Cy Young: His leading 511 career wins total may be the safest record in baseball.
Even guys who end up with a lights out 511 big league pitching wins have to start somewhere. And somewhere, he did, in . Cy Young, the greatest winner and loser in big league history got it all started on his record run back on August 6, 1890 n a place called Cleveland, Ohio as a rookie pitcher for the local Spiders of the National League – and a team that would also distinguish itself in 1898 as the club that came closer than any other, before or since, to the possibility of losing all their games. The Spiders finished the 1899 season on the road as a measure of safety from creditors and kranks by playing the bulk of their games on the road as a measure of self protection. Supporters had not taken to the idea of supporting the biggest losing team of all time. And, as you probably already know, the 1899 Spiders finished both the season and themselves by going out with a record of 20 wins and 134 losses.
Cy Young, 1893
None of that future infamy was in the air back on August 6, 1890, although I’m sure there are some 20-20 hindsight scholars out there who might care to argue the point. All I feel sure about is that no one involved in that game on that date had any idea that they were about to witness the start of the greatest declared game-winning pitcher in baseball history, a guy who was so good at winning for so long, that he also ended up with probably an equal chance of being the biggest declared game loser of all time, as well.
Cy Young would complete his career in 1911 with a career big league record of 511 wins and 316 losses. No one else is close to Cy in either category – or likely to be.. The game and its culture have changed too much because of big money. It’s both inconceivable that any great pitcher with Youngian abilities would care to pitch as long as Cy, and, even if he did, the chances for a big stack of awarded victories would be far less today due to the way contemporary pitchers are limited by pitch count.
Young pitched and won the first game of a doubleheader that Cleveland was hosting with the Chicago White Stockings/Colts of the National League. by a score of 8-1. The Chicago club would become the “Cubs” by the turn of the 20th century modern era.
On August 6, 1890, however, Chicago would take the second game by 7-1 for a split in the twin bill.
Here’s how the New York World described Cy Young’s victory debut in the first game on the following day:
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ANSON BREAKS EVEN (Special to the World)
Cleveland, Aug. 6 – Young, Cleveland’s new colt pitcher, was given a trial in the box today, and his debut was very successful indeed. Anson’s men made but three scattering singles off him. In the early part of the game he struck out five men, after that taking it easy and depending more on his fielders, Hutchinson was hit quite hard. * In the afternoon (game), Anson’s team took revenge on another colt pitcher, Garfield. Luby, an Ansonian youngster, did splendid work(as a Chicago pitcher in the second game), keeping the hits well scattered.
* Baseball Almanac recognizes Huthinson as “Houtchison (without the “L”) – and that’s the way we carry him in our Pecan Park Eagle Box Score for Game 1 of the August 6, 1890 doubleheader in which Cy Young made his first start in the big league for Cleveland against Chicago.
~ New York World, August 7, 1890, Page 7.
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BOX SCORE: GAME 1 OF NL DH, CHICAGO @ CLEVELAND, AUG. 6, 1890
CY YOUNG MAKES HIS MLB DEBUT AS A WINNING PITCHER
| CLEVELAND | POSITION | AT BATS | RUNS | HITS |
| Bob Gilks | LF | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Ed McKean | SS | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Will Smalley | 3B | 5 | 1 | 1 |
| Jake Virtue | 1B | 4 | 2 | 1 |
| George Davis | CF | 5 | 1 | 1 |
| Buck West | RF | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| Chief Zimmer | C | 4 | 1 | 1 |
| Joe Ardner | 2B | 4 | 0 | 3` |
| Cy Young | P | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| TOTALS | – | 38 | 8 | 11 |
| CHICAGO | POSITION | AT BATS | RUNS | HITS |
| Jimmy Cooney | SS | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Cliff Carroll | LF | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Walt Wilmot | CF | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Cap Anson | 1B | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Tom Burns | 3B | 3 | 0 | 1 |
| Howard Earl | RF | 4 | 0 | 1 |
| Bob Glenalvin | 2B | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Bill Hutchison | P | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Mal Kitteridge | C | 3 | 0 | 1 |
| TOTALS | – | 31 | 1 | 3 |
Winning pitcher Cy Young is 1-0 through his 1st big league game, striking out 5 Colts.
LINE SCORE FOR GAME I OF DOUBLEHEADER
| TEAMS | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | – | R | H |
| CLEVELAND | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | – | 8 | 11 |
| CHICAGO | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | 1 | 3 |
SOURCES: NEW YORK WORLD, AUGUST 7, 1890, PAGE 7 AND BASEBALL ALMANAC.
Tags: Cy Young's 1st win
The Pecan Park Eagle 
April 21, 2014 at 5:34 pm |
Notice how almost all the photos of Cy Young show the “old” Cy with the expanding waist line? Lot of Babe Ruth shots from his declining years as well. For most of both their careers they were in far better condition that too many photos show.
April 21, 2014 at 9:46 pm |
Greg – I couldn’t agree more. There are fewer copies of the younger Cy available, but I couldn’t resist adding one from 1893 to sweeten the pot of how he looked in his salad days.
April 22, 2014 at 1:21 am |
I don’t know why they used the term “scattering hits” back then, rather than “scattered hits”. I know they had invented the past tense.
I’ve generally seen Bill Hutchinson’s name spelled without the first “n” in contemporary sources, but nowadays it is recognized as Hutchinson.