The winner of the Cy Young Award was an AL pitcher, Early Wynn. The only
NL pitcher to receive a vote was Giants' hurler "Sad Sam" Jones, who also led all
pitchers in the MVP voting. This Sad Sam is not to be confused with the other "Sad Sam" Jones, who pitched in the 1920's; it is likely that every pitcher named Sam Jones will forever be known as "Sad Sam", though both of these men apparently earned their nicknames with their gloomy demeanour. To avoid confusion, it is helpful to think of this one by his other nickname, "Toothpick Sam"; he preferred chewing toothpicks instead of tobacco.
Toothpick Sam was
a 29-year-old rookie with the Cubs in 1955; that year, he led the league in
strikeouts, and held batters to a .206 average. Unfortunately, he also walked
185 batters, and lost 20 games. The Cardinals acquired him in 1957, and in his two years in St. Louis, his control improved dramatically, and he established himself among the best pitchers in the league.
The Cardinals traded him to San Francisco, in a deal that brought a young Bill White to St. Louis. His first season with the Giants was the best of his career. Throwing a good fastball and a great curve from different arm angles, he led the league in wins, ERA, and shutouts,
and you can't do much better than that. Jones was 33 years old; he had one more
good year before injuries brought his career to a quick end.
For the Pittsburgh Pirates, the 1950's were
a miserable decade. But things were turning around; they had some talented
young players, including Roberto Clemente, and some good pitchers. Vernon "Deacon"
Law had suffered with the Pirates through some bad times; now he was hitting
his prime, and was one of the best pitchers in the league. In another year,
Law would win the Cy Young Award, and the Pirates would win the World Series.
But another Pirate pitcher had a great season, and
a truly remarkable one. Roy Face was one of baseball's earliest relief aces;
he pitched in 848 games in his career, and saved 193 games before anyone
started counting saves. Face had many solid seasons, and on paper this one looks
like all the rest... except that he was 18-1! It was an extraordinarily
lucky season; Face pitched well, but his ERA wasn't great, and he gave up
almost a hit per inning. But he kept coming into close games, and his team
kept scoring to give him the lead and the win. Give Face credit: when he got
the lead, he didn't give it up very often.
As exciting as Face's season was, Warren Spahn's
was boring. Spahn was now 38 year old, and had yet another 20-win season, the
tenth of his career. He led the league in wins for the third straight year, and
also led in innings pitched, complete games, and shutouts. Spahn had so many
seasons exactly like this one that it is impossible to tell one from the other;
they all just blur together.
As mentioned earlier, the Dodgers' best pitcher
was Roger Craig. He had been with the Dodgers for a few seasons, pitching
well at times, but this was by far his best season. In 1961, Craig pitched
very poorly for the Dodgers; he was punished by being sent to the expansion
New York Mets, where he lost 46 games in two seasons. After his playing
career, Craig became a successful manager with the San Francisco Giants,
and taught a whole bunch of pitchers how to throw the split-fingered fastball.
