Three Strikes -- Cy Young edition 

November, 17, 2009
11/17/09
5:22
PM ET

Strike One -- Last Shall Be First Dept.

Zack Greinke

Greinke

Zack Greinke won a Cy Young Award Tuesday. Excellent choice. And the correct choice. It even took a fascinating shift by the electorate away from the always-seductive "wins" column to make that election happen. And that always gets our hearts pumping.

But the really amazing part is that Zack Greinke won that Cy Young for a team that hasn't played a postseason game since the Ronald Reagan administration and was never a threat to break that streak this year after Memorial Day. You might have noticed that.

In case you lost track of the Royals the day you moved into your beach house, they finished 32 games under .500, and 21½ games out of first place. And, thanks to three dramatic losses in the Metrodome in the final weekend of the season, they also finished tied with Cleveland for last place. And that's where this award gets all historic on us.

Why? Because the list of Cy Young Award winners for last-place teams is one you won't need all your fingers to count up. Ready? Here it comes:

  • 2009 -- Greinke, Royals (65-97)
  • 2006 -- Brandon Webb, Diamondbacks (76-86)
  • 1997 -- Roger Clemens, Blue Jays (76-86)
  • 1972 -- Steve Carlton, Phillies (59-97)
So Greinke is only the fourth pitcher ever to win a Cy Young for a last-place team, and only the second to win one for a team that lost 97 games. But just as it wasn't Carlton's fault in '72 that he pitched for a team that bad, it wasn't Greinke's fault that he pitched for the Royals this year. It's great to see the voters were actually on board with that.


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Jayson Stark | email

Senior Writer, ESPN.com
  • Senior writer for ESPN.com
  • 21 years at the Philadelphia Inquirer
  • Author of two baseball books
Tags:

Kansas City Royals, Zack Greinke

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ABOUT THIS BLOG

Jayson Stark
Jayson Stark

Jayson Stark has been a senior baseball writer for ESPN.com since 2000. His regular contributions include the newsy Rumblings and Grumblings column, his eclectic "Three Strikes" blog and his tilted look inside baseball's numbers and quirks, the Useless Information Department.

Stark also makes regular television appearances on "SportsCenter," "Outside the Lines" and "Baseball Tonight." He is a regular ESPN Radio guest of Mike & Mike, the Doug Gottlieb Show, the John Kinkade Show, ESPN Radio tonight and numerous other shows on the network.

Before arriving at ESPN, Stark worked for the Philadelphia Inquirer for 21 years. He was twice named Pennsylvania's sportswriter of the year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. In 2010, he was honored by the Foster Conference for Distinguished Writers for his books and other work. He is the author of two books, "The Stark Truth: The Most Overrated and Underrated Players in Baseball History" (Triumph Books, 2006) and "Worth The Wait: Tales of the 2008 Phillies" (Triumph Books, 2009).

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