Here's a great year for the Cy Young Award: 1973, and the two
future Hall of Famers who took it home during the off-season, Jim Palmer
and Tom Seaver.
Take a look at my card:
For Palmer, it would be the first of three Cy Young Awards he'd
receive in the 1970's, making him one of THE mounds men during his era
pitching for the Baltimore Orioles.
Already a three-time 20 game winner before the 1973 season came
around, Palmer would go on to post his best Major League season yet,
going 22-9 with a league-leading 2.40 earned run average.
Throw in his six shutouts among 19 complete games, and you also get
a second place finish (behind Reggie Jackson) for league Most Valuable
Player as well.
Over in the National League we have Tom Seaver, who would win his
second such award in 1973 while pitching for the New York Mets.
Although he didn't post 20 or more wins that year, Seaver dominated
National League batters, going 19-10 with a league-leading 2.08 earned
run average.
He also chipped in 18 complete games, three shutouts and 251 strikeouts, which also paced the Senior Circuit.
Seaver would also go on to win a total of three such awards, and would go on to top 300 wins in 1985 before retiring with 311 total.
Sadly for Palmer, an injury which caused him to miss almost two
years in 1967-68, as well as the baseball strike of 1981 would cost him
any shot of hitting 300 wins.
But his EIGHT 20 win seasons in the decade were by far the most for
any pitcher, and he still managed to finish with 268 wins for his
before hanging them up.
This was Seaver and Palmer in the prime of their careers, and each
would both have quite a few more stand out campaigns before they were
through in the early to mid-1980's.
Next up on this thread is the final post for the "1975 Cy Young
Sub-Set", as we take a look at the 1974 winners, thus wrapping up the
year-by-year winners up to that awesome 1975 Topps set release.