by Rich Watson
Big-league baseball had changed a lot when pitcher Cy Young died in 1955. Ballparks were smaller. Home runs were more of an attraction. And players of color had entered the game, in large numbers.
Pitching—throwing the ball fast enough, and with enough movement, to make the batter miss—remained key to winning games. No one in professional baseball did it better. And that’s why, the year after he died, baseball’s highest honor for pitching was named for him.
