By Paul Casey Gotham
****Remember, try this without research. Make like Wally, and release your inner James Joyce. Show us your stream of consciousness as you try to decipher the answer.
Evens and odds. Odds or evens. They came up with a theory about me. I was only good on the odd years. Ha. I guess they were right. After all, it was an odd-numbered year when I won my first Cy Young along with a World Series MVP. One season later, I managed just seven wins. My ERA climbed almost a point and a half. Whew! That was tough. I never was known as a strikeout pitcher, but my total dropped by more than 40 between those two campaigns. The next odd year I was respectable. I didn’t get any votes for the Cy, but I did win 18 games. The next odd year I led the league in wins, ERA, complete games and innings pitched. Shoot. That was a good year. I struck out almost four and a half to every walk. Next year? Five wins. Man, I pitched almost 130 less innings, but still gave up almost as many earned runs – 14 less to be exact. I broke up the theory though. My wins for my next three years combined could not equal that Cy Young year. A quarter of my major league wins came in those two years. That doesn’t say too much for my other 14 seasons. That’s okay. I gave my best to the team that drafted me. I tried for the other three. I actually earned Cy Young votes one other time.
Who am I?
Holy crap … this is a brain blaster! This pitcher won at least one Cy Young, but it’s not clear that he won two. Did he win his 2nd in that year he led the league in wins, ERA, IP, etc? I’m going to assume he did. Okay … let’s move on. Not a strikeout pitcher … and looks like he pitched for 4 teams in total. Quite a few pitchers have won World Series MVPs, so that isn’t extremely helpful.
Now I’m thinking that since this is so hard, Casey picked someone who played in “my wheelhouse years” of 1970-1995 to give me a break so to speak, so I’m gonna focus on that era. Is it Vida Blue of the A’s … could be, but only 1 Cy Young and I think a league MVP, but not the WS MVP. Rollie Fingers? Not a starting pitcher. Dave Stewart? Didn’t win 2 Cy’s. Orel Hershiser? Nope … a GREAT career, very consistent . Bret Saberhagen? Now here’s a guy who was off and on … he had a great WS in ~’85 when the Royals beat the Cardinals and i believe he also won the Cy that year. (Remember watching that WS in my college dorm). Pretty sure he had one or two more great years in an up and down career with some injuries. Hold that thought … someone else comes to mind. Frank Viola of the Twins? Great pitcher over a relatively short 7-9 year span … may have hung on with the Mets and others in his twilight years. Only 1 Cy Young, I think. “Only one” … ha! … easy for me to say. Twins won WS in ’87 … an odd year. Then we come to Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson … both Cy winners and I believe WS MVP winners … HOWEVER … these guys are “Hall of Famers to be” and were obviously strikeout pitchers.
I’m exhausted and have a headache! Right now, torn between Saberhagen and Viola. I’m gonna go with Bret Saberhagen because I have the most confidence that we won 2 Cy Youngs and the WS MVP in ’85 … an odd year. And from what I remember … he was quite hot and cold over those years. I think he pitched for at least two other teams besides KC … Mets and BoSox? Casey … is it Saberhagen ????
Does Orel Hershiser fit this description? Thinking he only pitched for Dodgers. That’s my best guess. I certainly did not have the long list of thought Wally did!
Right, Pete. Hershiser certainly didn’t pitch for 4 teams, so that fact also rules him out.
Casey, who is it?
Wally – YOU are the man! That was outstanding.
Yes, Saberhagen is the answer. After reading your response, I went and did some research. 25 different pitchers have won the WS MVP – Chas – please check my numbers. (3 of those were relievers – Fingers, Wetteland and Riviera.)
10 of those pitchers won a Cy Young – R. Johnson, Glavine, Fingers, Viola, Hershiser, Saberhagen, Gibson, Koufax, Whitey Ford and Bob Turley (again – feel free to check my research).
From there, the list gets smaller. Five of those guys won the Cy more than once: Koufax, Gibson, Johnson, Glavine and …Saberhagen.
Six guys won the Cy and WS MVP in the same year: Whitey Ford, Bob Turley, Koufax (twice), Hershiser, Johnson and …Saberhagen.
So Viola didn’t win the Cy in 1987 … same year the Twins won the WS? You don’t have to answer that … apparently not. I thought of Glavine but didn’t mention him because his career was consistently very good.
Clemens won the 1987 AL Cy Young. Viola won it in ’88.