Quote:
Originally Posted by Hankphenom
If I have the history of the award right, they named it after Young because he had put up such a great record in both leagues and at first there was only one award between the two leagues. Something like that. And many people think that when it broke into two awards, one for each league, they should have given them different names, like maybe after WaJo and Matty. It's always been instructive to me that, great as he was, two pitchers were elected in the first HOF vote, and neither were named Cy Young.
|
Points taken. It had completely slipped my mind that the award was only given out to one pitcher initially. Had I stopped to consider this, the answer would have likely come to mind.
I think that there are two possible correct answers as to why your grandfather and Matty were elected before Cy. The reason is either what you're suggesting, or what I am suggesting that more recent players would be fresher on the minds of those voting. This is not said to diminish the others, as their greatness speaks for itself (not to mention that, as people, their characters were even more admirable).
None of this really matters to me, as all three rightly belong in of these types of discussions. I just feel it odd that Young wouldn't be discussed more, to the point that Travis had never heard his name mentioned as a contender. A five-time 30 game winner and 10 time 20 game winner, among his jaw-dropping litany of other accomplishments. 511 wins?! Now, there will never be another 300 win pitcher, and Cy nearly doubled that.