There has only been a total of 116 CY Young Award winners in baseball history. According to a recent report on MLB.com, two of our MLBbros were acknowledged as having one of the Top 5 most dominant Cy Young award-winning seasons we have ever seen.
#3 Nobody Could Mess With the “Hoot”
In sports there are stars, then there are game changers. Coming in at #3 on the list we have MLBbro Bob “Hoot” Gibson whose 1968 season was so out of this world, the next season MLB made a rule change to lower the pitching mound just to help hitters facing him.
Gibson would have a record of 22-9 with an ERA of 1.12 and 268 strikeouts in 34 appearances, with 28 of them being complete games. During the months of June and July that season “The Hoot” was unhittable, only allowing two earned runs in 92 straight innings with 13 shutouts.
Although Gibson is on this list for his Cy Young accolade, it wasn’t the only award that he won that season. Along with his Cy Young Award, Gibson would win a Gold Glove Award and NL MVP Award, along with being named the Sporting News ‘Pitcher of the Year’ while helping the St. Louis Cardinals win the NL Pennant.
1968 was considered the “Year of the pitcher”, because so many hurlers had career seasons, but the leader of the pack was Bob “The Hoot” Gibson who was so dominant that they MLB lowered the mound to return an advantage back to the hitter.
#4 The “Doc” Is In
In 1985, Dwight Gooden was living life like a Wiz Khalifa song. At 20 years old he was young, wild, and free to prescribe Ks to any batter who was addicted to the humiliation of facing baseball’s youngest, Blackest superstar.
Fresh off winning the NL Rookie of the Year award, Gooden would take his talent to another level, like going from his Master’s to PHD, earning the nickname the “Doc”.
This MLBbro would have a dominating season pitching 35 games posting a record of 24-4 with a staggering 1.53 ERA in 276.2 inning pitched and 268 strikeouts, earning him a Triple Crown (The only pitcher to do so in the 1980’s).
Supreme Analytical Season
If we used today’s analytics to describe how magical this season was, the Doc’s rWAR is listed at 12.2 which is only surpassed by Walter Johnson (13.5 in 1912 and 14.6 in 1913) and the pitcher the award is named after Cy Young (12.6 in 1906).
His 1.53 ERA (NY Mets Franchise Record) is the second best after the dead ball era behind who? You guessed it, Bob “The Hoot” Gibson’s 1968 ERA (1.12). Gooden would also finish fourth in the NL MVP race and be selected to the All-Star team. Congrats to these MLB Bros on making this list, getting the recognition they truly deserve, and being remembered for generations to come.
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