The Cy Young Award was first presented to Don Newcombe, of the Brooklyn Dodgers, in 1956, just one year after the pitcher whose name has become synonymous with pitching excellence had died and forty-five years after Baseball's All-Time win leader, Cy Young, last stood on a Major League mound on October 6, 1911.
Don Newcombe had just completed a (27-7) season with a 3.06 ERA for the Dodgers, who took the NL Pennant in 1956, but lost the World Series in seven games to the New York Yankees, led by Johnny Kucks and Whitey Ford on the mound and the bats of Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra and Bill Skowron. Newcombe never again matched the '56 season, and he retired after ten seasons in the Majors with 149 wins.
Cy Young's Major League career lasted twenty-two years, over which the 6'2'' 210lb right-handed hurler registered 511 wins and 316 losses in 815 starts for the Cleveland Spiders(1890-1898), the St. Louis Perfectos(1899), the Cardinals in St. Louis (1900), and the Boston Americans(1901-1907) and Red Sox(1908), before returning to Cleveland where he played his last two professional seasons with the Cleveland Naps(1910-1911).
The one true sign that Cy Young's was indeed a different era of baseball is the Complete Game total...(Ready?) ...749 CG's in twenty-two seasons! and 7,356 innings on the mound...
By way of comparison...
...THE SB Nation's NL Cy Young Award Winner...
JAKE PEAVY Pitcher- San Diego Padres.
...has pitched just 5 complete games in his 6 MLB seasons, over which he's thrown 1,087.1 innings and amassed a (76-51) record in 172 starts with a 3.31 ERA.
In 2007, Peavy, the Padres 6'1'', 180 lb ace, went (19-6) in 34 starts, striking out 240, while walking only 68 in 223.1 innings with a 2.54 ERA overall, leading his team to within 1.5 games of the NL West crown.
According to the baseball writers of the SB Nation, Jake Peavy was the unanimous choice for the NL Cy Young, receiving 21 first place votes to place him far ahead of Brandon Webb of Arizona and Brad Penny of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who finished a distant third in the voting...
...THE SB Nation's AL Cy Young Award Winner...
C.C. SABATHIA Pitcher- Cleveland Indians.
...earned an equally decisive victory in the minds of the SBN writers, finishing far ahead of Josh Beckett(Boston), John Lackey(LA Angels) and his own teammate Fausto Carmona(Cleveland) all of whom received at least one first place vote.
C.C. Sabathia led Cleveland back into the Postseason and went (19-7) with a 3.21 ERA in 34 starts, but the Indians lost a hard fought series in seven games to the eventual World Series Champions from Boston.
Sabathia has put together a (100-63) career record in his 7 MLB seasons in Cleveland, during which time the 6'7'', 250 lb left-handed, tilted-cap wearing pitcher has thrown 16 complete games and 1,406.1 innings, all with the Indians.
Neither Sabathia or Peavy will even come close to approaching Cy Young's 511 Career win total, but in the eyes of the SB Nation's baseball writers, both pitched seasons in 2007 worthy of recognition with the imaginary SB Nation blogosphere equivalent of Major League Baseball's highest pitching honor.
*Cy Young-Related Links*
Cy Young's stats at baseballalmanac.com:
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=youngcy01
Cy Young's wikipedia.org profile:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cy_Young
Don Newcombe's stats at baseballreference.com:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/n/newcodo01.shtml
Jake Peavy's stats at thebaseballcube.com:
http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/P/Jake-Peavy.shtml
C.C. Sabathia's stats at thebaseballcube.com:
http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/S/C.C.-Sabathia.shtml