Arizona becomes Cy Young capital
http://www.azcentral.com/sports/columns/articles/1122onbaseball1122.html
Joseph A. Reaves
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 22, 2006 12:00 AM
Ask most folks around baseball and they will tell you Chase Field is a
hitters' ballpark.
Left-handed hitters, especially, love the place.
But ask the newest National League Cy Young Award winner about that and he
just chuckles.
"Yeah, it can be a hitters' park, but if you keep the ball down you're not
going to get hurt," Diamondbacks right-hander Brandon Webb says. "That goes
for Coors (Field in Denver), for Philadelphia, for here, anywhere. Keep the
ball down."
Webb kept the ball down enough last season to win his first Cy Young Award -
the fifth for a Diamondbacks pitcher in just nine years of franchise history.
Granted the other four went to future Hall of Famer Randy Johnson. But it's a
credit to former General Manager Joe Garagiola Jr. and former owner Jerry
Colangelo that Johnson was around long enough to win four in a row in Arizona.
The first Cy Young Award went to Don Newcombe of the Brooklyn Dodgers in
1956. That year, and for a decade after, the Cy Young went to the best
pitcher in all of baseball.
Since 1967, the top pitcher in each league has been honored, which means 91
Cy Youngs have been handed out in 51 years. The Diamondbacks weren't around
for 42 of those seasons, yet they have more Cy Young Awards than all but five
franchises.
"With five out of nine, that's a pretty good ratio there," Webb said last
week. "Hopefully, that will draw some pitchers in and make them want to come
here."
That's exactly what Diamondbacks Manager Partner Jeff Moorad and General
Manager Josh Byrnes are hoping, too.
"When I called Josh to tell him about Brandon (winning the award), he was
five minutes away from meeting with the agent for a free-agent pitcher and he
said: 'Wups, I just learned how to start my discussion,' " Moorad said last
week. "That's not a bad sell. That's not a bad sell at all."
No, it's not.
Come to Arizona and win a Cy Young. Be part of the greatest pitching
franchise in baseball history.
Well, not yet. But Johnson and Webb have laid a pretty solid foundation.
Think of franchises with reputations for producing great pitchers.
For many, Atlanta jumps to mind. Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, Tom Glavine.
Braves pitchers have won seven awards: Maddux with three, Glavine two, Smoltz
one and Warren Spahn one with the Milwaukee Braves. But since Arizona came
into the league, the Braves have just one Cy Young Award: Glavine in '98. The
Diamondbacks have five times that many.
Think of great pitching and the Dodgers come to mind. Well, maybe not so much
lately, but there was a time when Sandy Koufax won three Cy Youngs in four
seasons. And there was Don Drysdale, Orel Hershiser, Fernando Valenzuela,
Mike Marshall - oh, and Eric Gagne. Throw in Newcombe and the Dodgers have
nine.
But that's nine out of 91. The Diamondbacks have five in nine chances.
Hey, what about the Yankees? Bob Turley, Whitey Ford, Ron Guidry, Sparky
Lyle. The franchise that bills itself as the greatest in all of sports has
produced just five Cy Young winners and one of those was Roger Clemens, who
left New York after five seasons. Clemens won three Cy Youngs with Boston,
two in Toronto and an unprecedented seventh in Houston two years ago.
The Yankees pride themselves on tradition. And rightly so. Babe Ruth. Lou
Gehrig. Joe DiMaggio. Mickey Mantle. Roger Maris. Elston Howard. Don
Mattingly. The list goes on and on. But it's almost always hitters, rarely
pitchers.
Let the Yankees laud their tradition. They deserve it. And it's great for
baseball.
But there's new tradition building in the desert. Arizona is a great place to
live and the best place of late to win a Cy Young.
Nine years is way too short to rival the kind of tradition the Yankees,
Dodgers, Braves and a lot of other clubs have. But the Diamondbacks have
something special going.
Chase Field may be a hitters' ballpark, but take it from a Cy Young winner,
if you keep the ball down, it can be a pitcher's paradise.
==
寒冷的冬天
無情的市場
溫暖的文章 :)
--
mittermeyer, PTT Diamondbacks BM, B/T:R/R, 5'11", 165lbs
球探報告:雖然長相曾被指出與某歌星相似,但在未找到合適髮型的情況下,在20至80分
中只能拿45分至50分間。個性算是開朗,然而因缺乏自信而少能展現個人特質,不易受異
性注意。在言語的表達上亦有問題,有時會因為腦殘而說出不得體的話,導致產生失敗的
第一印象。善良的本性應該會讓他成為Career "Good-man" Leaguer。
--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc)
◆ From: 61.228.195.178
推
11/23 23:46, , 1F
11/23 23:46, 1F
→
11/23 23:48, , 2F
11/23 23:48, 2F
Diamondbacks 近期熱門文章
PTT體育區 即時熱門文章