1918 Cy Young Awards

1918 American League - Walter Johnson, Washington Senators

23-13, 1.27 ERA, 162 K

This was another contest that wasn't even close.  Johnson easily won the Triple Crown; the only category that was even close was wins, which Johnson led by one.  Considering Washington's mediocre offense, Johnson could've easily won more with a better team.  His ERA was more than half a run lower than anyone else, and he had an ERA+ of 216.  He also led in shutouts (8),  WHIP (0.954), and WAR (8.7), and it was the 5th time in his career that Johnson was the best in the league.

1918 National League - Hippo Vaughn, Chicago Cubs

22-10, 1.74 ERA, 148 K

It literally took a World War to keep Grover Cleveland Alexander from winning the Retroactive Cy Young Award for the fourth year in a row; he was drafted and spent most of the season in the army.  In any case, that fact doesn't take anything away from Hippo Vaughn, who won the Triple Crown and led the Cubs to the NL pennant.  However, Vaughn is probably best known for two other incidents, with one being getting stabbed by his father-in-law, and the other being his participation in the closest thing MLB has ever had to a double no-hitter, which occurred in the previous year when neither he nor Cincinnati's Fred Toney allowed a hit in the first 9 innings, the only time that has happened in MLB history.  However, he lost the no-hitter (and the game) in the 10th inning, but made up for it by winning the Triple Crown in 1918.  He led in many other major categories, including starts (33), innings (290.1), WHIP (1.006), and hits per 9 innings (6.7).  The counting stats such as wins, starts, and innings are all fairly low because the season was shortened due to World War I; his Cubs played just 129 games.