Quote:
Originally Posted by packs
I do think people in Cy Young's time would have probably said he was the greatest. He was clearly revered in his time. He's referred to as the "Grand Old Man" on his Tom Barker game card, for example. Nobody had ever seen a Perfect Game before either. He was a bridge between the old game and what we now know as modern baseball and he pitched equally well in both worlds. Somebody mentioned him not being in the 1936 HOF class. Well, that vote was split into two votes for players: a 19th century vote and a 20th century vote. Cy Young straddled both centuries and his votes were split between them. That's why he wasn't inducted. The next year they did away with the split century vote and he got in.
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Young was, indeed, considered the greatest until Matty came along. I didn't know that about Young and the first HOF election--you'd think they would have realized the unfairness of a career splitting votes between the centuries and adjusted for that. Do we know how many total votes he got and where that would have put him if combined? I see where he's #1 in career WAR, and that's impressive considering the respect that stat has come to have recently. But he's also 61st in lifetime E.R.A. and down the list in both strikeouts and shutouts, so I'm not sure how the SABR guys regard him in a statistical light. It's so hard trying to compare across generations in any category, including pitching, so I'm satisfied with my list of 15 pitchers I honestly believe you can mount a truly serious case for as GOAT employing various metrics, and leave it at that. I will also tell you that, from my many years of research, the anecdotal opinion of those who played against Johnson is no less than overwhelming on this score.