Frank Thomas

Young Notable Sports Figures
Career Statistics
18-19. His performance dropped off for a couple of
years, but in 1908, at the age of forty-one, he posted a
21-11 record and an ERA of 1.26—a career best—and
pitched his third no-hitter, beating the New York Highlanders
8-0 on June 30.
Boston traded Young to the Cleveland Naps (who
later became the Indians) before the 1909 season began.
He won nineteen games that year, but by 1910 his age
was finally overtaking his famous stamina. After spending
most of his career in great shape, he’d developed a
paunch. He started only twenty games and won only
seven. Cleveland released him in August 1911, and he
signed with Boston. Late in the year, he pitched against
Philadelphia’s rookie, Grover Cleveland Alexander, and
lost 1-0 in twelve innings. “When the kid beats you, it’s
time to quit,” he said, according to Westcott’s Winningest
Pitchers. He still came to spring training in
1912, but batters were bunting to reach base against
him, since his portly figure made it hard for him to field.
He retired before the season started.
Retirement
Young went back to his farm in tiny Peoli, Ohio,
near Newcomerstown. He stayed close to baseball all
his life, going to several Indians games a year and often
showing up at old-timers’ events. He felt hurt when he
didn’t get into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in
the first round of voting in 1936, but he was voted in a
year later. When Young turned eighty, Cleveland Indi-
1818
Yr Team W L ERA GS CG SHO IP H ER BB SO
1890 CLE-N 9 7 3.47 16 16 0 147.7 145 57 30 39
1891 CLE-N 27 22 2.85 46 43 0 423.7 431 134 140 147
1892 CLE-N 36 12 1.93 49 48 9 453.0 363 97 118 168
1893 CLE-N 34 16 3.36 46 42 1 422.7 442 158 103 102
1894 CLE-N 26 21 3.94 47 44 2 408.7 488 179 106 108
1895 CLE-N 35 10 3.26 40 36 4 69.7 63 134 75 121
1896 CLE-N 28 15 3.24 46 42 5 414.3 477 149 62 140
1897 CLE-N 21 19 3.80 38 35 2 333.7 391 141 49 88
1898 CLE-N 25 13 2.53 41 40 1 377.7 387 106 41 101
1899 STL 26 16 2.58 42 40 4 69.3 368 106 44 111
1900 STL 19 19 3.00 35 32 4 321.3 337 107 36 115
1901 BOS-A 33 10 1.62 41 38 5 371.3 324 67 37 158
1902 BOS-A 32 11 2.15 43 41 3 384.7 350 92 53 160
1903 BOS-A 28 9 2.08 35 34 7 341.7 294 79 37 176
1904 BOS-A 26 16 1.97 41 40 10 380.0 327 83 29 200
1905 BOS-A 18 19 1.82 33 31 4 320.7 248 65 30 210
1906 BOS-A 13 21 3.19 34 28 0 287.7 288 102 25 140
1907 BOS-A 21 15 1.99 37 33 6 343.3 286 76 51 147
1908 BOS-A 21 11 1.26 33 30 3 299.0 230 42 37 150
1909 CLE-A 19 15 2.26 34 30 3 295.0 267 74 59 109
1910 CLE-A 7 10 2.53 20 14 1 163.3 149 46 27 58
1911 CLE-A 3 4 3.88 7 4 0 46.3 54 20 13 20
1911 BOS-N 4 5 3.71 11 8 2 80.0 83 33 15 35
TOTAL 511 316 2.63 815 749 76 7354.7 7092 2147 1217 2803
BOS-A: Boston Pilgrims (American League); BOS-N: Boston Braves (National League); CLE-A: Cleveland Naps (American League); CLE-N: Cleveland Spiders
(National League); STL: St. Louis Browns (National League).
ans owner Bill Veeck invited him and the entire population
of Newcomerstown—about a thousand people—to
an Indians game to celebrate. On November 4, 1955, he
died of a heart attack in his rocking chair. He was
eighty-eight.
“His record of 511 victories in 912 games will never
be surpassed,” Young’s gravestone asserts. It’s true. He
averaged forty starts a year, while today’s pitchers average
about thirty-three, and he pitched before relief pitchers
were common, so ninety-two percent of his starts
were complete games. But his record isn’t just the result
of pitching at the right time. No other pitcher from his
era managed more than about 360 career wins.
At the end of his biography of Young, Reed Browning
asks whether Young can be considered the best
pitcher of all time. On one hand, Young’s contemporaries
seemed to consider him “very good but not the
greatest,” Browning notes. When they were asked to
name the best pitcher they’d ever seen, or to choose their
all-time pitching staffs, other pitchers, such as Kid
Nichols, often beat out Young. On the other hand,
Browning points out, Young’s long career spanned very
different eras of baseball, when rules and strategies
changed significantly. “Cy Young lasted as long as he
did not simply because he was blessed with a tough
body and durable arm,” he wrote, “but also because he
used his intelligence to study, adapt, and learn.” However
one defines “greatest pitcher,” Browning wrote, “Cy
Young is clearly a candidate for the honor.”