Cy Young

March 29, 1867 — November 4, 1955 · Gilmore, Ohio

Denton True "Cy" Young was an American professional baseball pitcher whose career statistics remain so far beyond reach that his name has become synonymous with pitching excellence. He won 511 games over 22 Major League seasons — a record that has stood for over a century and, by most estimates, will never be broken. Baseball's annual award for its best pitchers, the Cy Young Award, bears his name.

Farm Boy to Fastball Legend

Born on March 29, 1867 on a farm in Gilmore, Ohio, Young worked the land through his teens and had little formal baseball training. He earned his nickname "Cy" — short for "Cyclone" — after a tryout with the Canton, Ohio minor league team, where his blazing fastball reportedly splintered pieces of a wooden fence behind home plate. A scout from the Cleveland Spiders signed him on the spot.

Young made his Major League debut in 1890 and quickly established himself as the dominant pitcher of his era. In the 1890s and early 1900s, starting pitchers threw complete games far more often than today, and Young's durability was exceptional even by those standards. He threw an estimated 7,356 innings in his career — a total that modern pitchers would require many lifetimes to approach.

Records That Will Never Fall

Young's career numbers are staggering: 511 wins, 316 losses, 2,803 strikeouts, and 749 complete games. His 511 victories are nearly 100 more than the second-most in history (Walter Johnson, 417). He pitched for five teams — the Cleveland Spiders, St. Louis Cardinals, Boston Americans, Cleveland Naps, and Boston Rustlers — and finished just one season below .500 in his entire 22-year career.

In 1904, pitching for the Boston Americans, Young threw the first perfect game of the modern era, retiring all 27 batters he faced against the Philadelphia Athletics. The following year he threw another no-hitter. He is one of just a handful of pitchers to throw three no-hitters in his career.

Did You Know?

Cy Young retired at age 44 in 1911, not because his arm gave out, but because he felt he had gotten too heavy to field his position. He told reporters that batters were bunting on him and he couldn't get off the mound fast enough to field the balls.

The Award in His Name

Young retired to his farm in Peoli, Ohio, where he lived quietly until his death on November 4, 1955, at age 88. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937. Just two years after his death, Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick established the Cy Young Award in 1956 to honor the best pitcher in the Major Leagues each season. Since 1967, separate awards have been given for each league. Recipients have included some of the greatest names in the game — Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson, Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, and Clayton Kershaw — all distinguished by an award that carries the name and legacy of a farm boy from Ohio.