Cy Young Totally Explained

Everything about Cy Young totally explained

Denton True "Cy" Young (March 29, 1867 – November 4, 1955) was an American baseball player who pitched for five different major league teams from 1890 to 1911. He established numerous professional pitching records during his 22-year career in the majors, some of which have stood for a century. Young retired with 511 career wins, the most in MLB history and 94 more wins than Walter Johnson, who is second on the list.
In honor of Young's contributions to Major League Baseball, MLB created the Cy Young Award, an annual award given to the pitcher voted the most effective in each of the two leagues. The Baseball Hall of Fame elected Young in . During his professional career, Young won at least 30 games in a season five times, with ten other seasons of 20+ wins. He also pitched three no-hitters, including the first perfect game of baseball's "modern era."
In addition to wins, Young holds the MLB records for most career innings pitched (7,355), most career games started (815), and most complete games (749). He also retired with 316 losses the most in MLB history (the only other pitcher with more than 300 career losses was Pud Galvin). Young had 76 career shutouts, fourth most in history.
In, 88 years after his final Major League appearance and 44 years after his death, editors at The Sporting News ranked Cy Young 14th on their list of "Baseball's 100 Greatest Players". That same year, baseball fans named Young to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.

Early life

Young was born in Gilmore, a tiny farming community located in Washington Township, Tuscarawas County, Ohio, in the southeastern Appalachian region of the state. Raised on one of these local farms, Young went by the name Dent Young in his early years. Also known from time to time as "Farmer Young" and "Farmboy Young," Young stopped his formal education after he completed the sixth grade.

Professional career

Young began his professional career in with the Canton, Ohio team of the Tri-State League, a professional minor league. Young impressed scouts during his tryout; years later, he recalled, "I almost tore the boards off the grandstand with my fast ball." The catcher who warmed up Young gave him the nickname "Cyclone" in reference to the speed of his fastball. Reporters then shortened the name to "Cy". "Cy" became the nickname he used the rest of his life. In Young's one year with the Canton team, he won 15 games and lost 15 games.. While Young was on the Spiders, Chief Zimmer was his catcher more often than any other player. Bill James, a noted baseball statistician, estimated that Zimmer caught Young in more games than any other battery in baseball history.
   Early on, Young established himself as one of the harder throwing pitchers in the sport. In the absence of radar guns, it's difficult to say just how hard Young actually threw. However, James wrote that Zimmer often put a piece of beefsteak inside his baseball glove to protect his catching hand from Young's fastball.
   Two years after his debut, the National League moved the pitcher's mound from fifty feet (where it had been since 1881) to sixty feet and six inches. In the book The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers, sports journalist Rob Neyer wrote that the speed with which pitchers like Cy Young, Amos Rusie, and Jouett Meekin threw was the impetus that caused the move.
   The regular season was a success for Young, who led the National League in wins (36), ERA (1.93), and shutouts (9). Just as many contemporary Minor League Baseball leagues operate today, the National League was using a split season format during the season. The Boston Beaneaters won the first-half title and the Spiders won the second-half title, with a best-of-nine series determining the league champion. Despite the Spiders' second half run, the Beaneaters swept the series five games to none. Young pitched three complete games in the series but lost his only two decisions. He also threw a complete game shutout, but the game ended in a 0-0 tie.
   In, the Spiders faced the Baltimore Orioles in the Temple Cup, a precursor to the World Series. Young won three games and Cleveland won the Cup, four games to one. It was around this time that Young added what he called a "slow ball" to his pitching repertoire, to reduce stress on his arm; today, the pitch is called a changeup. On September 18,, Young pitched the first no-hitter of his career in a game against the Cincinnati Reds. Although Young didn't walk a batter, the Spiders committed four errors while on defense. One of the errors had originally been ruled a hit, but the Cleveland third baseman sent a note to the press box after the eighth inning, saying he'd made an error, and the ruling was changed. Young later said that despite his teammate's gesture, he considered the game to be a one-hitter.
   Prior to the season, Frank Robison, the Spiders owner, bought the St. Louis Browns, thus owning two clubs at the same time. The Browns were renamed the "Perfectos," and restocked with Cleveland talent. Just weeks before the season opener, most of the better Spiders players were transferred to St. Louis, including three future Hall of Famers: Young, Jesse Burkett and Bobby Wallace. The roster maneuvers failed to create a powerhouse Perfectos team, as St. Louis finished fifth in both and . But the depleted Spiders lost 134 games, the most in MLB history, before folding.
   Young spent two years with St. Louis, while finding his favorite catcher, Lou Criger. The two men would be teammates for a decade.
   In, the rival American League declared major league status, and set about raiding National League rosters. Young left St. Louis and joined the American League's Boston Americans for a $3,500 contract. Young would remain with the Boston team until .
   In his first year in the American League, Young was dominant. Pitching to Criger, who had also jumped to Boston, Young led the league in wins, strikeouts and ERA, thus earning the colloquial AL Triple Crown for Pitchers. That season, he also pitched the first perfect game in American League history. Young won almost 42% of his team's games in 1901, a record which would stand for over seventy years until broken by Steve Carlton's 27-10 record for a 59-win Phillies team.
   In February,, before the start of the baseball season, Young served as a pitching coach at Harvard University. The sixth-grade graduate instructing Harvard students made great copy for the delighted Boston newspapers. Waddell was the 27th and last batter, and when he flied out, Young shouted, "How do you like that, you hayseed?"
   Waddell had picked an inauspicious time to issue his challenge. Young's perfect game was the centerpiece of a sterling pitching streak. Young set major league records for both the most consecutive scoreless innings pitched, and for the most consecutive innings without allowing a hit; the latter record still stands at 24.1 innings, or 73 hitless batters. Even after allowing a hit, Young's scoreless streak reached a then-record 45 shutout innings.
   Before Young, only two pitchers had thrown perfect games. During the season, Lee Richmond and John Ward pitched perfect games within five days of each other. However, the circumstances for Richmond and Ward were very different from Young's. In 1880, the mound was 15 feet closer to the batter, walks required eight balls, and pitchers were obliged to throw side-armed. In 1907, Young and Waddell faced off in a scoreless 13-inning tie.
   On June 30,, Young pitched the third no-hitter of his career. Three months past his 41st birthday, Cy Young was the oldest pitcher to record a no-hitter, a record which would stand 82 years until 43-year-old Nolan Ryan surpassed the feat. Only a leadoff walk kept Young from his second perfect game; after that runner was caught stealing, no other batter reached base. Young was now the second-oldest player in either league, but was still one of the AL's elite pitchers. One month before his no-hitter, he'd allowed just one single while facing 28 batters.
   Young was traded back to Cleveland, the place where he played over half his career, before the season, this time to the Cleveland Naps of the American League. He split, his final year, between the Naps and the Boston Rustlers.
   On September 22, 1911, Young shut out the Pittsburgh Pirates and their pitcher Babe Adams 1-0, for his last career victory. But two weeks later, Young's 906th and final game was an unsatisfying coda: the last eight batters of Young's career combined to hit a triple, four singles and three doubles.

Young's legacy

Young retired after the 1911 season with 511 career wins. His win total set the record for most career wins by a pitcher. At the time, Pud Galvin had the second most career wins with 364. Walter Johnson, then in his fourth season, finished his career with 417 wins and is now second on the list. However, Johnson broke Young's career record for strikeouts.
Cy Young's career spanned several decades and is seen as a bridge from baseball's earliest days to its modern era; he pitched against stars such as Cap Anson, already an established player when the National League was first formed in 1876, as well as against Eddie Collins, who played until 1930. When Young's career began, pitchers delivered the baseball underhand and fouls were not counted as strikes. The pitcher's mound wasn't moved back to its present position of 60 feet, six inches until Young's fourth season; he didn't wear a glove until his sixth. Even at the time of his retirement, his arm was healthy, but Young had gained weight and was unable to field his position anymore.
Young is mentioned in the poem "Lineup for Yesterday" by Ogden Nash:
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