1877 Cy Young Award

1877 National League - Tommy Bond, Boston Red Stockings

40-17, 2.11 ERA, 170 K

Since the Cy Young Award was first given out in 1956, 13 pitchers have won the Triple Crown - leading the league in wins, earned run average, and strikeouts.  All 13 won the Cy Young Award, so it would be safe to assume that, had the award existed in 1877, Tommy Bond's Triple Crown season would have guaranteed him the award.  Bond started 58 of Boston's 61 games, something that was not at all uncommon in the early days of professional baseball, but he did so while leading his team to their first National League pennant.  At the time, there was no other major league, and therefore no World Series, making the Red Stockings the de facto world champions of baseball.