CY YOUNG COMPLETE

Day 1:

I consider myself as one of the most remarkable baseball players ever. I was born on March 29, 1867 in Gilmore, Ohio, being the oldest of the five children of McKinzie Jr. and Nancy Young. My education stopped at the sixth grade so I could help my parents with farming chores, but it was also at this time that I discovered the game of baseball. Encouraged by our father, we, the Young boys, played during all the free time we had. My brothers preferred to play as hitters, but I quickly realized that I was a better pitcher. I  practiced with my father who taught me everything, and considering the genius of his son, the father of Cy encouraged him to play on a team.

Day 2:

I practiced a lot and played many recreational matches with my friends and family. Of course, those matches were too easy for a man that will one day become one of the best baseball players ever, me. Everyone wanted to play in my team because I always won. So I organized my own team in Gilmore, Ohio, which competed against other teams in the neighborhood. But very soon I recognized that I was meant to be a professional baseball player. With this thought in mind, I was admitted to several semi-pro teams in Ohio such as Newcomerstown, Cadiz, and Uhrichsville. This was in 1884 to 1888. In that year, I took a big step in my career: recognizing my enourmous talent, I was tracked down and accepted to play for one of the best semi-pro teams of the US. It’s Carrollton.

Day 3:

In Carrolton, I developed into an incredible pitcher. But I didn’t just pitch. I played second base a lot too. The first box score that contained my name came from that season. In that game I exceptionally played first base and had three hits in three at-bats. My coach and teammates were amazed by my talent and so were the Carrolton fans. We all knew that I would not play for Carrolton a long time. And as I thought, at the last game of the season, which turned out to be my last ever for Carrolton, a lot of people from different major league teams came to see me play. And as always I was the best on the field, so I received an offer from the major league Canton team. This started my professional career.

DAY 4:

My first game in the Major League was on August 6, 1890. I was just 23 years old. The first time I pitched I got three strikes in a row. With that all the supporters knew that I would be a good pitcher. At my first throw all the people in the stadium applauded me and were my fans. I was stressed, as I said at the end of the game, but my first game was a successes. I won! I earned my nickname when an observer in the stadium observed that I could throw the ball with the force of a cyclone. I was known as Cy from that moment. The Cleveland Spiders were my first real fans. Until this moment on I knew I was the best pitcher.

Day 5 :

Two years after I debuted in 1890, my regular season was a success. I led the National League in wins (with 36) and shutouts (9). At that time the National League was using a split season format during the 1892 season, which meant the season was split into two halves. The Boston Beaneaters won the first-half title, and the Spiders won the second-half title, with a best-of-nine series determining the league champion. Despite the Spiders second half run, the Beaneaters swept the series, five games to none. I pitched three complete games in the series, but I lost two decisions. But one of them I threw a complete game shutout, but the game ended in a 0–0 tie.

The Spiders faced the Baltimore Orioles in the Temple Cup, in 1895. I won three games in the series and Cleveland won the Cup, four games to one.

Day 6:

After one-hitting Boston on May 2, 1904, Philadelphia Athletics pitcher Rube Waddell taunted me to face him so that he could repeat his performance against me. Three days later, I pitched a perfect game against Waddell and the Athletics. It was the first perfect game in American League history Waddell was the 27th and last batter, and when he flied out, I shouted, "How do you like that, you hayseed?" Waddell had picked an inauspicious time to issue his challenge. My perfect game was the centerpiece of a pitching streak. I set major league records for the most consecutive scoreless innings pitched and the most consecutive innings without allowing a hit; the latter record still stands at 24.1 innings, or 73 hitless batters. Even after allowing a hit, my scoreless streak reached a record 45 shutout innings. Before me, only two pitchers had thrown perfect games. My perfect game was the first under the modern rules established in 1893. Those highlights were the middle of my career, and they astound me even today.

Day 7: 

To me, baseball isn’t a sport, it’s an art form. That’s why I don’t practice to perfect my pitching style. I think that pitching comes as an instinct. It comes from learning and  

practicing at an early age, I wanted to be the best I could be. That’s why I never practice or warm up when I’m about to be called up to the mound. I know what I have to do, and I know how to do it well. It’s not that I’m trying to be full of myself, but I just go out, pitch, and win games. That is where I guess my life’s true calling is: the mound. Therefore my genius isn’t in how I throw the ball or the technique I use, it is in my state of mind that I become the best.

Day 8:

       

During my final years in the major leagues, I think I gained much notoriety. In one game, I allowed just one hit while facing 28 batters. That was amazing! The best of my new found notoriety was that on August 13, 1908, the league celebrated "Cy Young Day." No American League games were played on that day, and a group of All-Stars from the league's other teams gathered in Boston to against my team and I. In 1908 a month after my one hit game and just past my 41^st birthday, I pitched the third no-hitter of my career and set a record as the oldest pitcher to achieve a no-hitter, a record! I think that no one will surpass it for some time. In 1908, I was the second-oldest player in either league, and I was feeling it.During my final season I was traded many times. First to the Cleveland Naps in the American league, I played over half my career a part of that team before the 1909 season. The following season, 1910, I won my 500th career game on July 23rd against Washington. I was astonished I  had come this far, and I thought I had reached my peak. During my final season in 1911, I split it between the Cleveland Naps and the Boston Rustlers.

Day 9:

On October 6^th, 1911, the day my final game was supposed to be played, I was nervous. My control had slipped, I had gained weight and I had been the oldest player in the  league for the past 3 years. I relied on my control because my fastball had slowed to a crawl but now that it was gone, I didn’t really know what to do. But, 2 weeks earlier, I had shutout the Pittsburg Pirates 1-0 for a win. I wasn’t sure today would be the same. I felt a certain nervousness about stepping onto the mound, a feeling I hadn’t felt ever since I had my first pitch in the American league. That nervousness turned to shame as I watched the final eight batters of my career come up to face me. They combined to hit a triple, four singles, and three doubles. I guess in the end I just gave up trying, I just let them hit. It was a sad day for me, and in some ways a happy one, sad because I was leaving the sport I loved, but happy because I finally could go live on a farm in Peoli, Ohio with my wife and have a nice retirement. My career ended that day, and in many ways, my life.

Day  10  : 

I am so relieved that I’m retired once and for all. My life has had many ups and downs. Every day I got to go and play on legendary fields and against legendary players such as myself. I used to hear the crowd cri out my name as I stepped on the field. I felt the sweet joy of hitting a home run and the relief of winning a game. But now it is time look behind and pass on my knowledge to other players. Now I can go back to my house in peoli and retire with my sweet wife Robba. I am now starting my life after baseball. My wife Robba is a kind woman. My first day on the farm I see ahead of me a long life of retirement.

Day 11 :

My life on the farm is very peaceful. Instead of working out, I now plant potatoes and attend to my sheep, hogs and chicken. My wife is pregnant and we are expecting a baby. As Robba is giving birth to my first daughter was more stressful than before a game. I am holding my child in my hands but then suddenly she dies right in front of my eyes, her cause of death was unknown. This has been a very dramatic moment for me, I have decided that I will not take a risk like this ever again. She was born in 1907. As I thought things were getting at their worst my wife Robba past away. I now have to sell my farm for there is nothing here for me and go back to were I came from. Maybe I wasn’t meant to be a farmer maybe I was just supposed to play baseball. 

Day 12 :

Retirement is not going as I planed. I am being bested by financial problems. In 1935 I traveled to Augusta, Georgia where I joined a group of baseball veterans. I played exhibition matches thinking that I could make some money. But I had to accept the fact that I was done with baseball and that it was time to move on. When this venture failed, I returned to Ohio Where I found a job at a retail store working as a clerk. I did not make much money so I lived with a local couple, john and Ruth Benudum. Today I still live with them but I am feeling a bit week lately. I am dead, I have died from a coronary occlusion, it was November 4^th 1955, I was 88 years old. I am buried in the Peoli cemetery and baseball has given me the pitching award that still bears my name.