The 100 Greatest in 100 Days: #43 Cy Young

Coming at #43 is the namesake of Major League Baseball’s pinnacle award for pitching, Cy Young. Young is pretty much the major league leader in every pitching category, holding the top spots in career wins, losses, games started, complete games, innings, hits allowed, and earned runs allowed. His 7,356 career innings are over 1,400 more than any other pitcher in history. Behind Young’s massive volume is one of the most frugal pitchers ever when it comes to issuing walks. Young led the league in BB/9 a record 14 times, five more than any other pitcher. He led the league in strikeout-to-walk ratio a record 11 times and no other pitcher led the league in WHIP and shutouts more often. Young’s 16 20-win seasons are the most in history and his streak of 14 consecutive seasons of 20-wins is the longest in history. Young also led the Boston Americans—soon to be Boston Red Sox—to victory in 1903 in the first-ever World Series between the American League and the National League.

Leave a Reply

Hi (hopefully) awesome reader! I welcome your comments. However, please be aware that I make all of my arguments using facts, statistics, and logic. Unfortunately, the average comment on a top-100 list goes something like this:

"UR StooPid. (Insert player) is trash. I've watched (pick a sport) for (pick a number of years) and (pick a player) is better than everyone. UR DUMB. HAHA6969."

–Some Jabroni

As cognitively stimulating as this species of comment is, it ends up being a missed opportunity to share a nuanced perspective. I reply to all comments that show even the most basic levels of thought and humility. The people who make the comments like the example above are under the assumption that the three seconds of thought that popped into their brains after reading the list is more than the 1000s of hours that I put into creating and maintaining the lists. I would be happy to defend any placement, or make an adjustment if one is warranted. If you are a jabroni, like the one above, then your comment will die in the lonely void of the unpublished comments section.

For everyone else, I look forward to your comments!

P.S. The theme of this site and the top-100 lists is that athletes from previous generations have historically been grossly overrated by sports publications in a way that is statistically improbable. Click on the "About" dropdown menu to see just how badly the average top-100 list disproportionately favors athletes from older generations when leagues were smaller, race quotas existed, and globalization wasn't a thing. Also, please consider reading "The History" section of the sport you are commenting on.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *