136 Years Ago Today, Pitching Legend Made His MLB Debut

His given name is Denton True Young. He was born on March 29, 1867, in Gilmore, Ohio. The right-handed pitcher won a staggering 511 games (still an MLB record) in a storied career spanning 22 seasons from 1890 to 1911.

In 1901, he won a whopping 33 games. His ERA that season? A mind-blowing 1.62. Tack on his league-leading 158 strikeouts, and you’ve got a Triple Crown winner.

Today, this pitching legend is better known as Cy Young.

Cy, if you didn’t know, is short for Cyclone, Denton’s nickname, which was later shortened to Cy, which endured, making him a baseball immortal.

Before all the accolades and before he led the Boston Red Sox to their first World Series title in 1903, Cy made his MLB debut on Aug. 6, 1890, with the Cleveland Spiders. As history shows, Young led the Spiders to an 8-1 win over the Chicago Colts. He tossed a three-hitter and allowed one earned run due to his own error. Oh yeah, he also tossed a complete game, which back then was the norm.

As briefly mentioned, Young would go on to have a career that etched his name in baseball lore. He pitched three no-hitters, the third of which came when he was 41 years old. But what truly makes Young a baseball legend is that he pitched a perfect game on May 5, 1904.

MLB has been around for more than 150 years. In that span, there have only been 24 perfect games, which accentuates just how rare the feat is.

And Cy, fittingly, is among them.

And just as fittingly, baseball’s most prestigious pitching award is named after him: the Cy Young Award.

Young was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937. He died on Nov. 4, 1955.