Out o
The Cy Young
iust an award
Every year, with the conclusion
of the Major League Baseball
season comes the talk of what
pitcher will receive the Cy Young
award. For many fans today, the
talk about this award brings with it
one thought; who are the best
pitchers in baseball? But the Cy
Young award has much more
meaning than that. Cy Young
is more than just a prestigious
award. He, not it, is one of
the best pitchers baseball has
ever seen
Moving away from the idea
that the Cy Young is a piece
of hardware that baseball’s
elite pitcher gets to set on his
mantle, the man behind the
award adds to the prestige and
significance of the title.
There has to be some reason
that the award was named
after Cy Young. But why did
baseball choose this man above the
countless others that took the
mound in baseball’s first 50 years?
Denton True “Cy” Young was
the first big name pitcher in the
majors. He began his career in
1890, playing for Cleveland in the
National League until 1898. His
career started off with very
successful seasons for Cleveland,
posting 25 wins or more in each of
those eight seasons. After a short
tenure in St. Louis, Young moved
his game to the place that he will
forever be remembered. From
1901-1908, Young quickly
established himself as Boston’s
number one man.
To this day, Young ranks at the
top of Boston’s most recognized
pitching records. His 192 career
wins has him tied with today's
Roger Clemens. Of those.. 192
wins, 65 of them are accounted for
in just two seasons, 1901 and 1902.
His 1,341 career strikeouts has him
ranked second on Boston’s list with
Clemens once again holding the top
spot. But Young’s spots in the
Boston record books aren’t filled
yet. His 1.26 ERA in 1908 has him
ranked second among the Boston
greats, right behind Dutch Leonard
who finished with an amazing 1.00
ERA in 1914. Young’s career ERA
of 2.00 also puts him second, only
.01 behind the Red Sox Joe Wood.
But it can’t be argued that Young
is, to this day, the most consistent
pitcher in Boston when taking into
account career wins, strikeouts, and
ERA. He is the only Red Sox
pitcher to be ranked in the top three
in franchise history in each of those
categories. His 192-112 record in
a Red Sox uniform is one that has
never been reached by any pitcher
that has taken the mound in a
Boston uniform.
Cy Young’s overall career really
brings to the forefront the standard
and expectations that pitchers were
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to follow and are to continue to follow.
But some of Young’s accomplishments
are feats that will never be reached. 1
can say with 100% certainty that there
will never be another pitcher that will
be as durable and consistently good as
Cy Young was.
No one will ever again throw 751
complete games in their careei. And no
one will ever pitch 7,356 innings of
baseball like Young did. When was the
last time you heard of a pitcher throwing
over 300 innings of baseball in one
season for 15 seasons? These numbers
are numbers that are just considered
unreachable. There has to be even more
of a chance of someone breaking Mark
McGwire’s homerun record than anyone
putting up numbers like Cy Young did.
The most durable pitcher today would
probably be Kevin Brown with his
heroics in the post season for the San
Diego Padres. We talk about Brown's
two pitching performances with only
two day’s rest in this past entire post
season, but imagine Young doing that
probably twice a week, every week of
the season. And while you're at it, why
don’t you pitch in a couple of showings
with only one day’s rest? Durability like
that just doesn’t happen anymore.
Aside from Young’s durability comes
some major accomplishments that still
stand today. His 511 career wins are the
most of any pitcher for a career. He has
also started more games than anyone
else has with 815, beating Nolan Ryan
by 42 games despite Ryan playing for
five more seasons than Young. His name
is scattered throughout the record books
as his consistency is proven with a top
ten rating in shutouts (76), appearances
(906), and wins in a season in 1901-02
with 33 and 32, respectively. In his
career, he threw three no-hitlers
including a perfect game on May 5,1904
against the Philadelphia Athletics.
With the death of Cy Young in 1955
at the age of 88, MLB named the award
that would be given to baseball’s best
pitcher after him. Don Newcombe was
the first man to be recognized with this
honor in 1956. After 10 years, the award
was given to both the American League
and National League’s best pitcher.
Only ten men in the award’s 42-year
history have been honored with such
recognition multiple times. Steve
Carlton and Greg Maddux (4), Sandy
Koufax.Tom Seaverand Jim Palmer (3),
Bob Gibson, Denny McLain and
is more than
Gaylord Perry (2) make up part of this
elite group. And with the 1998 Cy
Young award winners announced
earlier this week, Tom Glavine joins
this company with his second award
and Roger Clemens leads the all-time
greats with five of his own.
Tom Glavine was a surprise winner
this year, beating out baseball’s best
closer in Trevor
Hoffman. In fact,
Hoffman received
more first place votes
than Glavine, which
marks the first time
since 1987 that the
pitcher with the most
first place votes didn’t
win. Glavine edged
out Hoffman, 99-88 in
with a 2.47 ERA. Hoffman finished
with a 1.48 ERA.
The American League, however,
awarded the Cy Young award to the
man that some would say most
resembles baseball’s first great
pitcher. Roger Clemens won his fifth
Cy Young this year, which comes to
no surprise to anyone who watched
him play. Clemens received all 28
first place votes in a unanimous
decision. The 28 votes put Clemens
in the company of Denny McLain
(1968) and Ron Guidry (1978) as the
only AL pitchers to win the award
unanimously.
Clemens won his first three Cy
Young’s while playing for the Red
Sox in 1986,’87, and’9l. This year’s
award is his second straight in the AL
playing for the Toronto Blue Jays.
What clinched the award for Clemens
was his 15 consecutive wins to end
the season with a 20-6 record. He led
the AL with a 2.65 ERA and 271
strikeouts. It is this consistency that
makes Clemens the modern day Cy
Young.
The careers, however, of Young and
Clemens seem to have gone in
opposite directions. Clemens began
his career in Boston, then moved east
to Toronto. On the other hand, Young
began his career in Cleveland, then
moved west to Boston where he
concluded his career. But there can
be no arguing the fact that where they
started and where they finished had
no bearing on where they are now.
Clearly, Young and Clemens
continued to move up the ladder of
success and can both be considered
the Kings of the Mound in their day
and age.
Snyder is the sports editor for the
Beacon. Out of Bounds appears
weekly on this page.
Sports
voting. He was the
only NL pitcher to win
20 games as he
finished the season
Intramural
Roundup
Intramurals
3 vs. 3 Basketball
In Conjunction with Schick Super Hoops
M, W
- Games began Monday, November 1
5 vs. 5 Basketball
w Registration Deadline:
-Sign ups are in fall semester December 11
-play begins spring semester
Lion runners conclude season
at regional s
By Jason Snyder
sports editor
The Behrend men’s and women’s
cross-country teams traveled to
Allentown this past Saturday,
November 14, to compete in the
regional meet. The men place 15th
of the 37-team field as the women
were unable to place due to the team
only having four runners.
Coach Rich Hoffman commented
on the atmosphere of the race saying,
“the regional meet is one of the great
spectacles in cross-country because of
the size of the field and intensity.”
The meet featured nearly 300 of the
region’s top runners with a common
goal of qualifying for nationals. The
teams from College of New Jersey,
Carnegie Mellon and Haverford
realized that goal in the men’s race
finishing with 57,76 and 92 points,
respectively. The women’s race saw
Carnegie Mellon, College of New
Jersey and Moravian reaching the
national meet with 71, 84 and 109
Housing and Food Service
Athlete of the Week
Name; Abby Crilley
Sport: ' Women’s Cross-country
Class: Sophomore
Date: November 9 - November 16
Abby Crilley, a sophomore from Linesville High School, competed in the NCAA Mideast Re
gional Cross-country Championships and finished 155th out of 300 plus runners.
“Abby did a solid job on Saturday,” said head coach Rich Hoffman. “She has improved each
week and gained valuable experience from the regional.”
The NCAA Mideast Regionals are very competitive, and to finish in the top half is a good start
to a promising career.
Penn State Behrend Basketball Tournament
Women
Behrend vs. Mount Saint Josephs Friday Night at 8:00
Championship game on Saturday at 3:00
Men
Behrend vs. D’Youville Saturday Night at 8:00
Championship game on Sunday at 3:00
November 19, 1998 - The Behrend College Beacon - page 7
points, respectively.
The Behrend men entered the race
with hopes of possibly qualifying for
the national meet at the end of this
month. The men’s 15th place finish,
however, didn’t set well with the
program. Hoffman said, “we were
pretty far off where we could have
been, and we are exploring reasons
for that. It was disappointing, but
what we’ll do now is learn from this
experience and use it to our advantage
in the future.” He added, “we got
caught up a little too much in the
excitement of the meet and went out
way too hard.”
Brian Gaines paced the Lions once
again with an 82nd place finish in a
time of 28:14. Jason Saeger finished
in 88th at 28:19 as Dennis
Halaszynski (104) 28:32, Mark
Suroviec (122) 28:44, Adam
Dzuricky (148) 29:10, Tyler Travis
(174) 29:37 and Matt Heidecker (187)
29:52 rounded out the Lions’ roster.
Just to give a sense of the
competitiveness of the meet, in the
102 seconds that separated Gaines and
Heidecker, 105 runners crossed the
finish line.
Despite the Behrend women’s team
being unable to place in the meet,
Hoffman is very pleased with their
effort. “The women ran real well.
They ended on a real positive note and
that should encourage them to train
and improve even more.” He added,
“I was very happy with the way the
women took on this challenge and
learned to not be intimidated by
anyone, and race hard regardless of
the circumstances.”
Three of the women Lions ran their
best times of the season. Abby Crilley
led the Lions with a time of 22:10 and
a place of 155 of the 278 participants.
Keri Lowman followed with a time
of 23:34 as Tina Rubay and Amy
Bednar finished with limes of 24:05
and 24:37, respectively.
With the conclusion of the 1998
season both the Behrend men and the
women hope to continue to improve
in the future. Hoffman sees the future
as being “very promising.”