Next up on my 1975 "Cy Young Award" thread is the 1959 season, with
Early Wynn of the Chicago White Sox as the actual winner when the award
was only given to one player, and Sam Jones of the St. Louis Cardinals
as the supposed National League winner according
to the folks at SABR.
Take a look at my card design first:
Early Wynn was already a long time veteran by the time the 1959
season came along, and even at the age of 39 he still had a lot left in
the tank.
Pitching in his second season for the White Sox, Wynn lead them to
the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, going 22-10 with a
3.17 E.R.A with five shutouts over a league-leading 255.2 innings.
Not bad for a guy who first appeared on a Major League mound 20 years earlier as a 19-year old for the Washington Senators.
Wynn would eventually reach that magical 300th win in 1963,
retiring soon after, ending his career with a 300-244 record and a Hall
of Fame induction in 1972.
At the height of his career he was a member of perhaps one of the
best pitching staffs in baseball history with the Cleveland Indians of
the 1950's. This was a staff that featured two other future Hall of
Famers: Bob Lemon and Bob Feller, as well as star
Mike Garcia, along with other productive arms like Herb Score, Art
Houtteman, and in a part time role as he was closing out his career, Hal
Newhouser.
Sadly for the Indians, they would constantly have to take a back
seat to the Yankee dynasty of the decade, only managing to end up at the
top in 1954 when they set the then American League record of 111 wins
on their way to a World Series loss to the New
York Giants.
Over in the National League, in a year where no one pitcher took
the lead and dominated, we have Sam Jones posting up solid numbers in
his first year pitching for the San Francisco Giants after being traded
from the Cardinals (hence the fact that he's
shown as a Cardinal on the 1959 Topps card), leading to a probable Cy
Young win for him in the N.L. had they selected a winner for each league
back then.
For the year, Jones posted a record of 21-15, leading the league in
wins, along with a league-leading 2.83 earned run average and four
shutouts to go along with 209 strikeouts.
He even managed to tack on four saves during the year as he appeared in 50 games, with 35 of them being starts.
1959 was easily the best season of Jones' career, but he did have
one more good year in 1960 as he posted an 18-14 record with a 3.19
earned run average, three shutouts and 190 strikeouts.
After that he patched together four more years with the Giants,
Tigers, Cardinals and Orioles before retiring after the 1964 season.
During his career Jones lead the National League in strikeouts
three times, with a high of 225 in 1958 with the Cardinals, but also
lead the league in walks four times, with a whopping high of 185 in 1955
while hurling for the Chicago Cubs.
By the time he retired he had a final record of 102-101 with a 3.59 E.R.A and 1376 K's in only 1643.1 inning s pitched.
Next on this thread we move into the 1960's, and have the actual Cy
Young winner that year, Vern Law of the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the
proposed American League winner, Jim Perry, brother of future Hall of
Famer Gaylord Perry.
Keep an eye out for it.
