Cy Young

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 1939. 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.
Young was born in Gilmore, Ohio, a farming community located in the eastern portion of Ohio. 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.
Young began his professional career in 1889 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.
In 1890, Young signed for $500 with the Cleveland Spiders. On August 6, 1890, in his first major league start, Young pitched a three-hit shutout. 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. James wrote that Zimmer often put a piece of beefsteak inside his baseball glove to protect his catching hand from Young's fastball.
Chief Zimmer
Young continued to perform at a high level and on the last day of the 1890 season, he won both games of a doubleheader. By the end of his rookie season, Young was the team's top pitcher.
In the first weeks of Young's career, Cap Anson, the famous player-manager of the Chicago Colts spotted his ability. Anson told Spiders manager Gus Schmelz "He's too green to do your club much good, but I believe if I taught him what I know, I might make a pitcher out of him in a couple of years. He's not worth it now, but I'm willing to give you $1,000 for him." Schmelz replied, "Cap, you can keep your thousand and we'll keep the rube."
Young spent two years (1899-1900) with the St. Louis Perfectos, while finding his favorite catcher, Lou Criger. The two men would be teammates for a decade.
Lou Criger & Cy Young
In 1901, 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 1909.
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, 1902, 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.
In 1903 the Boston Americans played the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first modern World Series. Young, who started Game One, threw the first pitch in World Series history. But the Pirates scored four runs in the first inning and Young lost the game. Young performed better in subsequent games, winning his next two starts. He also drove in three runs in Game Five. Young finished the series with a 2-1 record and a 1.85 ERA in four appearances, and the Americans defeat the Pirates five games to three games.
On June 30, 1908, 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 1909 season, this time to the Cleveland Naps of the American League. He split 1911, 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.
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 was not moved back to its present position of 60 feet, six inches until Young's fourth season; he did not wear a glove until his sixth.
Young credited his off-season farming chores, including wood chopping, with keeping his pitching strength in good shape until he was 44. Even at the time of his retirement, his arm was healthy, but Young had gained weight and was unable to field his position anymore. In three of his last four years, he was the oldest player in the league.
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