Celebrating Cy Young (episode 254)

Transcript

Music

Jake:
[0:04] Welcome to hub history where we go far beyond the freedom trail to share our favorite stories from the history of boston, the hub of the universe.
This is episode 2 54 Celebrating Cy Young. Hi, I’m jake!
This week. I’m talking about a special celebratory day in boston kind of like a one time holiday.
Long time listeners will remember other celebratory days from the peace jubilee in episode 102 to the railroad jubilee in 203,
and from puritan christmas, which wasn’t as fun as it sounds in episode 2 12 to hooker Day in episode 1 38 which was not as dirty as it sounds,
this time.
It’s Cy Young Day, which was an exhibition game to celebrate the greatest pitcher of all time bracketed by days of sports celebration from prizefighters in the squared circle to old time baseball in the Harbor Islands.

[1:02] Held at the Huntington’s Avenue baseball grounds on august 13th, 1908.
The Cy Young celebration drew a record crowd of 20,000 fans to the now long gone ballpark.
By this time, young had been playing professional baseball for 20 years and he was starting to slow down.
Nobody knew if the old Ohio Farm Boy would be playing for Boston when the 1909 season rolled around.
So it seemed as if the whole city turned out to show the pitcher of their love and to make sure that he’d have a comfortable nest egg for his expected retirement.

[1:35] Before the red sox before the american league, before the modern rules of baseball.
Even there was Cy young, but before we talk about him and his special day. I just want to pause and wish a sincere thank you to Derek s our latest patreon sponsor.
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[2:59] And now it’s time for this week’s main topic.

[3:04] By the time planning began for a special day celebrating Cy Young at the Huntington’s Avenue baseball grounds.
The home field of the boston americans. Before Fenway park was built, There were already rumors that 1908 would be the pictures last year. In Boston.
He was almost 42 years old, which is old for a professional athlete.
He was slow to on the basis and his fastball was slowing down. But he was still considered the best pitcher of his era.
A wire service story published on August 13, 1908 said,
Cy Young boston’s veteran pitcher that only major league baseball player who’s voted for four presidents and scored a no hit shutout in honor of each is at the age of 42.
The athletic wonder of the 20th century baseball has seen many phenomenons said his manager, the veteran Jim McGuire.
But there is no pitcher at present. Nor has there been in the past to match Young’s record.
It may take 100 years before there’s another young. There may never be another like him.

[4:08] Almost 115 years later, we still haven’t seen another one by most measures. He still considered the greatest pitcher of all time.
His records for the most wins, the most starts, most innings pitched and most consecutive innings without a hit still stand.
He pitched the first no hitter in major league baseball, the first world series and one of the longest games ever pitched.
Born. Denton, true young in small town Ohio. He got the nickname cy when he tried out for a minor league team in canton Ohio.
As a 22 year old farm boy and sixth grade dropout At the time. He relied on the sheer power of his fastball, inspiring the league to move the pitcher’s mound 5ft further away from home plate.
Later telling a reporter all us youngs could throw.
I used to kill squirrels with a stone when I was a kid, and my granddad once killed a turkey buzzard on the fly with a rock.

[5:05] At that first try out, The catcher could just barely handle his speed and some of the pitches hit the grandstand and tore the boards off.
One of the scouts who was watching him said that the grandstand looked like a cyclone had hit it, and a lifetime nickname was born.

[5:23] Now that fastball wasn’t so fast anymore.
Over the years, Young developed near perfect control of his pitch so he can deliver the ball to each batter’s weakest area.
He was one of the first pictures to throw a change up, which he called a slow ball.
He even eventually learned how to throw a curve ball, a technique that was still pretty new when he joined the major leagues with the Cleveland spiders.
In 1890 we never relied on it saying later, some may have thought it was essential to know how to curve a ball before anything else experience to my mind teaches to the contrary.
Any young player who has good control will become a successful curve pitcher long before the pitcher is endeavoring to master both curves and control. At the same time the curve is merely an accessory to control.

[6:16] Cy Young was immediately considered one of the most dominant players in the game and that reputation only grew as his control developed.
After nine years he moved to the ST louis perfect owes. In 18 99. Then in 1901 he left ST louis for boston.
The american league was in its inaugural year and the boston americans were one of the original teams in the league.
The team that would later be known as the Red Sox offered young a $3500 contract and also brought Lou Kreiger his favorite catcher along with him,
that first year in boston when Kellam was the starting pitcher but after losing their first three games, he was replaced by Cy Young,
Young pitched for the Boston teams first ever win against Philadelphia on April 30,
He went on to lead the Americans to a second place finish in the American League with 79 wins and 57 losses.
Along the way, he led the league in wins, strikeouts and earned run average and earned Rhonda and earned run average.
It was the beginning of one heck of a streak. After pitching 43 complete games that first season, he pitched 41, the second with the Americans ending up in third place with 77 wins and 60 losses.

[7:37] Then in the team’s third season in 1903, the Americans finished 91 47 14.5 games ahead of the second place athletics,
Over in the National League, the Pittsburgh Pirates were just as dominant in 1903 and after both teams had clinched their penance in September,
the National League challenged the upstart american league to a championship Series to determine who would be the world champion of baseball.

[8:03] Cy Young pitched the first ever world series game on october 1st 1903 at the Huntington’s Avenue baseball grounds,
A statue of him still stands at the approximate location of the pitcher’s mound, which is now in the Northeastern University campus, just outside an administration building called Churchill Hall boston lost the first game of the series, under a cloud of suspicion.
The gamblers had influenced the team to throw the first ever World Series game, As we heard in our interview with skip this Jarden in episode 96.
Similar accusations plagued the team in 1918.

[8:41] After the first three games in Boston, the series moved to Pittsburgh, and the Americans soon found themselves down three games to one,
Boston won the next four in a row, clinching the series on their home field on October 13, 1903.

[8:59] In 1904. They finished first in the league with a 95 and 59 record.
The most notable thing for cy young that year wasn’t as 43 games in 26 wins.
It was his perfect game As that season unfolded. Young was 37 years old and Rube Waddell of the Philadelphia Athletics was 27.
The younger man was giving old Cy a run for his money. They developed a serious pitching rivalry After the Americans only managed a single hit against Waddle in a game on May two, he challenged young to face him and try to top that record.

[9:37] Cy got his chance on May five in a home game at Huntington’s Ave and what’s remembered as an epic pitching duel. The americans got men on base in the 1st, 2nd and 4th innings but couldn’t bring anyone home.
The athletics couldn’t seem to manage a hit against Young at all, except to pop out by shortstop monty Cross in the third.
Athletic Center Fielder, Ali Pickering managed a short grounder in the 7th, but he was quickly thrown out at first.
In the meantime, the Americans scored in the 6th and twice more in the seventh with a bunt by cy young bringing the final run home.

[10:15] Writing for the Society for american Baseball Research Jared Katzman describes the tension that settled over the field in that final inning.

[10:23] Young stood on the mound in the top of the 9th and peered in at Krieger for the sign money crossed it in the box and a duel began.
The mustachioed shortstop followed off several pitches until Young gave him the coupe de grasse the big pitchers, ninth strikeout,
catcher Ossie Schreckengost came up next and grounded the parent That left the 27th man to come to the plate for Philadelphia that day,
Rube Waddell was not much of a hitter, but this was the dead ball era and manager Connie Mack let him back.
He took ball one and the tension was palpable. He took ball two and the grounds were silent with dread.

[11:07] Young’s third pitch was over the plate and Waddell swung and lofted an easy fly to center that stall pocketed.
Then the tension broken. The crowd roared and surged onto the field.
In response to what else. Earlier challenge, Cy Young shouted at him as he walked back to the visitor’s dugout.
How do you like that? You hay seed With no batter reaching first base.
The May 5, 1904 game was the first perfect game Or at least the first since the rules.
Professional baseball were revised in 1893, moving the pitcher’s mound back, cutting the number of balls needed for a walk from 8-4 and allowing pitchers to throw overhand.

[11:51] The two rivals faced off at Huntington’s Avenue again a year later and one of the longest major league games ever played.
After giving up two runs early, young went 13 consecutive innings without allowing a hit or a walk from the seventh to the 19th inning Until they finally gave up two more in the 20th inning.

[12:10] In his own mind, this was a greater accomplishment than his perfect game writing later.
For my part, I think it was the greatest game of ball I ever took part in.

[12:23] In 1907. They had another epic duel which ended in a scoreless tie after 13 innings.
Thinking back on their 1905 match up at the end of his career, Rube Waddell said, I can’t claim that I did better work than young.
Cy Young is the best pitcher in the business even now and to have one over him is credit enough.

[12:44] In 1908. Cy young chalked up his third no hitter bracketing a career that had seen him get the first one over a decade earlier in 1897.
After 18 years in the majors, though, young’s dominance was slipping.
Writing for the Baseball Hall of Fame Craig Mutar says For cy young, the 1908 season resulted in only 21 victories with the Red Sox,
And though he posted the lowest earned run average of his career, 1.26, He did appear in only 36 games, the lowest total since his rookie season.

[13:22] It was the first year that the team played under the name Red Sox and a lot of people thought that it would be young’s last with the team as Mutar points out,
For any other 41 year old pitcher in Big League history, it would have been a historic season, but for the old cyclone it got a lot of Bostonians thinking that he’d retire at the end of the season.
And in a way, Cy young day in boston was meant as a way to set the greatest pitcher of all time up with a retirement fund.
The celebration was national news and a recap of Cy Young’s record accompanied a wire service story that ran in papers from maine to Idaho on august 13th Born in Ohio 42 years ago.
First professional engagement, Canton Tri State League 1890,
Continuing Major League Service, 18 years joined Cleveland National League Midseason, 1890 remained with the Cleveland team from 18 90 to 18 98.
With ST Louis National League from 1898 to 1900 With Boston.
American League 1901 – 1908, august 5th 1904 shut out philadelphia Athletics without a hit, not a man reaching first base.

[14:42] June 24th 18 92 for Cleveland held ST louis Browns 2, 16 inning tie 3 to 3 at ST louis allowing five hits.

[14:53] July 4th 1905 lost the Athletics 4 to 2 in a 20 inning contest against Waddell,
June 30, 1908 pitched a no hit game against new york, no new york player reaching second base and made three hits.

[15:11] If you have a pitcher that good, you think you’re going to lose them? It makes sense to celebrate him.
It wasn’t unheard of at the time to hold exhibition games, to raise money for a player who was suddenly injured and unable to keep pulling an income or the widow of a player who died unexpectedly.
It became customary for the stricken players team to organize a game against an all star lineup of players from around the league and for the beneficiary to either split ticket revenues with the team or take the whole pot.

[15:42] Probably the most famous of these benefit games in early baseball was actually held three years later in 1911 and cy young was on the mountain.
That time too Addie Joss started having fainting spells during spring training and he died suddenly of tubercular meningitis on April 14 that year to raise money for his widow and Children.
The American League had an all star team play against joe’s normal lineup with Cy Young pitching for the home team For Cy Young Special Day.
In 1908, the Red Sox Organization worked with the Boston Post to arrange a similar game.

[16:19] I don’t have good access to the archives of the boston post right now.
So when I inevitably quote from a lot of globe articles keep in mind that it was actually the post that helped organize the game On August 13, 1908 the morning of the game.
The anticipation ran high in the globe’s coverage.
The lovers of baseball will be given an opportunity this afternoon to see a splendid game of baseball between the boston red Sox and a picked team from the american League.
This rare event is for the benefit of Cy Young by all odds.
The grandest ball player the game has ever produced some time ago. The management of the boston club set aside this day to be given up wholly to MR Young as an appreciation of the esteem in which he is held by the friends of the sport in this part of the country.
Every dollar taken in at the gate will be handed over to the grand old pitcher as the players that come here will come at the expense of their own clubs of the American League.
After the game, Mr Young will be given a Loving cup by the players of the American League jimmy Collins making the presentation.

[17:27] Lieutenant Governor Evan S. Draper will also present the post loving cup.
The socks will be led by Cy Young and the American League agreed not to schedule another game that day. So players from across the league could come to boston to play against him, laying the groundwork for games like addie joss benefit as well as the modern All Star game.
On the day of the game, the globe ran down the roster of visiting All Stars.

[17:54] Among the visitors are jimmy Collins of the athletics Freddy parent from Chicago, Chesbro and Willie keeler from new york Mullins from Detroit Shrek from philadelphia and George winter from Detroit,
fielder jones from Chicago chase of new york and d jones of ST louis,
Davis of philadelphia was also there at 2 45.
The visitors went out to practice, it seemed good again to see jimmy Collins and Freddy parent, former boston players working side by side.
It was unique to see how chase scoop up grounders at second base and shoot the ball to harry Davis,
As the plan started to come together, other sports promoters found ways to attach themselves to Cy Young’s Day, making it into the centerpiece of a sports week in boston.
Long time listeners will remember from episode 190 for about the Italian prisoners on peaks island.
That paddocks also hosted Sunday games for the team that would become the Boston Braves with the island conveniently out of sight and out of mind in the harbor.
It played host to all kinds of illicit activities.
Baseball joined bordellos, opium parties and alcohol during prohibition, sometimes drawing 5000 fans or even more when our blue laws band, sunday baseball in boston.

[19:20] Former big leaguer john Irwin who played on the Players League team, The boston reds back in the 18 nineties, built the sweet summer dream hotel on the island.
Starting in 1906. He hosted old timers games where fellow Big League retirees came to play against one another.
In 1908. He used the occasion of cy young day to bring in sportswriters from Boston and around the country for his reunion game While they’re in town for young’s big game.
On the 13th, a photo taken on August 12 shows them sitting on the ground in two rows in front of the patriotic bunting on the porch of the hotel as labeled by boston public library.
They were O. W. Brown boston traveler, most Chandler and sp carrick boston journal, Charles, leary fall river,
timothy, Murnane boston globe sam crane, new york journal and O.
J. Burke boston journal, Wallace Goldsmith, boston Globe sports cartoonist, Arthur cooper boston post, Herman, Nickerson boston Journal, ralph McKenna boston herald, J.
C. Morris of Baseball magazine and paul Shannon boston post.

[20:37] The old timer’s reunion game that year would follow the same format as Cy young’s game the next day with the home team of boston veterans playing against a group of all stars from around the country as described by the boston globe.

[20:51] It was the date of the third annual reunion and field day of those old veterans who helped to place the national game upon its present high playing and peaks island away down the harbor, fanned by the refreshing ocean. Zephyrs was the spot where the young and old fellows assembled.
It was designated by the committee in charge as the outing of old time players, but there was not one in that vast gathering who had voluntarily admit that he was an old fellow or a has been.
No sir, not even Moe’s Chandler who was instrumental in laying out the old south end grounds way back in the dim past, nor Dickey Pearce, who claims that he is only in his 73rd year.
Even modest Arthur cummings inventor of the curveball, indignantly refuted the intimation that he has a has been and to prove his statement and make good his boast that he was as good as ever.
He gave an exhibition of underhand pitching before the crowds on the broad veranda of john Irwin’s hospitable and commodious camp.

[21:48] Then the ball game began and such a game 19 was made up of all Boston players while the other was called All America,
conditions soon told on most of the players, but they were game and remained in harness as long as superfluous paw and imperfect bellows would permit.
Some were forced to retire after brief spasms because of lameness.
But altogether the game was a wonderful exhibition and in all seriousness it can be said that some of the younger of the old timers had little, if anything on the gray haired veterans When it was all over.
The official score said that Boston had won 5-3.
This same official statistician was also very lenient with the mistakes of the players and rather unkind to the efforts of the batters.

[22:38] Adding to the crossover appeal. The August 13 globe reported how Irwin had his old timers attend size game, ensuring that his reunion game got a good bump in press coverage.
The picked team will force the red sox to play their best ball and the crowd will have the chance to seem acquires boys when forced to the limit.
Nearly every seat in the grandstand had been sold yesterday.
The old time ballplayers who attended the outing at paddocks island yesterday will be on hand and the affair should prove in every way a grand all round compliment to the real hero of the Diamond. Cy yang.
The sports extravaganza went beyond just baseball. A wire service article that went out on August 10 describes how a prizefight rounded out the week, making cy young’s game the centerpiece of a week of sport.
The story notes that Bill Pap was scheduled to fight a double card on the evening of the 13th, after the cy young tribute, basically a double header, but for boxing,
the armory club decided on next thursday is the proper time to hold the entertainment this week owing to the Cy Young testimonial falling on that day,
and many of the out of town members of the armory club will attend the benefit for the grand old roman of the diamond and then passed the evening, watching the famous pop perform.

[23:58] The benefits didn’t all flow one way,
what was good for boxing, john Irwin Inside Young would end up being good for the league as well.
The day after the game, the evening edition of the Globe described how Irwin’s old timer’s day in Cy Young’s All Star Game worked together.
This has been a great week for the national game here in boston with Cy Young Day and the outing of the old timers appendix all are almost all of the boys who took that island outing were on hand yesterday at the Huntington Avenue grounds.
The game itself has felt these two events more than has any club or league, but all clubs in all leagues will profit by them for both, stimulated interest in baseball itself.
At the peak of the excitement, the august 14th globe reported that a record breaking crowd of friends of Cy Young came to his party at the Huntington’s Avenue baseball grounds,
and for most of them, the fact that there was a red hot baseball game against an All Star team was a mere afterthought.

[25:03] Strong.
Lovers of baseball went to the Huntington’s Avenue grounds yesterday afternoon to pay their respects to our own cy young, the greatest box man that ever wore the spikes, and as modest as he is great.
The attraction was a ball game between the superb red sox against a team selected from the different clubs of the american League where every dollar of gate money went to the Ohio Farmer,
and President Taylor said the amount would be over 6000 good american somalians,
a wire service story that ran the same day also made a point of how many of size friends came out for his game.
The crowd was so great that for the first time since Boston won a championship pennant benches had to be placed in front of the 50 cent pavilion to accommodate the overflow crowd, among which were scores of ladies.
The enormous crowd that came out to celebrate Cy was treated to a mix of baseball and pageantry.
Those that showed up to watch the players warm up and catch batting practice, got to see the boston players ducked out in fancy costumes that were meant to lampoon the players nicknames or reputations,
or to imitate popular characters or in a couple of unfortunate cases to reflect racist caricatures of the era.

[26:21] The description that ran on the front page of the Boston Globe in the evening edition, after the game on August 13 leads, with the description of cy himself, who leaned into his public image as an uneducated farm boy.

[26:35] More than 20,000 people turned out for cy young day. The weather was perfect.
The boston men who played against the all Star team of the american League appeared in grotesque uniforms.
Cy young was a farmer. Jim McGuire was made up as Uncle Sam Tony was an Admiral Krieger, a dutch comedian. Sullivan a clown.
Doc Gessler was made up as a country doctor. Jake stahl is a ranch man, Wagner is a Swede Cy katanas Irishman.
While Bushell and Donahue were made up as china men.

[27:09] These fellows kept the crowd in an uproar by their funny antics and none enjoyed it more than the players who are representing the other american league clubs in the midst of the practice, the boston players took off their regalia and came on the field in regular uniform,
coverage.
In the next day’s globe adds color describing how the costume players took the field in the parade and the antics that followed two hours ahead of time. The crowds began to gather for the game.
The cars were jammed full and every avenue was black.
An hour before the game, there were at least 12,000 inside the grounds and they were glad they came far out of the field.
The boston players were cavorting in all sorts of excruciatingly funny and grotesque makeups and we’re going through the craziest antics imaginable.
First there was a parade, The thousands in the stands and the visiting players yelling with delight, intermittently holding their sides for laughter.
Old Cy made up as a farmer led this bizarre processional.
This bunch made a hit After their parade. They took the field and for 15 minutes kept the crowd an uproar.
It was the greatest burlesque ever. The boys rolled about the field, making ridiculous plays and some that were pretty good ones too.

[28:28] In the meantime the crowds were still coming, the bleachers were filled long before the stands, there were hundreds behind the center field ropes and along the side of the third base bleachers fence,
there were hundreds more sitting on the ground and on low benches,
in center field, there wasn’t an open space and later when the stands filled up, there was hardly a chance to stand in the back aisles.

[28:53] The globe’s game day coverage continues.
Cy Young was given the ovation of his life as he stepped out to warm up with Bill Kerrigan all this time the crowds have been pouring into the grounds, every seat was sold beforehand and there was not one vacant,
the ropes were put up in right and center field and soon hundreds were packed behind them.
If Cy Young warmed up long enough for anyone to notice he was doing it for the crowds sake not his own.
He very famously tried to minimize the number of pitches that he threw so we could maximize the number of games he could pitch at least partially crediting this habit with his long service in the big leagues, he wrote,
I never warmed up 10 15 minutes before a game.
Like most pictures do I loosen up three or four minutes five at the outside, and I never went to the bullpen.
Oh, I’d relieve all right, plenty of times, but I went right from the bench to the box and I take a few warm up pitches and be ready.
Then I had good control. I am to make the batter hit the ball and threw as many pitches as possible.
That’s why I was able to work every other day.

[30:03] From the Globe’s next day coverage. It doesn’t really sound like Cy hit the bullpen, but it does sound like he and catcher Krieger drew out the warm up ritual beyond the three or four minutes.
It usually took good thing too, since the crowd was there. For one thing and one thing, only thousands of people missed the burlesque before the regular practice of the teams.
But Cy Young was recognized whether or not he was in his countryman’s makeup, he could not move when he was cheered.
It didn’t matter whether he crossed the field or passed the ball with lou Krieger.
The racket was just the same and he seemed to enjoy it all, but it is certain that when he awakened yesterday morning he had no idea of what was coming to him before sundown.
The first really concentrated racket came when the boston’s went into the field and when Cy walked out to warm up with Krieger, so I had to lift his cap between every bali pitched.
Then when the bell rang for the game and the big fellow marched out to the pitcher’s box, there was more noise let loose for him.
He pitched only two innings of the game and came to bat only once, but into this short space of time was crowded so much that he decided that to winnings was about all he could stand if he had to make speeches and carry silverware off the field every time he went near the plate.

[31:21] More on that silverware that Cy Young was carrying off the field in a few minutes, but first we have a baseball game to play.
As the boston Globe’s same day coverage that evening reported the All Stars batted first,
boston took the field in the midst of an uproar D jones was the first to face side and he got a base hit, driving the ball through the box and then he stole second and went to third.
When laporte made a wonderful playoff. Willy keeler hal chase drove a low liner to Gessler, the doctor making a fine throw to the plate nipping jones as he slid in.
It was worth the price of admission to hear the yells that went up on this play, no runs despite all the home team. Antics before the game, the All Stars came to play.
I’ll let the next day coverage in the Boston Globe from August 14 give the highlights.
The most brilliant playing of the game was done by Killefer of Detroit, who played a great game, a second fred parent, Wagner thony and frank report were very much in the game around the field.

[32:27] The All Star scored one run in the fifth on Bushell and tied up the score in the eighth with airily Eins pitching The winning run was made in the 11th, Collins hitting for three bases and scoring on winter’s single.
The Red Sox were in the game to the last in the last inning, laporte led off with a fine triple Sullivan was passed and both men moved up on early.
Eins, al A hit now would bring victory to the home team, but Wagner hit two. Killefer and Laporte was caught at the plate.
Sullivan was on 3rd and Wagner shot for 2nd, McGuire cut the ball down and Wagner turned back,
while the visitors were running down, Wagner, Sullivan crossed the plate, but the umpire was out of position and declared the third man out before the run was scored.
There was no kick because the boys were well satisfied to close the golden incident and go home to supper.
It will be a long day before another ball player will receive such a complimentary benefit from boston’s best citizens, well deserved and fully appreciated by the farmer’s son from the watersheds of Ohio.

[33:36] So despite the adulation for young himself and the enormous hometown support for the sox, the All Stars actually walked away with the win.
I guess that proves there wasn’t any funny business going on.
Unlike a lot of baseball games of the era.

[33:53] Now the silverware that we mentioned before, that Cy Young had to carry off the field between innings refers to all the tokens of esteem that the game was paused for a while. Different groups showed their appreciation for the pitcher.
He was given everything from a veritable forest of trophies referred to as loving cups back then to flowers, to luggage, as reported in the evening edition of the globe on August 13,
before the game began, Cy Young was presented with some beautiful floral pieces.
A huge set piece was the offering of the boston National League Club.
Cy Zone Club also sent a large and beautiful floral tribute.

[34:35] Now the two floral arrangements from the red sox and the future braves were presented before the game, but for each presentation after that game play had to be stopped and everyone had to gather around while whoever was presenting the award gave a short speech,
it wasn’t exactly conducive to the normal flow of the game.
The largest and most impressive loving cup or trophy presented that day was about three ft tall.
It had a round base and a tripod of three interlocked silver ball bats which were holding up a silver globe perched on top of the globe was the silver baseball, Of course, without archival access to the post.
I’m going to give you the globe’s description of the moment from the August 14 edition,
when he walked over towards the home plate, a mighty yellow greeting went up for Lieutenant Governor draper who had come to present Cy Young, The magnificent cup given him by the boston fans through the post.
The players, including the visitors with old Cy well in front, gripped about the plate, while the lieutenant governor with hat in hand, waiting for the noise to subside,
on the ground before um repose the magnificent Loving Cup, which the other players, I greedily while from all directions, other presents seem to be on the way.

[35:56] Luckily for us. The globe carried draper’s comments in full, so that’s how you’re gonna hear them.
Mr Young, I have been asked to perform the pleasant duty of presenting you with this beautiful cup which has been paid for by contributions from many of your friends and admirers.
I know very few boys or men in this country who are not very much interested in our great national sport and they feel pleasure and pride when any man connected with one of our great baseball teams acquits himself particularly well.
As you have certainly done for many years.
I have a personal feeling of pleasure in your success, because while I should not dare to allude to it, if you were a woman,
it is a source of great personal gratification to me that a man who has arrived at mature years is still able to do so well in a sport which requires great physical strength, skill, and good condition.

[36:49] All men who are no longer in the first flush of youth, I am sure feel a personal pride that one of their class maintains his prowess so splendidly further than this.
And seriously speaking, the longer I have lived, the more I have come to, the definite conclusion that for any man to be at the head in any professional walk of life requires great ability, self control, and hard work.
I do not know of any occupation where these traits would count for more than in baseball.
Therefore this cup which is presented to you by your friends is not merely a symbol of their friendship, but it is a reward of merit and puts their seal of approval and the characteristics which you have displayed in becoming one of the great leaders in your chosen occupation.

[37:34] May your success in the future be as great as it has been in the past.
And I sincerely hope that your skill will for a long time be used in the advancement of the record of the american league baseball team.
Located in boston massachusetts Speaking as someone whose age has now surpassed cy young’s in 1908 I to take pleasure in hearing about a middle aged man success in sports,
having retired from marathoning at age 41 now trying to hold on to some semblance of cardiovascular health post.
Covid, I can tell you that it ain’t easy Along with the massive trophy funded by Boston Post readers.
There were the Floral arrangements we mentioned before, some more trophies and perhaps strangest of all a suitcase as reported in the Boston Post on August 14.

[38:26] Then followed the other presentations. First came a magnificent floral horseshoe. The compliments of President George W of the boston nationals.
Then a magnificent suitcase. The gift of the american league umpires and another loving cup.
The gift of wi Cowlishaw of 18 Harvard place was given Cy in the dressing rooms when the veteran himself appeared at the bat in the american league players tribute.
Another loving cup, beautifully designed and massive and construction was given him in the name of the league by fielder jones of the Chicago team,
If it seems weird for an active player to receive a fancy gift specifically that suitcase from the league’s umpires.
This brief note from the August 14 globe helps explain their regard for him.
A gold mounted traveling case. The gift of the umpires of the american League told better than words how Cy young plays ball and leaves to others.
The umpire baiting in august 13th wire service story said that Cy listened to the governor’s comments and accepted the presentations quote, with as much embarrassment as a schoolboy at commencement time.

[39:40] Coverage in the next day’s globe went even further, basically saying that the star pitcher was overwhelmed by the lieutenant governor’s comments and especially by the enthusiastic response from the legions of fans in attendance.
This was almost too much for Cy and the big fellow could murmur only thank you,
but that was enough, for he meant it 1000 times over, not only for his cups, but for all the great testimony to himself from the people who had assembled to give the happiest day in his baseball career.
Later in the day, he asked john taylor to speak to the newspaperman and to ask them to thank for him that thousands of people who had joined him in his day and to say to them that never in his life and he found words so inadequate to express himself.

[40:28] The boston sporting press was understandably enthusiastic about Cy Young Day, but perhaps more surprisingly, papers across the country reported favorably on the event or printed positive wire service stories.
The only exception I ran across was paul h Bruske of the Detroit times whose coverage of the celebration focused on the filthy Luker that young earned that day.
He compared the lionization of young to the hero worship that followed the olympic games. In ancient Greece, the ancient greek would probably have termed old Cy young a hireling and would have regarded any demonstration in his honor as a ludicrous farce.
With more than a scant show of logic, he would have contended that size presence in boston was merely a matter of wage and that his services for the team, which represented that city were merely the conscientious effort to,
earn his daily bread, which should have been expected of him in the circumstances.

[41:23] Where the hell Anus well up in baseball lore, he probably would cite the fact that young’s original presence on the boston National League Club was an accident solely determined by a money consideration,
and that his present post of duty in the boston american league aggregation was solely the result of a larger offer for his services.
He might and probably would admire Cy for his graceful process of growing old in the harness, but would be utterly unable to regard him with any sentiment whatever not so.
The baseball fan of boston. However, by a peculiar mental hocus pocus, the bostonian has transformed Cy from a hessian into a patriot.
Over 18,000 persons turned out yesterday to do him honor and contributed to a fund that is sure to reach $10,000 or more. When the returns are all in to supplement the unusually large wage which cy is undoubtedly earning by his efforts in the box.

[42:18] Beyond the shadow of a doubt the large majority of those who contributed their half dollars at the gate and in the form of cups and other trophies needed.
The money worse than the thrifty citizen of Ohio, who, by a fortuitous chain of circumstances toils during the summer months for a boston employer beyond a question! Old Cy was touched.
Why could he fail to be when a city hands him such a token of esteem?
And yet it is about equally certain that the most pleasurable sensation which you received was the realization of the swelling of the account of the paley savings bank or wherever the young funds happen to be on deposit.

[42:57] But at the end of the day, Cy Young day was intended all along to raise some money for Cy Young,
unlike some of the other benefit games in early baseball, Cy would take home all the ticket revenue rather than splitting it with the team or the league and nobody involved. And made a secret of the fact.
At the end of game day, the evening edition of the Globe reported on the turnout and what it would mean for size bottom line, There certainly were more than 20,000 inside the field before the game began.
It’s possible to estimate what this crowd means when it’s considered. Uncle. Cy is to get every cent that’s taken at the gate.
It is the custom, however, to roughly count gate receipts by taking the stands and higher priced bleachers as well as the 25 cent seats at $0.40 per person.
On this basis of reckoning, cy young should receive $8,000 and probably more when it’s understood that all the available space will be used to help swell the total.
At three o’clock the crowd was so great that extra seats were put in front of the third base bleachers and additional ropes put in left field in the grandstand. The aisles were jammed to the overflowing.
There must have been several 1000 women in attendance. They were not only in the stands but in the bleachers as well and many of them found places behind the ropes.

[44:18] Anybody who’s seen a photo of cy young in 1908 can tell you that the ladies were not flocking to the game because of the pictures, good looks.
They were there to show their support, bask in the reflected glory of a bona fide star and to help drum up a retirement fund for the greatest pitcher of all time.
Same reasons the men were there and they were successful.
The estimated $8-9,000 that cy young took home from ticket sales at his game was more than he earned in any single season of his baseball career.

[44:51] Along with the monetary benefit to side there was a lot of chatter about a potential future benefit to the league.
What if they could incorporate a game into the season where all starts from across the league, played each other even when there wasn’t a player to raise money for,
The August 14 evening globe proposed incorporating a game similar to today’s all star game, but played at the end of the season.
For indirectly the league reaps the benefit of a day such as yesterday.
The scheme of having an all League team was absolutely new in baseball.
And it gave the fans a new idea to discuss more such games, even if at the end of the season and not played as a testimonial would be great to stimulate interest and could be nothing except good for the game.

[45:38] Cy young would surprise everyone by not retiring at the end of the 1908 season.
Instead, the red Sox organization owner john taylor traded away the greatest pitcher of all time in return for charlie check, Jack Ryan And $12,500 in cash.

[45:58] For the 1909 season.
He would return to Cleveland this time.
Instead of the National League spiders, Young would be playing for the american league naps, the team that would eventually become the indians and now the Cleveland guardians as the oldest player in the league.
He maintained a 19 and 15 record that first year with the naps with a 2.26 E. R. A.
Which was pretty good for the naps but a long way from his peak performance During the 1910 season. He earned his 500th win And then the Naps released him in the middle of the 1911 season.

[46:36] And what turned out to be a sad coda to a long and glorious career.
Cy Young returned to boston for the remainder of the 1911 season, playing for the National League team known at the time as the Rustlers and later as the indians it didn’t go well.
He got his last win on September 22 and when the season was over, the elder statesman of pitching finally retired.
He went back to Ohio farm country, eventually falling on hard times and moving in with a friend.

[47:06] He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937 And he died in 1955 in his honor.
Baseball commissioner ford frick created a new Cy Young award to be given to the best pitcher in each league.
It’s still awarded today to learn more about Cy Young day in boston. Check out this week’s show notes at hub history dot com slash 254.
I’ll have extensive coverage of Cy Young’s special day from the boston globe and wire service stories from around the country, as well as a few clippings from the post who helped organize the game.
I’ll also include pictures of the overflow crowd at the Huntington Avenue grounds cy with the boston post loving cup and some of the costumes the players wore during warmups.
Plus I’ll link to private collections where you can see pictures of one of size loving cups, a photo collection taken by a fan in the stands that day and a Cy young souvenir postcards sent by someone who attended the game just for good measure.
I’ll also link to the Cy Young Days festival, a small town carnival honoring Young’s legacy in newcomers town Ohio, the town where he lived at the end of his life.

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Music

Jake:
[48:54] That’s all for now. Stay safe out there listeners.