The New York Yankees repeated as winners of the pennant and World Series. The other three playoff teams - Oakland, Chicago and Seattle - were returning to the playoffs for the first time in several years. One team that missed the postseason was the Boston Red Sox; they came up short, and ball fans were denied the chance of watching Pedro Martinez perform in October, after he had dominated the league for six months.

         After Martinez' performance in the 1999 season and playoffs, some fans were calling it the greatest season ever by a pitcher. This year, Martinez managed to top his 1999 numbers. He threw more innings, but allowed fewer hits and walks. His ERA was the lowest by any AL pitcher since Luis Tiant in 1968. He allowed only 5.29 hits per nine innings, breaking the record that Tiant had set in 1968. Opposing batters managed just a .213 on-base percentage and a .259 slugging percentage against Martinez, the best performance by any pitcher since the 19th century.
         So if Martinez' 1999 season was the greatest ever by a pitcher, his 2000 season was... at least as good, maybe better, and he easily deserved the Cy Young Award. But Pedro didn't lead the league in wins; the Red Sox were a weak-hitting team, and didn't give him much run support. The top winners in the league were young Tim Hudson of Oakland, and burly David Wells of Toronto. Hudson was 25; he began his career with an 11-2 record in 1999, and kept on winning this year, leading the Athletics to the division title. Wells was 37, and he had his first 20-win season. Boomer was one of the hardest workers in the league, and his control was exceptional.
        I have some reservations about including Andy Pettitte among the top four. He won a lot of games, but his team also scored a lot of runs for him, and his ERA wasn't among the best in the league. But there is no other obvious choice; Roger Clemens, Mike Mussina and Mike Sirotka had better ERAs, but none of them were big winners. And they really weren't significantly better than Pettitte. None of the closers had an exceptional season either, though Japanese star Kazuhiro Sasaki debuted with an impressive season and won the Rookie Of The Year Award.
        So I will take the lefty, Pettitte, ahead of his teammate Clemens, who had a weird and wonderful season. The Rocket had a slow start to the season, and had to go on the DL early in the summer. When he came back he was his old self, dominating the final three months of the year. During the playoffs, Clemens had one of the greatest games ever by a pitcher, a one-hit, 18-strikeout effort against the Mariners. In the World Series, he had an infamous game in which he threw a piece of a bat in the direction of Mike Piazza. He stayed in the game and won it; what the Rocket's intentions were remain a mystery.
        But while his season had its ups and downs, there's no doubt that he was the Yankees' most forceful presence over the final three months of the season. In leading them to another World Series, Clemens removed any doubt that was a big game pitcher; he also proved himself to be as unpredictable and he is great.