Fastball

BY DEB SEYMOUR

Denton True Young

Who is that? And what does he have to do with baseball?

His last name is a pretty good clue, but here’s a better one:

“Line-Up for Yesterday”

Y is for Young
The magnificent Cy;
People batted against him,
But I never knew why.

Ogden Nash, Sport Magazine (January 1949)

Here’s another challenge: name the five major league teams for whom Cy Young pitched.

You want a hint? In their original incarnations (meaning, with their original names), none of these teams still exist today.

Give up? See below:

1. The Cleveland Spiders
2. The St. Louis Perfectos (now the St. Louis Cardinals)
3. The Boston Americans (now the Boston Red Sox)
4. The Cleveland Naps
5. The Boston Rustlers

How many career wins did Cy Young have? 511. How many complete games did he pitch? 749. How many no-hitters did he pitch? Three, one of which was a perfect game. What was his career ERA? 2.63.

How many years of formal education did Cy Young have? His formal education ended after the 6^th grade. Dent Young, as he was called in his younger years, grew up on a farm in Ohio and was trained as a farmer. But he played a lot of baseball informally over his youth and adolescence, while he was still learning and working as a farmer.

Young began his professional career in 1890 with the minor league Canton, Ohio-based Canton Nadjys, a team of the Tri-State League. During his tryout, Dent Young seriously impressed the scouts.

Dent “Cy” Young’s nickname came from the fences he’d destroyed in his tryout using his fastball. The fences looked like a cyclone had hit them. Reporters later shortened the name to “Cy”, which became the nickname Young used for the rest of his life.

One interview about Cy Young’s later life, conducted by Rod Roberts of the State University of New York, Oneonta, is captured by the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in a collection of such interviews about the renowned pitcher. The interview was held on July 16, 1994 with Jane Benedum.

Young came to live with the Benedums. Jane’s parents (John and Ruth), after his pitching career was over and his wife had passed away – in 1933. Jane wasn’t yet born when Young arrived, but she came along during the time he lived with them, in 1935.

The famous pitcher was having financial difficulties, and worked on the Benedums’ farm doing anything needed – from repairing a fence to planting vegetables. Jane accompanied Young to various baseball activities; and he, in turn, went to some of her school activities.

While she (Jane) recognized that Young was an idol of sorts and very famous in the baseball world, Benedum knew him as a friend and family. Asked if she thought of him like an uncle or grandfather, though, and she said no, not really. She understood, even at a young age, that there was a distinction and that he was “just plain Cy.” For Young, she was either Jane or “the kid,” the nickname coming from all the time she spent by his side.

(See: https://baseballhall.org/discover/short-stops/a-rare-look-at-cy-young-after-baseball)

By the 1940s, the brilliant pitcher had begun to lose his eyesight. Jane Benedum continued to help him with his life, such as reading to him letters from his brother and driving him around town to various activities, including baseball games.

They remained part of each other’s lives till Cy Young’s death. Jane is known to have said it wasn’t like they had a grandparent-grandchild relationship, because she had her own grandparents; but the two held a special place in each other’s lives that was unique and fulfilling.

A throwback reminder, however, as to what a celebrity Cy Young actually was throughout his life and career is this video clip – from an old game show featuring none other than the renowned pitcher, himself. It contains various qualities that you certainly would not see on a game show today:

The Left Arm of G-d

Had he been a righty, he probably would have been nicknamed “the right arm of G-d.” But he was a southpaw; and Sanford Koufax (né Braun), born in 1935, also came to be known as Sandy – the nonagenarian who is still alive today, and who won the Pitcher’s Triple Crown three times. As most baseball fans know, he led the Dodgers to a World Championship each time.

Koufax was the first pitcher to win the Cy Young Award three times – this while all of major league pitching was considered for only one Cy Young Award; not two separate awards for the NL and AL each. Born in Borough Park, Brooklyn, New York, Koufax was primarily a basketball player in his youth. He had actually pitched in only a few games before signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers at age 19. Due to the bonus rule he signed under, Koufax never actually pitched in the minor leagues.

With the Dodgers’ move to the West Coast, Sandy Koufax became the first sports superstar in California. His career ERA was 2.76; he had 2,396 strikeouts; and he was a seven-time All-Star. The lefty pitched four no-hitters.

The Left Arm of G-d was actually born Sanford Braun, but his parents divorced when he was he was three. After his mother’s remarriage to Irving Koufax, Sandy took his stepdad’s last name. He mostly focused on basketball; but also played different baseball positions in youth leagues and later, in sandlot games. During the athlete’s college years:

Al Campanis arranged a tryout for Koufax at Ebbets Field. With Dodgers manager Walter Alston and scouting director Fresco Thompson watching, Campanis assumed the hitter’s stance while Koufax started throwing; he later said, “There are two times in my life the hair on my arms has stood up: The first time I saw the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and the second time, I saw Sandy Koufax throw a fastball.”

(From: Leavy, Jane (2002). Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0060195335; and Anderson, Dave (January 28, 1979). “Sandy Koufax and the Sistine Chapel.” The New York Times)

One human interest story for which Koufax is well known was his decision not to pitch on Yom Kippur, the holiest holiday on the Jewish calendar, during the 1965 World Series.

This left a gaping hole in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ rotation at the beginning of the 1965 World Series. But for Sandy, his faith came before his career. The Left Arm of G-d would, naturally, have been expected to start Game 1 of the Series against the Minnesota Twins; but it didn’t turn out that way.

“From what I’ve been told, there are no dispensations for this particular day,” Koufax told The Associated Press in an article that ran on Oct. 1, when the Dodgers were back in first and locked into a tight pennant race with San Francisco. “But then I haven’t really talked about it to a rabbi. If we sew up the pennant, I plan to take it up and find out the proceedings. If I’m told it isn’t proper to pitch, then I won’t because I wouldn’t feel right about it. I’m praying for rain Wednesday (Oct. 6). It has to rain. It would solve the whole matter.”

(See: https://baseballhall.org/discover/sandy-koufax-sits-out-game-one)

Here’s a video discussion of Koufax and his decision:

So, instead, Don Drysdale took the ball for the Dodgers in Game 1, facing Jim “Mudcat” Grant of the Twins.

Drysdale, a 23-game winner during the 1965 season, couldn’t make it through the third inning of Game 1; the Twins batted around in a six-run outburst. With an early 7-1 lead, Minnesota coasted on Grant’s pitching to an 8-2 victory in the 1965 Series opener.

Attempting a bit of humor, Drysdale is reported to have asked Dodgers manager Walter Alston if he wished “I was Jewish today, too,” so that he, Drysdale, also would not have pitched on Yom Kippur. For at the end of the day, Sandy’s fastball was simply unmatchable.