About two months ago, I wrote a short article for Chicago Sports Weekly about the lack of non-white pitchers in baseball's 300 Win Club. While the bulk of the piece focused on past players such as Ferguson Jenkins and Bob Gibson who hadn't reached that milestone, the conclusion discussed a quartet that I believe stand the best chance of getting there someday: Venezualans Johan Santana and Carlos Zambrano, and African-Americans C.C. Sabathia and Dontrelle Willis.
Of those four, Cleveland's Sabathia had the best individual season in 2007, starting and finishing strong to become, in the eyes of many, the favorite to win the American League Cy Young award. As I tried naming, off the top of my head, the past winners of the award, something occurred to me: I couldn't think of a single black player in recent years who had received that honor.
A trip to Baseball-Reference.com confirmed my suspicions: the last African-American player to win a Cy Young award in either league was New York's Dwight Gooden, who took home the hardware as a 20-year-old phenom in 1985. And before that, we have to go all the way back to 1971 before another winner pops up. In all, only five African-American pitchers have won the award, doing so a total of six times; with 92 total Cy Youngs given since 1956, that represents a mere 6.5% of the all-time total. The list and their season statistics are below:
| Player | Team | League | Year | W-L | ERA | SO |
| Dwight Gooden | New York Mets | National | 1985 | 24-4 | 1.53 | 268 |
| Vida Blue | Oakland Athletics | American | 1971 | 248 | 1.82 | 301 |
| Ferguson Jenkins | Chicago Cubs | National | 1971 | 24-13 | 2.77 | 263 |
| Bob Gibson | St. Louis Cardinals | National | 1970 | 23-7 | 3.12 | 274 |
| Bob Gibson | St. Louis Cardinals | National | 1968 | 22-9 | 1.12 | 268 |
| Don Newcombe | Brooklyn | National | 1956 | 27-7 | 3.06 | 139 |
It gets better when top three finishes are taken into account, but not much: ten African-American pitchers have been voted into the top three a total of fifteen times since the Cy Young was first awarded in 1956. The most recent was Florida's Dontrelle Willis, who finished second in 2005. Once again, the American League is lagging disturbingly far behind the Senior Circuit: while Latinos such as Johan Santana, Mariano Rivera and Pedro Martinez have been fixtures in the top three for years, the last African-American to place that high in the voting was Oakland's Dave Stewart, who did it three out of the four seasons from 1987-90 (he finished fourth in 1988).
Overall, the National League had twice as many top three finishers (10) as its American League counterparts (5):
| Player | Year | League | Finish |
| Dontrelle Willis | 2005 | NL | 2nd |
| Ken Hill | 1994 | NL | 2nd |
| Dave Stewart | 1990 | AL | 3rd |
| Dave Stewart | 1989 | AL | 2nd |
| Dave Stewart | 1987 | AL | 3rd |
| Dwight Gooden | 1984 | NL | 2nd |
| Jim Bibby | 1980 | NL | 3rd |
| J.R. Richard | 1979 | NL | 3rd |
| Vida Blue | 1978 | NL | 3rd |
| Fergie Jenkins | 1974 | AL | 2nd |
| Fergie Jenkins | 1972 | NL | 3rd |
| Al Downing | 1971 | NL | 3rd |
| Fergie Jenkins | 1970 | NL | 3rd |
| Fergie Jenkins | 1967 | NL | 2nd |
| Sam Jones | 1959 | AL | 2nd |
I know things like this shouldn't come into play when the time comes to vote for awards, but a part of me hopes that Sabathia wins - not only because he had an overall better season than Josh Beckett or Fausto Carmona, but also because it would increase his stature as a positive role model and potentially help nudge more young African-Americans toward baseball in general and pitching in particular (a look at the MVP awards over the last twenty years reveals that a ton of them have been won by African-American players, including seven for Barry Bonds and two for Frank Thomas; a breakdown of that voting might be next on the agenda).
10 Comments:
were it not for self inflicted addictions, how many times do you think doc would have been in the top three?
"lack of" african-americans winning 300 games? Would anybody say there has been a lack of white running backs in the 10,000 rushing yards club in the NFL? Maybe we should start an affirmative action program to get more black pitchers into that exclusive club.
John Riggins is offended by your white RB comment
Man, how did Dave Stewart not win one in the late 80s? That's a crime.
anon 7:28 - Never mind how many more top threes he would have had...how many more would he have WON? If not for his problems, Gooden would probably be writing his Hall of Fame speech right now.
anon 2:30 - I tried to avoid labeling this as a "problem". I view it more as an interesting fact. Maybe, in the future, I'll do a post on the lack of white running backs in the 10,000 yard club.
Jose - Roger Clemens, Frank Viola, Bret Saberhagen, and Bob Welch happened.
I hate that we complain about everything for african americans. What about asains, indians, mexicans, latinos. WHITES!? O no did I actually want to defend white people?? O my I must be racist... Look if the race card is to be played, play it for eveybody. Talk about whites being a minority in football or basketball. That's right a majority in this country is white, but a minority (blacks) outnumber them in those sports. THAT is messed up. If it were to be correctly proportioned whites should be a majority. So if anything that is a problem. Or I have a better idea, leave race out of it. Take your time and research numbers instead of why there aren't a lot of black pitchers pitchign 300 wins. DO you think that their team doesn't want to hit because their black pitcher might get a win? Someone please kill the black ca...I mean race card.
"DO you think that their team doesn't want to hit because their black pitcher might get a win?"
That's truly one of the dumbest things I've ever read. I don't believe anyone was implying that there was some conspiracy to keep black pitchers from winning 300 games. Why is it that people can't speak intelligently when it comes to race? It just baffles me.
Using sabermetrics, how many African American pitchers deserved to win the Cy Young (or be in the top 3) compared to how many actually were? Anybody?
Amazing. OMDQ makes an interesting and thought-provoking point about voting and race in baseball - not a plea, not a complaint, but an observation - and reactionary morons come screaming out of the woodwork to proclaim that most tired refrain of 'everyone forgets about white people'. I get that race in sports - or anything - is a sensitive subject, but does that mean it can't be discussed? Really?
Personally, I think race continues to play a huge role in baseball, and often a problematic one. I'm personally of the opinion that Barry Bonds wouldn't be nearly as reviled if his skin were a different color, and that David Eckstein wouldn't be as loved. I cringe every time I hear about a Latin player's 'fiery passion' or 'savant-like' talent. I know what 'scrappy' really means. And if I hear another goddamned time about how Asian players are quieter, more reserved, and (pick your poison) 'calculating', 'emotionless', or 'cold' I'll scream. Race and racial reaction tinges our understanding of the game, and information like the stuff that's posted here only helps us understand it a little more.
Up until 1968, there was only one Cy Young award per year given out. Not one per league; just one. That might have something to do with it.
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