1879 Cy Young Award

1879 National League - Tommy Bond, Boston Red Stockings

43-19, 1.96 ERA, 155 K

For the third consecutive year, Tommy Bond was the best pitcher in baseball, leading the NL in ERA for the second time in three years and shutouts for the third consecutive year.  With an expanded schedule, Bond was no longer to pitch virtually all of Boston's games, but he still started 64 of the team's 84 games, completing all but five of them and throwing 11 shutouts in the process.  Still, Boston was unable to win their third consecutive pennant, finishing second, five games behind the Providence Grays, who were led by my choice as the runner-up for the 1879 Cy Young Award, Hall of Famer John Montgomery Ward.  Although Bond never joined him in the Hall of Fame (he received 1.3% of the vote in 1936 and did not appear on the ballot again) he certainly put together an impressive three consecutive seasons in which he was the best pitcher in baseball.