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Pure Pedro Martinez wins third Cy Young award on unanimous vote
Updated: Tuesday November 14, 2000 3:44 PM
NEW YORK (AP) -- About the only thing that gives Pedro Martinez any trouble is analyzing his own success. After becoming the first pitcher to win the American League Cy Young Award unanimously in consecutive years, Martinez couldn't compare the two seasons. "I don't look at the results," he said. "I don't even know my numbers. I know you chose me as the Cy Young winner. I'm very pleased, proud and grateful" Martinez, who has won three Cy Youngs in the last four seasons, received all 28 votes for 140 points in voting released Monday by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. Oakland's Tim Hudson finished second with 54 points, getting 16 seconds and six thirds. David Wells of Toronto was third with 46 points, followed by Andy Pettitte of the Yankees (7) and Detroit's Todd Jones (3). "I'm really honored and flattered to be chosen unanimously as the winner," Martinez said. "It is equally special and equally important to last year." This was just the fourth time a pitcher won outright back-to-back Cy Young Awards in the AL. Roger Clemens, the pitcher Martinez replaced in Boston, did it in 1986-87 with the Red Sox and 1997-98 for Toronto. Jim Palmer won in 1975-76 for Baltimore. Detroit's Denny McLain won the Cy Young in 1968 and shared the award the next year with Baltimore's Mike Cuellar. Martinez, 29, is one of seven pitchers to win the award at least three times. Clemens has five Cy Young Awards, followed by Steve Carlton and Greg Maddux with four each. Tom Seaver, Sandy Koufax and Palmer also have three. "He just moved in with Palmer and Seaver and Koufax, and he's got an opportunity to continue pitching," Boston general manager Dan Duquette said. "He's reached an extremely high level at a young age." Martinez went 18-6 with a 1.74 ERA -- nearly two runs better than Clemens' second-best AL mark of 3.70. It was the lowest ERA by an AL starter since Luis Tiant's 1.60 ERA in 1968.
"This is equally as good a season, maybe better," said Martinez, who led the league with 284 strikeouts and four shutouts. "There are other things that contribute to the wins from last year. I haven't compared the numbers." Last year, Martinez went 23-4 with a 2.07 ERA to become only the fourth pitcher to win the AL Cy Young Award unanimously. He also joined Gaylord Perry and Randy Johnson as the only pitchers to win the honor in each league. Martinez won it in 1997 for Montreal. "I think he had a better year this year," Red Sox manager Jimy Williams said. "You can't just look at his wins and losses." Martinez joined Clemens as the only pitchers to win the award unanimously twice, but Clemens did his 12 years apart: in 1986 for Boston and 1998 for Toronto. Ron Guidry of the Yankees was the unanimous winner in 1978 and McLain in 1968. Martinez's wins were down due in part to poor run support. But everything else was the same for baseball's best pitcher. In 217 innings, he allowed only 128 hits and 32 walks. He also struck out 284 batters and wasn't afraid to brush back hitters in an effort to intimidate the opposition. While 2000 was as good -- or better -- than 1999 individually for Martinez, it was a frustrating season nonetheless. The Red Sox, despite having the best team ERA in the AL, went 85-77 and finished 21/2 games behind the New York Yankees in the AL East. "I would trade this award for a chance to play in the World Series," he said. "As a team, we did pretty good. We didn't do that bad to be disappointed. We were in contention until the end." Martinez earned a $500,000 bonus on top of his $11 million salary for winning the award. Wells got $50,000 for his third-place finish.
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