Historic Photos: Calvin Coolidge, 1924 World Series

On October 4, 1924, President Calvin Coolidge threw out the first ball of the 1924 World Series between the Washington Senators and the New York Giants.  The series would end up as one of the most memorable in World Series history, with Washington tying the score in the bottom of the 8th inning of Game 7 thanks to a 2-out, bases loaded ground ball that took a bad hop over third baseman Freddy Lindstrom.  Washington would go on to win it in the 12th inning behind the relief pitching of Walter Johnson, with the winning hit coming on another ground ball that took a bad hop on Lindstrom (Giants players named Fred seem to have problems fielding the ball in extra innings in the final game of the World Series. See Snodgrass, Fred). In the end, though, Walter Johnson, possibly the greatest pitcher in baseball history, finally had his first and only World Series title.  Things would also end well for Calvin Coolidge - exactly a month after this photo was taken, he was re-elected in a landslide.

Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.

1954 Cy Young Awards

1954 American League - Bob Lemon, Cleveland Indians

23-7, 2.72 ERA, 110 K

Several posts ago, I mentioned how good of a starting rotation the Indians had in the late 40s and early 50s, and 1954 was probably the best of any of those years.  The award for best AL pitcher was a close call between three great pitchers: Bob Lemon, of the Cleveland Indians; Early Wynn, of the Cleveland Indians; and Mike Garcia of, you guessed it, the Cleveland Indians.  It's not too often that the three best pitchers in the league happened to play on the same team, but that was the case in 1954 for the Indians.  Their other two starters were no slouches either; their #4 starter was Art Houtteman, and #5 was Bob Feller, who also had a decent season.  It's no wonder that the Indians went on to win 111 games in 1954, although they ended up being swept by the Giants in the World Series.  In any case, Bob Lemon had a great season, tying Wynn for the league lead in wins, and finishing third in ERA.  It was a close call between Lemon and Wynn, but I gave it to Lemon mostly because of the better win-loss record.  The MVP voters agreed; they finished 5th and 6th, respectively in the voting, higher than any other pitchers.

1954 National League - Johnny Antonelli, New York Giants

21-7, 2.30 ERA, 152 K

It's only appropriate that the two winners in 1954 both came from pennant-winning teams, and in Antonelli's case, his team won the World Series against an Indians team that had won 14 more games in the regular season.  Antonelli won the only game that he started in the World Series, and allowed 1 run in 10.2 innings over the course of two games.  However, he was most valuable for the Giants in the regular season, leading the league in ERA by a healthy margin, along with leading in winning percentage (.750) and shutouts (6), and finishing second in wins and strikeouts (1.171) and fourth in strikeouts.  He finished third in MVP voting, first among pitchers, and made his first of five All Star appearances in a respectable career with the Giants.

1951 Cy Young Awards

1951 American League - Early Wynn, Cleveland Indians

20-13, 3.02 ERA, 133 K

The Cleveland Indians of the late 1940s and early 1950s had some of the best pitching rotations ever assembled outside of an All Star team.  In fact, there's a good case that they might have had the greatest starting rotation ever; for several years, their four regular starting pitchers were Early Wynn, Bob Feller, Bob Lemon, and Mike Garcia.  There have been other great rotations; Baltimore's 1971 team stands out in particular, with Mike Cuellar, Pat Dobson, Jim Palmer, and Dave McNally each winning at least 20 games.  There have been plenty of teams with multiple Hall of Famers in their rotations (The 1987 Indians, for example, had both Phil Niekro, age 48, and Steve Carlton, age 42, in their rotation), but for the Indians of the early 1950s, they had three Hall of Famers who were all in their prime, plus a solid starter in Mike Garcia.  In any case, it comes as no surprise that, including Wynn, five of the last six pitchers that I have selected in the AL have been Indians pitchers.  It wasn't an amazing season for Wynn; he didn't lead in any Triple Crown categories, but he finished near the top in most of them.  He finished third in ERA, fourth in wins, and second in strikeouts; nobody else ranked higher than him in those categories, plus he led the league in innings pitched (274.1).  Incidentally, Cleveland's four regular starting pitchers finished first, second, fourth, and fifth in the league in innings pitched.


1951 National League - Sal Maglie, New York Giants

23-6, 2.93 ERA, 146 K

Maglie had a great record in 1951, and played a huge role in leading the Giants to an improbable NL pennant-winning season.  However, probably the most famous game that he pitched in was one that he didn't receive a decision for; he pitched the first 8 innings of a game that was later won on a Bobby Thomson home run, which apparently was kind of a big deal.  In any case though, he had a great season, winning over 20 games for the only time in his career, and along with leading the league in wins, he also finished second in ERA, fourth in WHIP, third in strikeouts, and first in ERA+ (134).  Maglie had a few other decent seasons outside of 1951, including the runner-up for the first ever Cy Young Award, but 1951 was definitely his best season.

1936 Cy Young Awards

1936 American League - Lefty Grove, Boston Red Sox

17-12, 2.81 ERA, 130 K

I used to think that Bill James ranked Lefty Grove a bit too high when he put him as the #2 greatest pitcher of all time in his Baseball Abstract, but the more I look at just how dominant Grove was for so many years, I'm starting to think maybe James ranked him too low.  This is now the ninth time that I have ranked him as the best pitcher in the AL, and while the choice was not quite as clear-cut as other seasons, I think it's a pretty safe bet.  Grove was ranked 15th in MVP voting in 1936, behind two other pitchers.  However, it appears that a greater emphasis was placed on wins and winning percentage; Grove had a rather pedestrian record, but I think the more important stat is his league-leading 2.81 ERA, more than a half run lower than anyone else.  His ERA+ was 190, 41 points higher than anyone else.  He also pitched a league-leading six shutouts, but had the misfortune of playing on a mediocre sixth place Boston team.  So, the question may be whether he was the greatest AL pitcher in 1936, but I think an even better question is, is he the greatest pitcher ever?  Because I think the answer might be yes...


1936 National League - Carl Hubbell, New York Giants

26-6, 2.31 ERA, 123 K

There were some great pitching seasons in the NL in 1936; the winner the previous two seasons, Dizzy Dean, had another great season, and one of the greatest names in baseball history, Van Lingle Mungo, struck out an astonishing 248 batters.  However, Carl Hubbell was even better, leading the league in wins, ERA, winning percentage (.813), WHIP (1.059), and ERA+ (169), capturing the MVP Award over second place finisher Dizzy Dean.  It was his second MVP, and the fourth year in a row (out of five) that he finished in the top 10 for MVP voting, and he made his fourth of nine All-Star appearances on his way to a great Hall of Fame career.  He is generally considered to be one of the greatest screwball pitchers (as in pitchers who threw primarily a screwball, not pitchers who were screwballs, otherwise that award would probably go to Bill Lee), and according to Joe DiMaggio, he was the toughest pitcher he ever faced.

1933 Cy Young Awards

1933 American League - Lefty Grove, Philadelphia Athletics

24-8, 3.20 ERA, 114 K

It was Lefty Grove's last season in Philadelphia, and although it wasn't quite as dominant as some of his previous seasons were, Lefty Grove was still, for the sixth time in a row and seventh time overall, the best pitcher in the American League.  He led the league in wins, but finished a distant sixth in strikeouts, and fourth in ERA.  Still, the only people ahead of him in ERA were Mel Harder, Tommy Bridges, and Lefty Gomez.  None of them pitched as many innings as Grove, and both Harder and Bridges had mediocre win-loss records.  I only briefly considered Gomez, before realizing that his low ERA was a product of the fact that he didn't have to pitch to his own team, unlike Grove and the others.  In any case, his contemporaries agreed; he finished fifth in MVP voting, ahead of any other pitcher, and using the modern WAR statistic, which he led all pitchers in, it shows that the voters were justified in their choices.


1933 National League - Carl Hubbell, New York Giants

23-12, 1.66 ERA, 156 K

For the past few seasons, Hubbell had been one of the better pitchers in the league, but in 1933 there was no doubt that he was the best.  Along with finishing first in wins and ERA, he finished second in strikeouts, and first with 10(!) shutouts, 308.2 innings pitched, 0.982 WHIP, and an ERA+ of 195.  Overall, he had a season that would've been good in the Dead Ball Era, never mind in one of the greatest periods of offensive dominance in baseball history.  For his efforts, Hubbell received his first of two MVP Awards, and was selected to the first ever All-Star Game, (and first of nine) in which he pitched two shutout innings for the NL. 

1931 Cy Young Awards

1931 American League - Lefty Grove, Philadelphia Athletics

31-4, 2.06 ERA, 175 K

It was the greatest season in the career of one of the greatest pitchers ever, and among the best pitching seasons of all time.  Along with winning the Triple Crown by a substantial margin in every category (9 more wins, 0.60 runs lower, and 23 more strikeouts than anyone else), he set career highs in both wins and ERA+.  He won more games (31) than he started (30), and his ERA of 2.06 was less than half the league average of 4.38.  Only two other pitchers since then have won 30 or more games: Dizzy Dean in 1934 and Denny McLain in 1968, and even then, McLain's accomplishment came in a season when hitting was at a post-1920 low point.  The league's .637 average OPS would've been low even by Dead Ball Era standards.  Grove, by way of contrast, pitched in a league with an average OPS of .740, which is roughly comparable to modern averages.  He didn't even have the advantage of starting more games than most modern pitchers; he started four fewer games than 2011 Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander, who led the league with 24 wins.  So, even if Grove was somehow transported from 1931 to 2011, he would still probably put up similar numbers.  In any case, Grove also led the league with an .886 winning percentage, which is tied for 8th highest of all time, and he led in shutouts (4), WHIP (1.077), and WAR (9.4).  Overall, it was Grove's greatest season, and the fourth year in a row (and fifth in six years) that he was the best pitcher in the American League.


1931 National League - Bill Walker, New York Giants

16-9, 2.26 ERA, 121 K

What makes Lefty Grove's 31-win season even more impressive was the fact that in the National League, nobody even won 20 games.  The best NL pitcher was not nearly as clear cut as in the AL, but overall Walker had the best season, leading the league in ERA by a substantial margin, an ERA+ of 163, and WAR, at 5.3.  He also finished second in WHIP (1.153) and hits per 9 innings (7.972).  He did finish sixth in strikeouts and a distant ninth in wins, but overall I think ERA is a better judge of a pitcher's abilities than either of the other two Triple Crown categories, so I gave Walker the edge here.  This was the high point of Walker's career, which was above average but not spectacular.  He led the NL in ERA twice (1929 being the other year) but only once started more than 28 games in a season, and his career high in wins was just 17.  He made one All-Star appearance in his ten year career, in 1935, and retired after the following season.

1913 Cy Young Awards

1913 American League - Walter Johnson, Washington Senators

36-7, 1.14 ERA, 243 K

In 1912, Walter Johnson missed the Triple Crown by one win, but he won it in 1913, for the first of three times in his career.  It was the best season of his career, which says something considering how great Johnson's career was.  Along with the Triple Crown, he led in most other major categories, including winning percentage (.837), complete games (29), shutouts (11), innings pitched (346), ERA+ (259; sixth all time, sandwiched between 1968 Bob Gibson and 1995 Greg Maddux), WHIP (0.780; second in post-1893 baseball, behind only 2000 Pedro Martinez), hits per 9 innings (6.035), walks per 9 innings (0.988), and WAR (12.4, compared to second place 7.3).  His 1.14 ERA, aside from being a career high, is also the 6th lowest of all time, and he also set career highs with 36 wins and 11 shutouts. Plus, he did all of this while playing for a Washington team that only barely improved upon its hitting, finishing 5th out of 8 teams with a .252 team batting average.  Even Walter Johnson himself had a higher batting average, and he finished third on the team in home runs (with 2).

1913 National League - Christy Mathewson, New York Giants

25-11, 2.06 ERA, 93 K

At this point, Mathewson has now been the best pitcher in the league for five consecutive seasons, and I see no reason to deny him a sixth; his 1913 season, while not as great as some of his previous ones, was still enough to make him the best in the league.  There were others, particularly Pittsburgh's Babe Adams, who had good seasons, but Mathewson led the league in ERA, ERA+ (152), and WHIP (1.020).  In addition, he finished second in wins and WAR (7.6), and third in shutouts (4), although Grover Cleveland Alexander pitched as many shutouts (9) as Mathewson and the second place pitcher combined.  In any case, if the Cy Young Award had been given out during this time period, Mathewson would now be at eight, including six straight, according to my assessment.  No pitcher has ever won more than seven, and none have won more than four in a row.  However, it was the last great season for Mathewson, who pitched two more full seasons with the Giants.  After pitching part of the year for the Giants, he was traded to Cincinnati, where he pitched one game, against longtime rival and fellow Hall of Famer Mordecai Brown.  Cincinnati won 10-8 in what would be the final game for both of these all-time greats.  Mathewson finished his career with 373 wins, tied with Grover Cleveland Alexander for third all-time.

1912 Cy Young Awards

1912 American League - Walter Johnson, Washington Senators

33-12, 1.39 ERA, 303 K

The man who is arguably the greatest pitcher ever was one win away from winning his first Triple Crown in 1912; instead, Boston's Smoky Joe Wood had 34 wins to his 33.  But, although Wood had a great season, Johnson's was even better.  His incredibly low ERA was over a half a run better than Wood's second place 1.91, and his ERA+ of 243 is 9th all time, which, to put it into a modern-day perspective, is tied with Pedro Martinez's 1999 season.  He also led in WHIP (0.908), fewest hits per 9 innings (6.317), strikeouts, and WAR (11.8).  Just like in 1910, Johnson's Senators finished third to last in batting average though, which leaves open to speculation just how well he could've done with more run support.


1912 National League - Christy Mathewson, New York Giants

23-12, 2.12 ERA, 134 K

Nobody has ever won five consecutive Cy Young Awards (Greg Maddux and Randy Johnson have each won four in a row), but Christy Mathewson would've, had it existed during his playing career.  This was also the seventh time that he would've earned the award in his career; as many times as Roger Clemens won it.  In this case, there was no single pitcher who was clearly dominant in the AL, but Mathewson was overall the best.  He had the second-best ERA (behind someone who pitched far fewer innings), fourth most wins, second lowest WHIP (1.113), second highest ERA+ (161), and second highest WAR (7.2).  Interestingly, Mathewson finished 12th in MVP voting in 1912, second among all pitchers.  Only Rube Marquard finished higher than he did, although the stats seem to suggest that Mathewson was better; he led Marquard in almost every major statistic except wins.  Interestingly, it was a career year for Marquard, who is featured in this blog post of mine as being the worst pitcher in the Hall of Fame.  The same cannot be said for Mathewson.

1911 Cy Young Awards

1911 American League - Vean Gregg, Cleveland Naps

23-7, 1.80 ERA, 125 K

If you've never heard of Vean Gregg before, that's okay, because I never had before either.  But, despite pitching for a team whose nickname could easily be confused with a midday rest period, Gregg was the best pitcher in the league during his rookie season.  Along with a league-leading 1.80 ERA (and 189 ERA+), he had the second highest win-loss percentage, the lowest WHIP (1.054), and finished fourth in wins and third in shutouts (5).  It was an impressive season with an otherwise mediocre Cleveland team, but Gregg only had two more successful seasons before suffering an arm injury in 1914 that essentially ended his major league career.

1911 National League - Christy Mathewson, New York Giants

26-13, 1.99 ERA, 141 K

Mathewson faced some competition from rookie Grover Cleveland Alexander in 1911, but he remained the best pitcher in the league for the fourth consecutive year and the sixth time in his career.  Mathewson is one of the top 5 greatest pitchers of all time, and 1911 was just another feather in his cap.  He was the only NL pitcher with a sub-2.00 ERA, and he also led in fewest walks per 9 innings (1.114), second in wins, third in WHIP (1.111), and third in WAR.  Alexander finished ahead of him in some of these categories, including leading the league in wins and innings pitched, but Mathewson's ERA was so much lower (1.99 to Alexander's 5th place 2.57), and all of their other stats were so similar, that I had to give it to him.

1910 Cy Young Awards

1910 American League - Walter Johnson, Washington Senators

25-17, 1.36 ERA, 313 K

This one was a toss up between Johnson and Philadelphia's Pat Coombs.  Either one would have deserved to have won the award, but In the end I gave it to Johnson.  Both had very similar ERAs, with Coombs finishing second at 1.30, and Johnson third at 1.36.  However, when looking at their ERA+, it is actually reversed, with Johnson at 183.  Coombs also had a better record (31-9), but he was backed up by the league's best lineup, while Johnson's Senators finished third to last in batting average.  Johnson also led the league by a substantial margin in strikeouts (the first of twelve times that he would do so in his career), and finished ahead of Coombs in WHIP (0.914), starts (42), complete games (38) and innings pitched (370).  It was the first of many great seasons for Johnson, and the first time in four years that he actually finished the season with a winning record; the previous year he had been 13-25 despite a respectable 2.22 ERA.

1910 National League - Christy Mathewson, New York Giants

27-9, 1.89 ERA, 184 K

For the second year in a row, Christy Mathewson and Mordecai Brown were the top two pitchers in the NL, but once again I have to give the edge to Mathewson, who became the best pitcher in the league for the third consecutive year and the fifth time in his career.  It wasn't quite as good of a season as his previous ones were, but it was still enough to be the best; he led the league in wins, finished third in ERA, second in WHIP (1.106), second in ERA+ (157), and first in WAR (7.2, a win higher than anyone else).  Brown also had a good season; he finished ahead of Mathewson in ERA, although Mathewson's ERA+ was ahead of his, and Brown pitched fewer innings.

1909 Cy Young Awards

1909 American League - Harry Krause, Philadelphia Athletics

18-8, 1.39 ERA, 139 K

This was another year when there was no pitcher who stood out as being spectacular, but Harry Krause was probably the best.  Despite pitching only 213 innings, his ERA was substantially better than anyone else who pitched more innings.  It was his first full season in the majors, and not only did he lead the league in ERA - he pitched 7 shutouts in just 21 starts, meaning he pitched a shutout every third game he started.  He also had a league-leading 172 ERA+, and barely finished second with a 0.939 WHIP.  Despite the successful season though, he would spend only two more full seasons in the majors, before spending the last 18 years of his professional baseball career in the minors, without ever being called up again.

1909 National League - Christy Mathewson, New York Giants

25-6, 1.14 ERA, 149 K

Both 1906 winner Mordecai Brown and three-time winner Christy Mathewson had impressive 1909 seasons, but although it was close, Mathewson was better.  Along with a league-leading 1.14 ERA (5th lowest all time), Mathewson finished second in wins (behind Brown's 27), first in win-loss percentage (.806), ERA+ (222), and WHIP (0.828).  Both his ERA and win-loss percentage were career bests for him.  Perhaps the only unusual statistic is his 6th place 149 strikeouts, after having led the league in that category five of the previous six seasons.  He did, however, lead the league in strikeout to walk ratio (4.14) for the third time in a row; he would go on to lead that category in 8 consecutive seasons.

1908 Cy Young Awards

1908 American League - Ed Walsh, Chicago White Sox

40-15, 1.42 ERA, 269 K

This one was a tough call, not because there weren't any pitchers who stood out, but because there were too many who did.  Addie Joss, who led the league with a miniscule 1.16 ERA, and Cy Young, who at 41 years of age went 21-11 with a career-low 1.26 ERA, were both worthy candidates, but in the end I had to give it to Ed Walsh, who won 16 more games than anyone else, and in the process became the last 40-game winner ever.  Aside from leading the league in wins, he also led in strikeouts, games pitched (66), starts (49), complete games (42), shutouts (11), innings pitched (464 - a post-1900 record), and even saves (6).  Although Joss and Young both had lower ERAs, Walsh finished third with a respectable 1.42 ERA and 164 ERA+, something that certainly can be overlooked considering everything else that he did in 1908.  It was the second year in a row that Walsh was the best pitcher in the AL, and the Future Hall of Famer would finish with the best career ERA in MLB history (1.82), a record that is unlikely to ever be broken.


1908 National League - Christy Mathewson, New York Giants

37-11, 1.43 ERA, 259 K

For the second time in his career, Mathewson won the NL Triple Crown, and for the third time he was the best pitcher in the league.  In addition to the triple crown categories, Mathewson also led in WHIP (0.827), games played (56), starts (44), complete games (34), shutouts (11), innings pitched (390.2), walks per 9 innings (0.968), saves (5), and WAR (10.1).  He was no doubt the NL's best pitcher in 1908, and was also one of the best pitchers ever.  In recognition of his many accomplishments, he was one of the original five players elected to the Hall of Fame in its first year in 1936. 

1905 Cy Young Awards

1905 American League - Rube Waddell, Philadelphia Athletics

27-10, 1.48 ERA, 287 K

Not much doubt about this one; after several years of being one of the best pitchers in the game, the future Hall of Famer easily won the Triple Crown, leading by 3 wins, nearly a third of a run in ERA, and 77 strikeouts.  He also had an ERA+ of 179, and a WAR of 8.8, and it was the fourth year in a row that he led the league in strikeouts.  He would go on to lead the league in strikeouts for the next two years, but would be out of the majors by age 33, largely because of alcohol problems.  He was known to have a bit of an erratic personality; he was known to (no joke) get distracted while pitching by puppies and shiny objects, and he would often run out of the dugout to chase after passing fire trucks.  Also, during a time period when most MLB players would return to work on the family farm in the offseason, Rube Waddell wrestled alligators, something that I'm sure most professional sports contracts forbid nowadays.  In any case though, he was certainly one of the best pitchers of the decade, and definitely the AL's best of 1905.


1905 National League - Christy Mathewson, New York Giants

31-9, 1.28 ERA, 206 K

This season was a relatively uncommon double Triple Crown season, with a pitcher in each league winning it.  In the NL, it was 1903 retroactive Cy Young Award winner Christy Mathewson.  As I mentioned in the 1904 post, ERAs were lower across the board in the early 20th century, but Mathewson's was incredibly low even by those standards.  His ERA+ of 230 remains the 11th-highest of all time, and the closest comparable modern-day season in terms of ERA+ would be Dwight Gooden's 1985 season, when he had an ERA of 1.53 and an ERA+ of 229.  In the end though, Mathewson's 1905 season was only one of his greatest; that's how good of a pitcher he was.  Along with winning 31 games, having an ERA of 1.28, and striking out 206 batters, he also pitched 8 shutouts, had a WHIP of 0.933, and a WAR of 10.1.  Amazingly, although he led the league in all of those categories, none of them were career highs for Mathewson.

1904 Cy Young Awards

1904 American League - Jack Chesbro, New York Highlanders

41-12, 1.82 ERA, 239 K

There are some people who argue that the only reason Chesbro was elected to the Hall of Fame was because of his 1904 season.  That's how good he was.  Although it was fairly common in the first few decades of Major League Baseball, by the turn of the century winning 40 games was unheard of.  Nobody had won 40 or more games since 1891, back when the pitcher stood 5 feet closer to the plate.  Chesbro's record still stands as the most games won in modern MLB history; only one more pitcher would ever win 40 games, and since then nobody has been close.  In any case, along with his win totals, which were 15 more than anyone else, Chesbro finished first in innings pitched (454.2), starts (51), complete games (48), hist per 9 inning (6.691), and WAR (8.8).  He also finished second in strikeouts, second in WHIP (0.937), and fourth in ERA.  Other pitchers, like Rube Waddell and Cy Young, had pretty impressive seasons in 1904, but overall they couldn't quite compare to what Chesbro did.

1904 National League - Joe McGinnity, New York Giants

35-8, 1.61 ERA, 144 K

The 1900 winner was once again the best pitcher in the league in 1904, leading in both ERA and wins for the pennant-winning New York Giants.  In addition, he led in shutouts (9), innings pitched (408), WHIP (.963), and WAR (10.2; 3.3 wins higher than anyone else).  Having an ERA under two was not at all uncommon like it is today, but his ERA was still substantially above league average, with an adjusted ERA+ of 170.  By way of comparison, Justin Verlander's Cy Young Award winning season last year had the same ERA+, despite having an ERA of 2.40.  Interestingly, McGinnity also led the league with 5 saves, which at the time tied a single-season MLB record, although the statistic was not created and recognized by MLB until over 50 years, long after McGinnity's record was broken.

1903 Cy Young Awards

1903 American League - Cy Young, Boston Americans

28-9, 2.08 ERA, 176 K

This was a close call between Young and Cleveland's Earl Moore.  Moore led the league in ERA by a decent margin, 1.74 to Young's second-place 2.08, and led the league in hits per 9 innings.  However, Young pitched a league-leading 341.2 innings, nearly 100 more than Moore.  He also led the league in wins (28, 8 more than Moore), win-loss percentage (.757), complete games (34), and shutouts (7).  He also placed ahead of Moore in both WHIP (finishing second to Addie Joss with 0.969 walks & hits per inning) and strikeouts, and he helped lead Boston to victory against the Pirates in the first World Series.  This is now the third consecutive year that, in my opinion, Young has been the best pitcher in the league, and the fifth time in his career that I have retroactively gave him the award that is named for him.


1903 National League - Christy Mathewson, New York Giants

30-13, 2.26 ERA, 267 K

This year there was situation in the NL similar to what happened in the AL; one pitcher (in this case Pittsburgh's Sam Leever) had a fairly low ERA (2.06 to Mathewson's second-place 2.26), but also pitched nearly 100 fewer innings.  As I have said before, I believe that a pitcher with a slightly higher ERA but far more innings pitched is more valuable than the one with the slightly lower ERA but far fewer innings pitched.  In this case, future Hall of Fame pitcher Christy Mathewson had an impressive season, finishing second in ERA, hits per 9 innings (7.886), innings pitched (366.1), and WAR (8.9).  Although he did not lead in any of those categories, nobody else finished in the top three for each of them.  However, possibly the most impressive thing about Mathewson's season was his strikeout totals.  Normally, I don't like to put too much emphasis on strikeout totals; just because a pitcher is capable of striking out a lot of batters doesn't necessarily make him a great pitcher.  However, not only was Mathewson a great pitcher in 1903, but he also had extraordinary strikeout totals; his 267 strikeouts led the league by nearly 100, and he was by far the leader in strikeouts per 9 innings, averaging a little over 6.5 every 9 innings.  Overall, Sam Leever and other pitchers, such as the Giants' Joe McGinnity, had impressive seasons, but I believe that, even excluding strikeouts completely, Christy Mathewson was the best in the league.

1894 Cy Young Award

1894 National League - Amos Rusie, New York Giants

36-13, 2.78 ERA, 195 K

When I awarded the 1893 retroactive Cy Young Award to Amos Rusie, it was a close call between two other candidates.  However, his 1894 season left little doubt that he deserved it.  He easily won the Triple Crown, led the league in shutouts, ERA+, WAR, and WHIP, but those figures alone don't show how much he led in some categories.  His strikeout totals were down from 1893, so he only had 28% more strikeouts than his nearest opponent, but he led the league in ERA by nearly a full run over the second place pitcher, 2.78 to 3.70, and had an ERA nearly half the league average of 5.32, for a 190 ERA+.  Had the Cy Young Award existed in 1894, he definitely would have been the unanimous choice.

1893 Cy Young Award

1893 National League - Amos Rusie, New York Giants

33-21, 3.23 ERA, 208 K

This was the first season that the pitcher's mound was moved 5 feet from the plate to its current position 60.5 feet away.  Overall, offensive numbers skyrocketed, and many great pitchers were unable to adjust to the new distance.  However, there were three pitchers in particular, all Hall of Famers, who stood out in 1893: Kid Nichols, the 1891 winner; Cy Young, the 1892 winner; and Amos Rusie, who I chose as the best of the three for this season.  It was a tough call, but Rusie led the league in starts, complete games, shutouts, innings pitched, and hits per 9 innings.  He also finished second in ERA, WAR, and fourth in wins.  That alone may have been enough to earn him the recognition, but on top of it, he not only led the league in strikeouts, he had nearly double the amount of anyone else, and had more than Nichols and Young combined.  It was one of five times in his nine full seasons that Rusie led the league in strikeouts, although it was also one of five times that he led the league in walks as well.  Still, despite his high walk totals, he was certainly deserving of the retroactive Cy Young Award in 1893.

1888 Cy Young Awards

1888 American Association - Silver King, St. Louis Browns

45-20, 1.63 ERA, 258 K

Not much of a debate about this one; not only did King lead the AA in most pitching categories, but he dominated those categories.  He was the ERA leader by .38 runs, wins by 10, ERA+ by 48, WHIP by .12, and WAR by 4.  He also tied for the lead with 6 shutouts, and came in second in strikeouts, along the way leading the Browns to yet another AA pennant.  At 20 years old, it was only King's second full season in the majors, but, like many of his contemporaries, he burned out quickly, with only a few more productive seasons, and he was done in the majors before he turned 30.

1888 National League - Tim Keefe, New York Giants

35-12, 1.74 ERA, 335 K

Just like in the AA, there wasn't much question as to who was the NL's best pitcher in 1888.  After several years of consistently being a contender for the league's best pitcher, the future Hall of Famer was quite decisively the best in 1888.  Along with winning the Triple Crown, Keefe led the league in winning percentage, WHIP, WAR, and shutouts.  There were other pitchers, particularly Charlie Buffinton, who did well, but Keefe was by far the best, and in the process led the Giants to the NL pennant.