Cy Young: A Baseball Life

By Reed Browning

Book Overview

He was the winner of 511 major league baseball games, nearly a hundred more than any other pitcher. He threw three no-hitters, including the first perfect game in the new American League. He was among the original twelve players inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame, and his name is now attached to the game's most prestigious pitching award. Yet for all his accomplishments, Cy Young remains to most baseball fans a legendary but little known figure.

In this book, Reed Browning re-creates the life of Denton True "Cyclone" Young and places his story in the context of a rapidly changing turn-of-the-century America. Born in rural Ohio, the son of a Civil War veteran, Young learned his trade at a time when only underhand pitching was permitted. When he began his professional career in 1890, pitchers wore no gloves and stood five feet closer to the batter than they do today. By the time he retired in 1911, the game of baseball had evolved into its modern form and claimed unquestioned status as America's "national pastime."

As Browning shows, Young's extraordinary mastery of his craft owed much to his ability to adapt to the changing nature of the game. Endowed with an exceptional fastball, he gradually developed a wide array of deliveries and pitches--all of which he could throw with astonishing control. Yet his success can also be attributed, at least in part, to the rustic values of loyalty, hard work, and fair play that he embraced and embodied, and for which he became renowned among baseball fans of his day.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1558493980
• ISBN13: 9781558493988
• Release Date: May 2003
• Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.3"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Cy Young Was The Greatest Pitcher Who Ever Lived . Finally A Biography About This Great Man Has Been Written. His Highest Salary Was $5,000 Per Year. He Holds Records That Will Never Be Broken. And He Didn't Take Steroids! God Bless Cy Young!