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not on either side of the debate, just want to make something clear about Cy Young cause I may be
the only one on this site that has studied his career in depth...
Cy Young's name was not chosen to be on the annual pitching award because of the 511 career wins as most assume.
Initially, MLB wanted to have two separate awards, one for each league, National & American.
They were to be named the Walter Johnson Award (AL) & the Christy Mathewson Award (NL.)
But that idea was too cluttered, they wanted an award with just one name attached...
because Cy Young played so long, and played in so many leagues - he was chosen to represent the award.
So the name attached would not favor either the NL or AL for years to come. Also, Cy commanded respect from everyone,
not because of his baseball prowess, but because he was a tough as nails, dependable, honest farmer. Even Ty Cobb had nothing but respect for him.
(Ty Cobb was the mentally disturbed HOF'er who once said Babe Ruth ran well for a fat man.) Yet Cy Young he was never thought to be
nearly as good as Johnson or Mathewson then or now.
But now that Cy's name has been on the award for so many years & one can look up his unbreakable 511 wins,
most (who don't know that much about Cy) think he was The God pitcher when that is not the case at all.
hope baseball fans appreciate this post - and Cy is one of my top favorites, as is WJ.
Can you top seasons of 36-12, 35-10, 33-10, 32-11, etc.? Walter was better ERA wise but had 100 less wins in his career. The seasons of 1.xx ERA were incredible but it's not like either of these pitchers have the best ERA ever. It probably does come down to name recognition for Cy, I consider him the best pitcher ever but totally understand the WJ argument.