What is the Cy Young Award?
Q: What is the Cy Young Award?
A: The Cy Young Award is an honor given to the best pitcher in Major League Baseball.
Q: Who introduced the award?
A: The award was first introduced in 1956 by Commissioner Ford Frick in honor of Hall of Fame pitcher Cy Young, who died in 1955.
Q: When did they start honoring one pitcher from each league?
A: In 1967, the year after Frick retired as Commissioner, the practice began of honoring one pitcher in each league, the American League and National League.
Q: How many ballots are cast for each winner?
A: Two members of the Baseball Writers Association of America from each league city cast a vote for first, second and third place among pitchers of that league. This means 28 ballots are cast for the American League winner and 32 for the National League winner.
Q: What formula is used to calculate final scores?
A: The formula used to calculate final scores is a weighted sum of votes called Score = 5F + 3S + T where F stands for number of first place votes, S stands for second place votes and T stands for third place votes.
Q: What happens if two pitchers get same number of votes?
A: If two pitchers receive same number of votes then award is shared between them.
Q: When did current formula start being used? A:The current formula started with 1970 season. Prior to that writers only voted for best pitcher and used a formula which gave one point per vote.
