Posted on 06/19/2009 7:05:41 PM PDT by Artemis Webb
It’s time to retire Cy Young. I’m all for tradition, but baseball has more important people to remember than a man who began his career in the horse-and-buggy age. He’s had his name on the award for the game’s best pitcher for over half a century, plenty long to honor his place in the game. See ya, Cy.
Let’s rename the award after a man who won more games than Young, struck out more batters than Nolan Ryan, pitched in at least twice as many games as anyone else, and had a persona that rivaled Babe Ruth’s.
The name is Leroy “Satchel” Paige, and it deserves to be etched on a trophy that would guarantee he will not be forgotten.
(snip)
Paige, as Tye notes, began his career when Calvin Coolidge was in the White House and ended it when Lyndon Johnson was president.
“If Randy Johnson(notes) was a force of nature when he signed on with the 2009 San Francisco Giants at age 45, and Nolan Ryan a medical marvel still pitching in the pros at 46, what are we to make of Satchel suiting up for three innings with the Kansas City A’s at 59?” Tye writes. “His durability was more astounding considering that, for most of his career, he twirled nearly every day on unmanicured fields, without the doctors, trainers and other pampering enjoyed by Johnson, Ryan and other major league pitchers.”
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.yahoo.com ...
Start a new award for Paige if necessary...but don't screw with 50yrs of tradition.
Call it the Ty Cobb award.
You can’t re-write history. There is no way to know how good he was because he didn’t play against the best. It wasn’t his fault but it is still true.
No way, Satchel Paige was NOT better than Nolan Ryan!
It’s an absolute travesty that the era that Paige played in didn’t allow him to dominate the MLB like he dominated the negro leagues.
That said, why rename something from a truly dominant pitcher to another? While we’re at it, why not rename it the Nolan Ryan award.....
I’ve never heard of this writer so I couldn’t tell you who he is. this might have meant something if it came from someone like Buster Olney or Peter Gammons, this Yahoo Sports writer is a nobody.
I don’t pay attention to ESPN anymore unless there’s a ball game on, like right now with the CWS. Their Obama worship is just over the top.
What the hell is wrong with people these days?
"I will let you draw your own conclusion from all of this. However, I will say that while the MLB might have had more depth than the Negro Leagues, it seems obvious that the stars in the Negro Leagues would have been stars in MLB.
Joe DiMaggio called Paige the best pitcher he ever faced (you would think he would know). Was Satchel the best pitcher ever? Was Josh Gibson the best home run hitter ever? Was James "Cool Papa" Bell (great nickname) the fastest player and the best base stealer to ever play baseball? How great an all-around hitter was Buck Leonard?
I do not have a definitive answer to any of these questions and, sadly, neither does anyone else."
I haven’t been paying attention to ESPN since college basketball ended. They don’t carry the NHL.
I personally prefer The Greg Maddux award...but I digress. :)
nah - if we’re going to go there, it should be the Vida Blue award :)
Actually, he did. Satch pitched for the 1948 world champion Cleveland Indians and, even as a 41 year old rookie, he posted a 6-1 record and a 2.48 E.R.A. Describing Paige as awesome would be like describing Ronald Reagan as an above average president.
I’m tired of this PC crap.
I’m just always against renaming ANYTHING. As others have suggested, name a new award after him, but don’t mess with the ones that already exist.
Cy Young holds what IMO is the most unbreakable record in baseball, and it’s not the most wins. It’s the most complete games: 749. In the present relief-pitcher era of baseball it’s rare to see a pitcher break into double figures for complete games in a season.
This is NOT really about baseball...
I’m not familiar with the author either but it just sounds possibly like maybe more ‘white guilt’ type crap to me, if the writer is white. hope he feels better now. yep, put a named for a whitey award back in his/it’s place and substitute a black man’s name. right on brother. now if Paige’s name is desired to be involved with an award of some kind it should be a new one award and not by removing Cy Young’s name from his. Paige was a hell of a hurler and I would not have a problem whatsoever with his name on a premier MLB yearly award. (I just finished up rereading an early ‘50’s ‘Sport Magazine’ interview discussing and speaking with Paige, great read.) as you say, Gammons or Onley would def. be two to start the conversation going regarding a Paige award.
Like the founding Fathers. Let's just forget anything that happened more than 50 years ago.
This idea is retarded.
Next they are going to change the nation’s capital from Washington D.C. to Tubman D.C.
I think Satch definitely needs an award named after him. I don’t think it should be the Cy Youngs.
No way to know that. A lot of his "stats" are based on highly questionable personal claims. ...like his claim that he won 104 of the 105 games he pitched in 1934. ...or that he pitched over 300 career shutouts.
Keep the Cy Young Award and find another way to honor Satchel. ...unquestionably one of the greatest pitchers of all time.
Why? Oh wait, I know...never mind.
Engraved on the award must be:
"Don't look back: Something may be gaining on you." -- Satchel Paige
This can’t be serious.
I have an idea — let’s rename the Olympics.
After all it’s been called that for way too long.
Yep. People like this writer try to impose modern views and sentiments on past eras. This is why there arguments are dumb. Lets focus on looking to the forward with regards to race as opposed to trying to make people feel ashamed for things they had nothing to do with.
Let’s just name it, and all awards, the Barack Obama Award.
What I make of it is that Charley Finley was kind enough to put Paige on the A's roster in 1965 for long enough so he could qualify for a Major League pension.
I’m still waiting for MLB to rquire every team to retire number ‘3’ in honor of the greatest ball player of ALL time, and the man who saved the game after the ‘Black Sox’ scandal... George Herman Ruth!
The job of the pitcher is get people out without allowing runs. While it's difficult to tell because of segregation (and limited availability of Negro League stats), Satchel Paige was almost certainly in the top 10 all time at doing that.
Ryan probably wasn't in the top 50. He was very good (and amazing to watch) for a long time. But Satchel Paige is one of the few to top Ryan in longevity too.
Bill James ranks Paige as the #17 player (not just pitcher) of all time. Ryan is #115. James says that Ryan ranks as high as he does because his system compares players to zero, and that when compared to average Ryan fares worse.
At the end of the day...Cy Young is still probably the greatest pitcher to ever pitch.
Maybe they could call it the “Eephus Award”
If it wasn’t named after Cy Young, Christy Mathewson would be as good a guy as any. Was just as good if not better than Cy or Walter Johnson and a BIG PLUS is that he served bravely in World War I, contracting the tuberculosis that he died of just a few years later. Everything I’ve read is that he was beloved. He was a devoted Christian, which has nothing to do with the award, of course, but I believe he lived a life devoted to others and to his faith in Jesus Christ. Look up his record, including in the World Series.
Of course Satchel Paige was one of the greatest, and he certainly would be in my top ten if he had been allowed to pitch in the majors throughout his prime. But that was not the case.
This silly idea of renaming the award after Paige, though, is simply PC white guilt. It would be up there with the dumb PC moves of "Bum" Selig, like retiring Robinson's number across baseball and having a "Civil Rights" game.
“Start a new award for Paige if necessary...but don't screw with 50yrs of tradition.”
I agree with that, but if look at the record there needs to be a separate award.
Regards
Y is for Young
The magnificent Cy;
People battled against him,
But I never knew why.
-Ogden Nash
Lineup for Yesterday
I was a little boy when old Satch pitched his last major league game in 1957, but I’m also a student of baseball history. When people like Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams (the best hitters of their era) praise Satch as one of the best, even the best, pitcher they ever had to face, I tend to beleive them. Neither Joe nor Ted had a habit of passing out praise where it wasn’t due.
Sorry for the typo.
Name a stadium after him. The pitching award already has a name.
While they’re at it, they need to rename the Black Sox scandal. After all, all of the players implicated in the scandal were white.
My favorite Satchel Paige quote...
“Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you.”
More...here...
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/s/satchel_paige.html
He and Yogi had some great lines.
Change the name of the award? I say no, but I have no doubt that Satchel Paige was one of the greatest pitchers and one of the greatest ambassadors of the game of baseball.
I’m black myself, but I’m sick and tired of all this liberal guilt about the racism of the past.
It’s not Cy Young’s fault that baseball owners and fans of those days were racists.
And renaming the Cy Young award is not going to change the fact that Paige, and hundreds of other black players, were barred from playing in the “major” leagues during the prime of their careers.
But I’ve got a great idea... let’s give TWO awards each year. The Cy Young award can go to the best WHITE pitcher, and the Satchel Paige award can go to the best BLACK pitcher!!! That should make EVERYONE happy!!!
btw, why are you so anxious to have people forget Cy Young?
btw, I just had another idea.
In addition to the Satchel Paige award for the best Black pitcher, and the Cy Young award for the best White pitcher, we could present the following awards each year:
1) The Juan Marichal Award, presented annually to the best Latino pitcher in each league
2) The Dice-K award, presented annually to the best Asian pitcher in each league.
Are there any other divisions of race which need to be honored in this way?
Or the Al Hrabosky Award, presented to the best pitcher of Hungarian ancestry.
lol Hrobowski award! Excellent!
One thing I also would like to point out:
Yes, it’s true that guys like Cy Young, Babe Ruth, Walter Johnson etc, played in a “major league” which did not allow blacks to compete. Therefore, one could argue that they did not achieve what they did against “the very best” players in the world.
I would certainly agree that there were any number of players in the NL and AL who would not have been in the majors had blacks been allowed to play at the time.
But consider this: Satchel Paige ALSO competed in a league against players who were not necessarily of major league caliber.
There’s no reason to assume that every player in the Negro Leagues would have made the majors had baseball been integrated all along.
Therefore, one needs to ask “how many Negro League players who played against Paige were less-than-major-league quality?” The answer is probably “quite a few”.
The fact is, the major leagues would certainly have been “stronger” had they been integrated all along. But another fact is, that both the Major Leagues AND the Negro Leagues were less than optimal in terms of employing all of the best players in the United States.
One can’t just automatically assume that Paige played against only Major League caliber players in his games.
Same reason they renamed the Atlanta airport from Hartsfield to the name of some local “community organizer”. If they had to name it after an african-american, they could have at least renamed it to Henry Aaron, one of my heros in the 60s, loved that guy. And Satchel was still pitching when I was a kid. Pretty elderly though.
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