On May 5th, 1904, a 37-year-old pitcher stood on the mound at Huntington Avenue Grounds in Boston. Over 10,000 fans had packed the stadium, the largest regular season crowd in its history. They came to see a showdown between the two best pitchers in the American League.
On one side was Rube Waddell, the eccentric left-hander for the Philadelphia Athletics, who would set a single-season strikeout record that year. Three days earlier, Waddell had shut out Boston and taunted the opposing pitcher, daring him to face him again. That opposing pitcher was Cy Young, and he was about to make Waddell regret every word.
For eight innings, Young mowed down the Athletics without allowing a single base runner. The crowd grew louder with each out. In the ninth, Monte Cross fouled off pitch after pitch before Young struck him out. Ossee Schreckengost grounded to short. That brought Waddell himself to the plate as the final batter.
Young popped him up to center field. 27 batters faced, 27 batters retired. It was the first perfect game of the modern era. When asked years later about his greatest day in baseball, Cy Young did not hesitate. It was that afternoon in Boston when he silenced the man who had challenged him and etched his name into history forever.
This is the story of a farm boy from Ohio who became the greatest winner in baseball history. A man who threw so hard they called him Cyclone. A man whose name now graces the most prestigious award a pitcher can receive. A man who won 511 games, a record that will almost certainly never be broken.
This is the story of Cy Young. Denton True Young was born on March 29th, 1867, in Gilmore, Ohio. The Civil War had ended less than 2 years earlier. His father, McKenzy Young Jr., had served as a private in the Union Army with the 78th Ohio Infantry. He gave his son the middle name True in honor of a fellow soldier he had served with during the war.
Gilmore was a tiny farming community in Tuscarawas County, about 100 miles south of Cleveland. When McKenzy Jr. married Nancy Mottmiller, his father gave them 54 acres of farmland to start their family. That land had been in the Young family since 1830 when McKenzy Sr. purchased it directly from the United States government.
Denton was the oldest of five children. His siblings were Jessie, Alonzo, Ella, and Anthony. The family worked the land together, raising crops and livestock in the years after the war. It was hard work, but it built the strength and endurance that would define Denton’s legendary career. His formal education ended after the sixth grade.
At around 14 years old, he left school to help his father with the farm full-time. But it was also during these years that he discovered baseball. His father, the Civil War veteran, encouraged his sons to play the game whenever they had free time. Denton practiced constantly. During lunch breaks from farm work, he would throw rocks at fence posts and knotholes, developing his accuracy without any formal coaching.
Years later, he joked about his early training methods. He said he used to kill squirrels with stones when he was a kid. That arm strength came from somewhere. He organized a baseball team among the local farm boys in Gilmore. In 1884, at 17 years old, he started playing for semi-professional teams in nearby towns like Newcomerstown, Cadiz, and Uhrichsville.
By 1888, he was playing for a semi-professional team in Carrollton. The oldest known box score featuring his name comes from that season. He played first base and went three for three. In 1885, Denton moved with his father to Nebraska. They returned to Gilmore in the summer of 1887. Throughout these years, he kept playing baseball, kept throwing, kept dreaming of something beyond the farm.
There was another reason he wanted to make money. On a neighboring farm lived a girl named Robba Miller. Denton had known her since childhood, and he hoped to marry her someday. Baseball might be the way to make that dream come true. In 1890, at 23 years old, Denton Young signed his first professional contract with the Canton team of the Tri-State League. The salary was $60 per month.
At his tryout, Young wanted to impress his new teammates. He started throwing as hard as he could against a wooden fence. Years later, he recalled what happened. He said he thought he had to show all his stuff. And he almost tore the boards off the grandstand with his fastball. Someone remarked that the fence looked like a cyclone had hit it.
The newspapers started calling him Cyclone Young. Eventually, that got shortened to Cy. It was the only name he would be known by for the rest of his life. Young went 15 and 15 for Canton that season. The team finished in last place, but his statistics were remarkable. He struck out 201 batters while walking only 33.
His control was already elite. On June 25th, 1890, Young threw a no-hitter against McKeesport. He struck out 18 batters without issuing a single walk. It was his final game for Canton. A few days later, the National League Cleveland Spiders purchased his contract for $300. They also threw in a new suit for the Canton manager.
Young was about to face the best hitters in the world. He was met at the train depot in Cleveland by members of the Spiders. Young was so uncertain about his future that he almost bought a return ticket to Canton in case things went badly. He told them he would pitch one game. If he won, he would stay.
If he lost, he was going home that evening. The team secretary ordered the tailor not to finish Young’s uniform until after he had pitched. They wanted to see if he was worth the investment. On August 6th, 1890, Cy Young made his major league debut against Cap Anson’s Chicago Colts. Anson was one of the biggest stars in baseball, a future Hall of Famer.
Before the game, he reportedly took one look at Young in his ill-fitting clothes and dismissed him with a sneer. Anson said, “No good. Just another big farmer.” Young heard the insult. He was deeply hurt, and he used that anger to fuel one of the most impressive debuts in baseball history. He threw a three-hitter.
Cleveland won 8 to 1. Cap Anson did not get a single hit off the big farmer. After the game, Anson tried to buy Young’s contract for $1,000. The Spiders said no. That night, there was a mad scramble to get Young’s uniform finished. He was definitely staying. Young finished his rookie season with a 9 and 7 record.
On the final day of the season, he won both games of a doubleheader, beating the Philadelphia Phillies 5 to 1 and 7 to 3. The Spiders had found their ace. The following year, Young went 27 wins and 20 losses for Cleveland. He was the team’s workhorse, pitching every few days like clockwork.
In that era, relief pitchers were rarely used. The man who started the game was expected to finish it. Young embraced that mentality completely. In 1892, he had his breakout season. He went 36 wins and 12 losses, leading the National League in wins, with an earned run average of 1.93 and with nine shutouts. The league had split its schedule into two seasons that year, and the Spiders won the fall pennant.
Young was their best pitcher down the stretch, going 21 wins and three losses in the second half. He helped Cleveland reach the championship series against Boston, the spring champions. Young won the first game, but the Spiders lost the series. Still, he had announced himself as the best pitcher in baseball.
That December, Young was featured on the cover of The Sporting News. And on November 8th, 1892, he married Robba Miller, the girl from the neighboring farm. She was 21 years old. They had known each other their entire lives. Before the 1893 season, baseball made a significant rule change.
The distance from the pitcher to home plate was increased from 55 feet, 6 inches, to 60 feet, 6 inches. The extra 5 feet was supposed to help hitters. Many pitching careers ended because of the change. Young adapted. His earned run average rose to 3.36, but he still went 34 and 16. He finished strong, winning 16 of his last 20 decisions.
Most importantly, he led [snorts] the league in fewest walks per nine innings, a statistic he would lead 14 times in his career. From 1893 through 1901, he led the league in that category nine consecutive years. Control became his calling card. Young could throw hard, but he could also put the ball exactly where he wanted it.
He later revealed that what few batters knew was that he had two different curves. One broke in like a fastball. The other had a wide break in the opposite direction. Hitters never knew which was coming. His catcher with the spiders was Chief Zimmer. The two developed a remarkable partnership. Some historians estimate that Zimmer caught more pitches from Young than any catcher has caught from a single pitcher in baseball history.
Zimmer had to put a piece of beef steak inside his glove to protect his hand from Young’s fastball. In 1895, Young won 35 games and led the league in victories. He helped Cleveland win the Temple Cup, which was the championship of that era. On September 18th, 1897, he threw the first no-hitter of his career against Cincinnati.
By the time Young left Cleveland after the 1898 season, his record with the Spiders was 241 wins and 135 losses. He was already one of the best pitchers in baseball history. And he was just getting started. In 1899, Young was transferred to the St. Louis Cardinals along with the rest of the Cleveland roster.
The same owner controlled both franchises. He spent 2 years in St. Louis before making a decision that would define the second half of his career. In 1901, a new league was forming. The American League had operated as a minor league, but now it was declaring itself a major league equal to the established National League.
The new league promised higher salaries and a chance to compete against the National League’s monopoly. Many established stars jumped at the opportunity. Young was one of them. He signed with the Boston Americans for $3,000 per year, a $600 raise over his National League salary. At 34 years old, he was taking a risk by joining an unproven league.
But the extra money mattered, and Young sensed that the American League was the future. It was the best decision he ever made. In his first American League season, Young was dominant. He went 33 and 10 with a 1.62 earned run average and 158 strikeouts. He led the league in all three categories, winning the triple crown in the very first year of the new league’s existence.
He was the American League’s first true superstar. The Boston fans embraced him immediately. The Royal Rooters, a passionate group of Irish supporters, adopted Young as one of their favorites. They would chant and sing whenever he took the mound. The atmosphere at Huntington Avenue Grounds was electric when Young pitched.
Over the next three seasons, Young won 93 games for Boston. He led the league in wins in 1902 and 1903 as well, becoming the first pitcher to win consecutive pitching titles in the new league. He was the face of the franchise, the biggest star in the American League. And in 1903, he helped make history. That October, the American League champion Boston Americans faced the National League champion Pittsburgh Pirates in a best-of-nine postseason series.
It was the first World Series of the modern era. The agreement between the two teams had only been finalized in mid-September. There was genuine uncertainty about whether the series would happen at all. Pittsburgh was heavily favored. They had Honus Wagner, the best player in baseball. They had won the National League pennant convincingly.
Boston was the upstart from the new league. Young started game one at Huntington Avenue Grounds on October 1st, 1903. Over 16,000 fans showed up to witness history. General admission tickets cost 50 cents. Young threw the first pitch in World Series history. Unfortunately, it did not go well. Pittsburgh jumped on Young for four runs in the first inning.
The Pirates had clearly scouted him well. They were sitting on his fastball and driving it all over the field. Pittsburgh won 7 to 3. Jimmy Sebring hit the first home run in World Series history, an inside-the-park shot to center field off Young in the seventh inning. The Boston newspapers noted that Young looked several pounds too heavy.
One article said he appeared a bit fat. But Young was not finished. Boston lost again in game two. Then Pittsburgh won game three behind Deacon Phillippe, who was pitching on 1 day’s rest. The Pirates led three games to one. It looked like the upstart American League would be embarrassed. But Pittsburgh’s pitching staff was depleted.
They had to keep going back to Phillippe, who had already thrown three complete games. Boston took advantage. Young started game five and dominated. He allowed just six hits and drove in three runs himself as Boston rolled to an 11 to 2 victory. The momentum had shifted. Young started game seven and won again, putting the Americans ahead four games to three.
Boston clinched the championship in game eight, three to nothing. Bill Dineen threw a shutout. The Royal Rooters, Boston’s noisy Irish fan club, celebrated wildly. Young finished the series with a 2 and 1 record and a 1.85 earned run average. He had helped establish the World Series as an annual tradition. He had thrown the first pitch in the history of the fall classic, and at 36 years old, he was a world champion.
The following May brought the perfect game against Rube Waddell and the Athletics. The build-up to that game was intense. Waddell had shut out Boston on May 2nd, allowing just one hit. After the game, he publicly challenged Young, saying he would give the same treatment to Boston’s ace that he had given to the other pitchers.
Young accepted the challenge. The May 5th matchup drew the largest regular season crowd in the history of Huntington Avenue Grounds. Over 10,000 fans crammed into the stadium to watch the duel. The game was scoreless through five innings. Both pitchers were sharp. Then Boston broke through in the sixth.
Chick Stahl singled. Buck Freeman drove him in with a double. Boston led 1 to nothing. Meanwhile, Young was carving through the Athletics lineup. Inning after inning, no Philadelphia batter reached base. In the fourth, first baseman Harry Davis hit a foul pop that catcher Lou Criger caught just before crashing into the Boston dugout.
In the seventh, the crowd started buzzing louder with every out. Boston added two more runs in the eighth. Lou Criger doubled and scored on an error. Young came to the plate and dropped a bunt that was fielded cleanly, but the throw to first was muffed. Another run scored. It was 3 to nothing.
Now Young stood on the mound in the ninth inning, three outs away from perfection. Monte Cross stepped in and fouled off pitch after pitch. Finally, Young struck him out, his eighth strikeout of the game. Ossie Schreckengost grounded to shortstop. That brought Rube Waddell to the plate. The man who had taunted Young just days earlier was now the final obstacle.
Young got ahead in the count. Waddell swung and popped the ball into shallow center field. The center fielder squeezed it for the final out. The game had taken just 83 minutes. 27 batters faced. 27 retired. Not a single one had reached first base. The perfect game was part of an even more remarkable streak. Including two hitless innings at the end of a loss on April 25th, seven hitless innings of relief on April 30th, and six hitless innings to start his next game on May 11th.
Young pitched 24 consecutive innings without allowing a hit. He also threw over 45 consecutive scoreless innings during that stretch. But Young’s brilliance continued beyond that historic afternoon. On July 4th, 1905, Young and Waddell faced off again in what Young later called the greatest game he ever participated in.
They dueled for 20 innings. Young pitched 13 consecutive scoreless innings without walking a single batter. He finally gave up two unearned runs in the 20th inning and lost 4 to 2. Even in defeat, he had shown what made him great. On June 30th, 1908, Young threw the third no-hitter of his career. He was 41 years and 3 months old, making him the oldest pitcher to throw a no-hitter.
That record stood for 82 years until Nolan Ryan broke it in 1990 at age 43. The game was played at Hilltop Park in New York against the Highlanders, who would later become the Yankees. Neither team was doing particularly well. The Highlanders were in seventh place. Boston, now called the Red Sox for the first time that season, was also struggling.
Young had been phenomenal in recent weeks. A month earlier, on May 30th, he had faced just 28 batters against Washington, allowing only a sixth-inning single. He had come within one hit of throwing back-to-back perfect games. The no-hitter against the Highlanders came within one batter of being his second perfect game.
Young walked the lead-off man, Harry Niles, on a pitch that many observers thought should have been called a strike. But Niles was thrown out trying to steal second base and Young retired the next 26 batters in order. He dominated in every way that day. At the plate, he went three for four with four runs batted in, driving in half of Boston’s eight runs himself.
Only one other pitcher in history, Wes Ferrell, has driven in four runs while pitching a no-hitter. Young struck out eight batters without issuing another walk after the lead-off free pass. It was a masterpiece from a man who was supposed to be past his prime. That August, the American League celebrated Cy Young Day.
No other games were played in the league that day. All-stars from every other team gathered in Boston to play an exhibition game against Young and the Americans. It was an unprecedented honor for a living player. Young finished the 1908 season with a 21 and 11 record and a 1.26 earned run average, the lowest of his career.
He was 41 years old and still one of the best pitchers in baseball. But time catches everyone eventually. Before the 1909 season, Young was traded back to Cleveland, this time to the American League’s Cleveland Naps. He was returning to the city where he had started his career nearly two decades earlier.
He had a solid year, going 19 wins and 15 losses with a 2.26 earned run average. But the fastball that had once torn boards off grandstands was slowing down. In 1910, Young struggled. He went seven wins and 10 losses with a 2.53 earned run average. At 43 years old, his body was finally catching up to his age. He had put on weight over the years, growing from 170 lb as a young man to over 210 lb in his final seasons.
Young spent part of 1911 with Cleveland before being released in August. The team could no longer justify keeping an aging pitcher who could barely field his position. He signed with the Boston Rustlers of the National League, returning to the city where he had won a championship and thrown a perfect game.
His time with the Rustlers was brief. He appeared in 11 games, going four wins and five losses. His final game was a loss to the Philadelphia Phillies on October 6th, 1911. A brash young rookie named Grover Cleveland Alexander threw a one-hitter against him. Young lost one to nothing.
The torch had been passed to the next generation. His final statistics for that last season showed his decline. In just over 120 innings, he had given up more hits than innings pitched. The control was still there, but the stuff was gone. Young made the decision to retire at age 44.
He had gained weight over the years and he could no longer bend over to field bunts. He later explained his reasoning simply. He said he made up his mind it was time to quit when a pitcher had to make the third baseman do his fielding for him. His arm was still good, but his body could not keep up anymore so. He reported for spring training in 1912, but asked for his release.
It was granted. After 22 seasons in the major leagues, the longest career by a pitcher at that time, Cy Young walked away from baseball. His final statistics are staggering. 511 wins, 94 more than Walter Johnson, or Mr. Who is second on the all-time list. No other pitcher has even reached 450 wins.
316 losses, also the most in history, but you cannot lose that many games without pitching for a very long time. The losses are a testament to his durability, not his failures. 7,356 innings pitched. That is almost 2,000 innings more than second place Pud Galvin. 815 games started, 749 complete games.
In an era when pitchers were expected to finish what they started, Young finished more games than anyone else who ever lived. All of these are records that will almost certainly never be broken. Consider what it would take to match Young’s career totals in the modern era. Starting pitchers today throw about 200 innings per year if they are durable.
Most throw fewer. To match Young’s innings total, a pitcher would need to throw 200 innings for 37 consecutive seasons. To match his wins, a pitcher would need to average 17 wins per season for 30 years. Neither scenario is remotely possible under today’s conditions. Teams now use five-man and six-man rotations.
Pitch counts are monitored carefully. Starting pitchers rarely throw more than 100 pitches in a game and complete games are increasingly rare. In 2024, the entire American League threw fewer complete games combined than Young threw in several individual seasons. Young also threw 76 career shutouts, fourth most in history.
He led his league in wins five times. He won at least 30 games in five different seasons. He had 15 seasons with 20 or more victories. He threw three no-hitters, including the first perfect game of the modern era. He was not just a pitcher, either. Young was a capable hitter with a .210 career batting average.
He hit 18 home runs and drove in 290 runs. In an era when pitchers batted regularly, he contributed with his bat as much as many position players. After retirement, Young returned to Ohio. He had no interest in staying in baseball as a manager or coach. His only attempt came in 1912 when he briefly managed the Cleveland Green Sox of the Federal League during spring training.
He quickly gave it up and went home. What Young wanted was simple. He wanted to go back to the farm. “A man who is not willing to work from dreary morn till weary eve should not think about becoming a pitcher,” he once said. That work ethic came from his upbringing on the farm and it was where he felt most comfortable.
He settled in Peoli, Ohio with Robba. They had been married for 20 years. Tragically, they had lost their only child, a daughter, just hours after her birth in the 1890s. They never had any other children. The loss stayed with them for the rest of their lives. Young lived quietly on the farm, growing potatoes, raising sheep, hogs, and chickens.
It was the life he had known before baseball and it was the life he returned to after. The fame and the records meant little to him compared to the simple pleasures of working the land. Fans and autograph seekers would occasionally make the trip to rural Ohio to visit the great pitcher. Young always accommodated them.
He would sign autographs, pose for photographs, and tell stories about the old days. But he never sought the spotlight. He was content to live out his years in quiet retirement. In January 1933, Robba became ill and was taken to the hospital. She died a week later. They had been married for over 40 years.
After Robba’s death, Young sold the farm. He tried various jobs, but eventually moved in with friends John and Ruth Benedum on their farm near Newcomerstown. He did odd jobs for them in exchange for room and board. Ruth Benedum later said that Young saw her daughter as the child he never had.
In 1937, 26 years after he threw his last pitch, Cy Young was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He was part of the second class of inductees along with Nap Lajoie and Tris Speaker, two players he had competed against and played with during his career. He was among the first to donate mementos to the new museum in Cooperstown, New York.
Young was 70 years old at the time of his induction. He made the trip to Cooperstown for the ceremony, posing for photographs and signing autographs for fans who remembered watching him pitch decades earlier. It was a fitting honor for a man who had dominated the sport for over two decades.
Young continued to participate in baseball events throughout his retirement. He played in old-timers games, charity exhibitions, and anniversary celebrations. He was always willing to show up when asked. The game had given him everything and he remained grateful until the end. On November 4th, 1955, Cy Young died on the Benedum farm. He was 88 years old.
He was buried in Peoli, Ohio near the farm where he had spent so many happy years with Robba. The following year, baseball commissioner Ford Frick announced the creation of a new award. It would be given annually to the best pitcher in baseball. It would be called the Cy Young Award. The timing was fitting.
Young had died less than a year earlier. The award ensured that his name would be spoken every November for as long as baseball existed. It was the ultimate tribute to a man who had defined pitching excellence for over two decades. Initially, there was one award for both leagues. The first winner was Don Newcombe of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1956.
Starting in 1967, the centennial of Young’s birth, separate awards were given to the best pitcher in the American League and the National League. That year, the centennial celebration included an old-timers game in Tuscarawas County and a dinner featuring Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes as master of ceremonies.
Hayes was another famous son of Tuscarawas County. The community had never forgotten their legendary pitcher. Today, winning the Cy Young Award is considered one of the highest honors a pitcher can achieve. The award has been won by legends like Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson, Tom Seaver, Roger Clemens, Greg Maddux, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Clayton Kershaw, and dozens more.
Each winner joins a lineage that traces directly back to the farm boy from Gilmore, Ohio. Every November, when the Cy Young Award winners are announced, millions of baseball fans hear his name. Most know him only as the namesake of the award, but behind that name is a story. A farm boy who threw so hard he damaged fences.
A pitcher who silenced a Hall of Famer who called him just another big farmer. A champion who threw the first pitch in World Series history. A 41-year-old who could still throw a no-hitter. In 1999, 88 years after his final game and 44 years after his death, The Sporting News ranked Cy Young 14th on their list of baseball’s 100 greatest players.
That same year, fans voted him onto the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. A statue of Young now stands at Northeastern University in Boston on the exact spot where his pitcher’s mound once stood at Huntington Avenue Grounds. The plaque reads, “Cy Young At this site in October 1903, baseball’s winningest pitcher led Boston to victory in the first World Series.
” The street next to the memorial is called World Series Way. In Tuscarawas County, Ohio, his life is memorialized at the Old Main Street Museum in Newcomerstown. A bowling alley and a park are named after him. The county has never forgotten its most famous son. Some records are meant to be broken. Home run records fall.
Strikeout records fall. Even the consecutive game streak that seemed unbreakable was eventually surpassed. But 511 wins in an era when starting pitchers throw fewer innings than ever before, when teams use six-man rotations and limit pitch counts, when a 200-inning season is considered a heavy workload, that record is safe.
Cy Young won more games than any pitcher who ever lived. He won more games than any pitcher ever will. He started as a farm boy throwing rocks at fence posts in rural Ohio. He ended as a legend whose name is synonymous with pitching excellence. They called him Cyclone because of how hard he threw. They shortened it to Cy because it fit in headlines.
But whatever you call him, the legacy is the same. 511 wins, three no-hitters, one perfect game, one World Series Championship, one award that will forever carry his name. Like and subscribe for more baseball documentaries. Until next time.
