1924 Cy Young Awards

1924 American League - Walter Johnson, Washington Senators

23-7, 2.72 ERA, 158 K

It had been a while for Walter Johnson, who had not won the award, or had even a moderately spectacular season in five years, but he had one of his finest years in 1924 at the age of 36.  At an age when most pitchers had since moved on to different careers, Walter Johnson won the Triple Crown and led the Senators to their first World Series title.  It was his third Triple Crown, and the second time (along with 1913) that he won the MVP Award.  In addition, it's the seventh time that I've chosen him for a Retroactive Cy Young, the same number of real Cy Young Awards that Roger Clemens has won.  He led the league in many other categories too, including WHIP (1.116), hits per 9 innings (7.552), ERA+ (149), and shutouts (6).  After 1924, Johnson played for three more seasons, and in 1936 was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame as part of their first induction class.  His 110 career shutouts are the most ever by a pitcher, his 417 wins are second only to Cy Young, his 3509 career strikeouts were first all-time for many years, and his ERA+ of 147 is fifth all-time.

1924 National League - Dazzy Vance, Brooklyn Robins

28-6, 2.16 ERA, 262 K

Walter Johnson won the Triple Crown in the AL, and fellow Hall of Famer Dazzy Vance easily did so in the NL, winning each category by a huge margin.  He had 6 more wins than anyone else (he could've stopped pitching after August 23rd and still have led the league), an ERA lower than anyone else by over half a run, and nearly twice as many strikeouts.  Vance had 262, followed by Burleigh Grimes's 135, and then Dolf Luque's 86.  He also led in WHIP (1.022), hits per 9 innings (6.947 - nearly a hit lower than anyone else), ERA+ (174) and WAR (9.1 - twice that of any other pitcher).  It was the third of seven consecutive seasons in which he led the NL in strikeouts, and he easily won the league MVP Award.  Although he was certainly a great pitcher, 1924 was definitely his best, and without it, it's very unlikely he would've ever made it to the Hall of Fame.