Back to a Brave
Glavine edges Hoffman for NL Cy Young Award
Posted: Tuesday November 17, 1998 09:12 PM
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Tom Glavine wins the closest Cy Young race in 11 years Doug Pensinger/Allsport |
NEW YORK (AP) -- The NL Cy Young Award returned home Tuesday.
Tom
Glavine edged reliever Trevor
Hoffman to win his second NL Cy Young Award, the sixth time in eight
years an Atlanta
Braves pitcher has earned the honor.
"It's a good feeling to be part of a pitching staff that has won as many
awards as we have," Glavine said. "It's great to get it back in the
organization after Pedro [Martinez] won it last year."
In the closest balloting for the award since 1987, Hoffman received the
most first-place votes but fell 11 points short of Glavine, who appeared on
three more ballots.
The 32-year-old left-hander became the first Cy Young winner not to
receive the most first-place votes.
Another Padres pitcher, Kevin Brown, was
third with eight firsts, eight seconds, 12 thirds for 76 points. Glavine's
teammates, John
Smoltz, the 1996 winner, and Greg Maddux, who
won the award from 1992-95, tied for fourth with 10 points each.
Glavine, who also won the award in 1991, led the league with 20 wins and
was tied for third with a 2.47 ERA. He became the sixth NL pitcher to win
the award more than once.
"This validates what I did in 1991," he said. "If you look at the list
of multiple winners, it is pretty select company. It is something to be
proud of."
Glavine received 11 first-place votes, 13 seconds, five thirds and was
left off three ballots for 99 points.
Hoffman had one of the most dominating seasons ever out of the bullpen,
saving 53 games in 54 chances for the Padres. Hoffman got 13 firsts, five
seconds and eight thirds. The San Diego pitcher was left off six ballots
for 88 points.
Hoffman, who felt he had a chance at winning the award, said he'd leave
it to others to decide if he got short-changed by not being named on six
ballots.
"It's tough," he said. "What it came down to with some of the writers
was they had a difficult decision about what they felt was the criteria.
For me not to be on six ballots, that I didn't belong, that tells you how
they feel about relievers."
The 32 voters from the Baseball Writers' Association of America list the
top three pitchers on their ballots.
The last time the NL Cy Young vote was this close was 1987, when Steve
Bedrosian beat Rick Sutcliffe by two votes and Rick Reuschel by three.
The last time any BBWAA award winner failed to receive the most
first-place votes was in 1995 when Seattle's Lou Piniella beat Boston's
Kevin Kennedy for AL Manager of the Year. It happened three times in MVP
voting.
"It just goes to show that a lot of guys had great years and deserved
consideration," Glavine said. "I'm not concerned with how many votes I got
or first-place votes I didn't get. I had enough to get the award."
For much of the season Glavine wasn't even the best pitcher on his
staff.
Maddux appeared to have wrapped up the award at the All-Star break with
a 12-2 record and 1.54 ERA. But he struggled down the stretch, going 6-7
with an un-Madduxlike 3.18 ERA. He finished 18-9 with a league-leading 2.22
ERA, but couldn't join Roger Clemens
as the only five-time Cy Young winners. Clemens won his fifth AL award
Monday.
"Realistically I thought Greg was the clear-cut winner into August,"
Glavine said. "Barring something crazy, I didn't think I could catch him. I
got on a roll and took advantage of the fact that Greg was not Greg in most
people's eyes."
Glavine's win returns the award to Atlanta. Martinez won last year, and
Maddux won in 1992 for the Cubs, the year before he signed with the Braves.
Smoltz finished 17-3 with a 2.90 ERA in a season in which he was twice
on the disabled list with an inflamed elbow.
"This is something we all want when the season starts," Glavine said of
his Cy Young Award winning teammates. "We are competitive from the
standpoint that we want to keep up with each other and not be the weak link
on the staff."
Hoffman allowed less than a baserunner per inning and struck out more
than one batter per inning. He went 4-2 with a 1.48 ERA. Only four NL
relievers have won the award, none since Mark Davis with San Diego in 1989.
Hoffman received a $50,000 bonus for placing second.
Brown, who helped knock Glavine, Maddux and Smoltz out of the playoffs,
finished 18-7 with a 2.38 ERA. He received a $10,000 bonus for his finish.
Glavine's award came three days after he got married and puts a bright
mark on a season that once again ended short of a World Series championship
for the Braves.
"I wanted to have the wedding first so no matter what happened with the
award, I'd be happy," he said. "This is a nice belated wedding present."
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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