago today at Navin Field.

Now here is the real headline: The game lasts just 73 minutes, the shortest game in American League history.

Over his nine innings, Ehmke allows only three singles and a walk (to Babe Ruth, naturally).

He 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 minutes. That’s not a typo.

Now imagine how much faster this game might have gone had the Giants not taken so much time battering Phillies starter Lee Meadows for six runs on 13 hits and three walks.

Who knows? Maybe 28 minutes.