QUOTE from Leo Durocher: "Baseball is like church. Many attend, few understand."
When reading the TODAY IN HISTORY section of the morning newspaper I noticed that on this day, September 22, 1911, Cy Young won his 511th and final career victory as he hurled a 1-0 shutout for the Boston Rustlers against the Pittsburgh Pirates at old Forbes Field. Today, every year the Cy Young Award goes to the top pitcher in each league. I wanted to LEARN today how and/or why Cy Young come to be honored this way?
Denton True "Cy" Young was born in Gilmore, Ohio, on March 29, 1867. He died on November 4, 1955. Young won 511 games in his 22 year career (1890 to 1911). That was more wins than any other pitcher in major league history. He also lost more games (313) than any other pitcher.
He set numerous records: most complete games (750), most innings pitched (7,356), and most consecutive hitless innings pitched (23). Young accumulated his incredible victory record in the era before relief pitching reached its present-day inportance; his record is therefore considered unattainable for modern pitchers. In recognition of his achievment, the award annually given to the best pitcher in each league is named for him. Young was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937.
His 511 wins averages out to 23 wins a season and his 313 losses averages out to 14 losses a season. His 7,356 innings pitched averages out to 334 innings pitched per season. His 750 complete games averages out to 34 complete games a season. Can you imagine a modern day pitcher even completing 1 to 5 games a season? And I don't think managers or the pitchers were concerned about pitch count in those days.
So now I know a little more about Cy Young, the Cy Young Award, and major league baseball - one of my two favorite spectator sports.
HUMOR for today: CHILDREN ARE QUICK.
Teacher: Whay are you late?
Peter: Class started before I got here.
Teacher: Peter, go to the map and find North America>
Peter: Here it is.
Teacher: Correct, now class, who doscovered America?
Class: Peter.
Teacher: Peter, why are you doing your math multiplicatio on the floor?
Peter: You told me to do without using tables.
Teacher: Peter, give me a sentence starting with 'I'.
Peter: I is...
Teacher: No, Peter.... Always say, 'I am.'
Peter: All right... 'I am the ninth letter of the alphabet.'
Teacher: Peter, your composition on my 'My Dog' is exactly the same as your brother's.. Did you copy his?
Peter: No. It's the same dog.
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