The 1990s were the peak of the steroid era. But while we all experienced gaudy offensive numbers during the decade, we may have witnessed the best Cy Young era in baseball history. Let me explain.

The current run of Cy Young winners include some great young aces and one who I think is already Hall of Fame bound.

Justin Verlander, Tim Lincecum, Clayton Kershaw and Felix Hernandez are all off to amazing starts to their careers. But as I wrote last night, Brandon Webb and Jake Peavy got off to amazing starts too.

CC Sabathia and Roy Halladay are, I think, either Hall of Fame bound or damn close to it. (Cliff Lee and Zack Greinke will need to pile up some more ace seasons to get Cooperstown talk.)

If Verlander, Lincecum, Kershaw and King Felix keep up their great careers, then we could be in the middle of one of the great stretches of Cy Young winners ever.

Or it could be like the 1980s, where pitchers like Fernando Valenzuela, Bret Saberhagen, Frank Viola, Doc Gooden and Orel Hershiser put together great starts to their career but couldn't translate them into Cooperstown.

I started thinking about when was the best era of Cy Young winners. And I don't mean best stats but rather the most straight years of future Hall of Famers.

I figured it would have been the first few years of the Cy Young (1956-1966) when they gave out only one award for both leagues. And indeed there were Warren Spahn, Early Wynn, Whitey Ford, Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax winning awards.

But Don Newcombe, Bob Turley, Vern Law and Dean Chance also won as well.

1968 to 1973 saw 6 straight years of future Hall of Famers winning the National League Cy Young Award. (Bob Gibson, Tom Seaver, Fergie Jenkins and Steve Carlton.) In that same stretch the American League had Jim Lonborg, Denny McLain, Mike Cuellar and Jim Perry, none of whom are in the Hall.

Between 1972 and 1976, Hall of Famers Gaylord Perry, Catfish Hunter and Jim Palmer won the American League Cy Young Award while Randy Jones and Mike Marshall broke up the Hall of Fame streak in the National League.

The National League started a future Hall of Fame streak between 1977 and 1980 with Steve Carlton, Gaylord Perry and Bruce Sutter winning. The late Mike Flanagan won in the American League as well as non Hall of Famers Sparky Lyle, Ron Guidry and Steve Stone.

Then between 1981 and 1990 came a run where Rollie Fingers and Steve Carlton were the only future Hall of Famers to win (although steroids or not, I think Clemens will eventually get in.)

Then comes the run that should catch all of our eyes.

From 1991 to 2001 the American League Cy Young Award winners were Roger Clemens, Dennis Eckersley, Jack McDowell, David Cone, Randy Johnson, Pat Hentgen and Pedro Martinez.

The National League Cy Young Award winners in that stretch were Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, Pedro Martinez and Randy Johnson.

Assuming Roger Clemens gets in EVENTUALLY, then only Jack McDowell, Pat Hentgen and David Cone are NOT Hall of Famers in the bunch.

That's 19 out of 22 Cy Young Awards handed out to Hall of Fame pitchers (Eckersley is already in.)

Seriously, Greg Maddux and Randy Johnson should get 100% of the Hall of Fame or some writers should get their credentials revoked. Pedro Martinez, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz all deserve to get in as well.

And someday Roger Clemens (and Barry Bonds for that matter) will get in.

Did we realize it when we saw it what a great run we were watching?
Did we note how great the PITCHING was in the steroid era? Or at least what star power there was?

Let's root for Felix Hernandez, Clayton Kershaw, Justin Verlander, Zack Grienke, Tim Lincecum, CC Sabathia, Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay to continue to put up ace numbers. It would be cool to see ANOTHER great Hall of Famers winning the Cy Young era.

Last night Jose Valverde not only made good on his prediction that the Tigers would move past the Yankees in the playoffs but he also joined a select group of relievers.

Throwing the final pitch of a post season series (a minor obsession of mine) is the pinnacle for any closer. But only handful have done it for multiple franchises.

They are...











TUG McGRAW
closed out the 1973 NLCS for the Mets and the 1980 World Series for the Phillies.










GOOSE GOSSAGE
clinched the 1978 ALCS and World Series and the 1981 Division Series and ALCS for the Yankees and the 1984 NLCS for the Padres.















DENNIS ECKERSLEY
closed out the 1988 ALCS and 1989 ALCS and World Series for the A's and finished the 1996 Division Series for the Cardinals.











RANDY MYERS
finished the 1990 NLCS and World Series for the Reds and then the 1996 and 1997 Division Series as a member of the Orioles.















ROBB NEN
clinched the 1997 Division Series for the Marlins and the 2002 Division Series for the Giants.













JOE BOROWSKI
finished the 2003 Division Series with the Cubs and the 2007 Division Series with the Indians.












JOSE VALVERDE
clinched the 2007 Division Series for the Diamondbacks and the 2011 Division Series for the Tigers.


That's some pretty cool company for Papa Grande.

For those of you who read my blog regularly, you know that every once in a while an idle thought would enter my cranium and it would evolve into me doing an elaborate list writing entry here.

My entire 800 page Home Grown vs Acquired Series started from the simple question "I wonder if the Red Sox had better luck acquiring players from other teams or developing their own talent."

I chronicled how my ideas can germinate into a blog post with my "Making of a Blog Post" entry. Well it happened again.

While on the treadmill watching coverage of the Yankees and Rangers courtship of Cliff Lee, I thought "The Yankees are trying to bring in a guy who consistently beat them in October. I wonder how many players have joined a team they beat in the playoffs."

Later I got more specific. "I wonder how many times a playoff MVP joined the team that he beat."

Then I thought "I wonder how many playoff MVPs won their award against a team they USED to play for."

And finally the question "How many players won a playoff MVP and then later played in the post season AGAINST the team that he won the award for?"

This is how my mind works, people.

And I can't just leave these thoughts hanging.
I have to list them.

And I did.



FRANK ROBINSON
1966 World Series MVP for the Baltimore Orioles against the
Los Angeles Dodgers.
Joined the Dodgers in 1972





KIRK GIBSON
1984 ALCS MVP for the Detroit Tigers against the
Kansas City Royals
Joined the Royals in 1991





DENNIS ECKERSLEY
1988 ALCS MVP for the Oakland Athletics against the
Boston Red Sox
Joined the Red Sox in 1998




OREL HERSHISER
1988 NLCS MVP for the Los Angeles Dodgers against the
New York Mets
Joined the Mets in 1999.





RICKEY HENDERSON
1989 ALCS MVP for the Oakland Athletics against the
Toronto Blue Jays
Joined the Blue Jays in 1993





RANDY JOHNSON
2001 World Series Co-MVP for the Arizona Diamondbacks against the New York Yankees
Joined the Yankees in 2005.




LEW BURDETTE
1957 World Series MVP for the Milwaukee Braves against the
New York Yankees.
Played for the Yankees in 1950.





MIKE SCOTT
1986 NLCS MVP for the Houston Astros against the
New York Mets.
Played for the Mets from 1979-1982





DENNIS ECKERSLEY
1988 ALCS MVP for the Oakland Athletics against the
Boston Red Sox
Played for the Red Sox from 1978-1984





JOSE RIJO
1990 World Series MVP for the Cincinnati Reds against the Oakland Athletics
Played for the Athletics from 1985-1987






DON LARSEN
1956 World Series MVP for the
New York Yankees
Pitched in the 1962 World Series for the San Francisco Giants against the Yankees





REGGIE JACKSON
1973 World Series MVP for the
Oakland A’s
Played in the 1981 ALCS for the New York Yankees against the A’s






I find it interesting that Dennis Eckersley appeared on the list twice.
I am guessing you did too.

I have no idea how long it takes to recreate these games with RBI baseball... but I think it was worth every nanosecond.

This kind of insanity makes me so happy.

Anyone who knows me, and I know I do, knows that I am fascinated by lists and fascinated by bullpen closers and relief pitchers.

I’ve read a bunch of lists of greatest reliever of all time on line and they usually have the same list of characters. Obviously Rivera, Fingers, Gossage, Eckersley and Sutter would all be up there in whatever order the writer sees fit.

Others would include Hoffman and Lee Smith.
Some others bring up Billy Wagner and Robb Nen.

I think Dan Quisenberry should always get more love.

One even had the gall to bring up Armando Benitez!!

But one name that doesn’t always come up is Hoyt Wilhelm. Oh he shows up on some and usually as a token toss to the past, but man oh man he should be a no brainer in the conversation with the Riveras, Fingers and Eckersleys.

Don't believe me? Let's list why:


HE WAS AN AWESOME RELIEF ACE BEFORE THEY WERE IN FASHION

Take a look at the All Time Saves leaders.

Almost every single one of them pitched from the mid 1980s on. Has the quality of relievers just skyrocketed recently? No, but people's understanding of the value of a reliever has.

Scroll down and the first name you'll see of someone who did the bulk of their pitching BEFORE 1970 is Wilhelm as he set the save record with 227.

Sure there were the occasional Jim Konstantys or Clem Labines in the 50s and 60s, but for the most part when Wilhelm broke in the mind set was "if you were good, you started and if not, you'll be DEMOTED to the bullpen." Or relievers were guys like Gerry Staley who were solid starters looking to prolong their career.

Not Wilhelm. He broke in as a reliever and came out guns blazing. He won the ERA title completely in relief (and pitched enough innings to qualify!) He went 15-3 with 11 saves and pitched in more games than anyone in the National League. He wasn't extending his career in the pen. He was making his mark in baseball.


HE WAS THE RELIEF ACE FOR A WORLD SERIES WINNER

I know I am a stickler for this, especially in my evaluation of Trevor Hoffman, but a great reliever has to come up big for big winners.

Here's Wilhelm pitching in the 1954 World Series where, along with Marv Grissom, had one of the best 1-2 punches from the bullpen of the decade. Wilhelm came in and pitched the Giants out of an 8th ining jam in Game 3 for the save and gave the Giants a 3-0 series lead.

He walked the walk in the big game.


HIS ROLE AS A RELIEVER? ANYTHING THEY WOULD ASK

You know how relievers today have specific roles and often aren't comfortable when they pitch in different situations? Some closers just pitch the 9th and people hem and haw if they have show up in the 8th. Some pitch to one batter. Some pitch the 7th. Some pitch the 8th.

Take a look at Wilhelm's pitching log in 1964.

He would enter some games in the 6th and finish them. He would come into the game in the 7th sometimes and the 8th in another. He would pitch 2/3 of an inning in one game and throw 3 1/3 the next. He would pitch both games of a double header and then throw the next day.

He did his job, answering the bell 73 times that year for 131 1/3 innings out of the pen. He won 12, saved 27 and posted a 1.99 ERA no matter what his role was.

And that's not even mentioning his 10 INNINGS of 2 hit relief on August 6th 1959. Try trotting Rivera out for 10 innings in one night.



HE WALKED THE WALK AS A STARTER... BUT STAYED IN THE PEN

After bouncing around between the Giants, Cardinals and Indians, he landed in Baltimore in 1958. There he was put into the starting rotation and made 43 of his 52 career starts (compared to 1,018 relief appearances.)

He proved himself more than capable in the rotation. He made the 1959 All Star team, again led the league in ERA and in 1958 threw a no hitter against the mighty Yankees.

Harold Friend wrote about the no hitter in this article.

No Joba rules for Hoyt!

Despite his success in the rotation, he was back in the pen by 1961 when he was named to his third of five total All Star appearances.

(That was also the year of his infamous one batter relief appearance to prevent Roger Maris from hitting homer #60. What were the Orioles supposed to do? LET HIM hit the homer?)


HE WAS A KNUCKLEBALLING RELIEVER!

I always wondered why there weren't more knuckleballing relievers. Doesn't it seem like a natural thing to do? Hitters rhythm would be screwed up, timing would be off and the reliever can come in back to back games.

Granted it would be ideal to bring them in at the top of the innings and not with a runner on third where a passed ball would tie things up.

But I think there should be more knuckleball relievers... and Wilhelm showed how to do it!


HE PITCHED FOREVER

OK, maybe not forever, but for a damn long time!

He broke in with the Giants just a year after the 1951 playoff miracle. His teammates included a young Willie Mays and veterans like Sal Maglie. By the time he finished in 1972, his Dodger teammates included Ron Cey, Davey Lopes and Bill Buckner.

That's quite a bridge.

Besides Willie Mays he was teammates with future Hall of Famers Monte Irvin. Red Schoendienst, Stan Musial, Bob Lemon, Early Wynn, Larry Doby, Brooks Robinson, Robin Roberts, Nellie Fox, Hank Aaron, Orlando Cepeda, Phil Niekro, Ernie Banks, Fergie Jenkins, Billy Williams, Don Sutton and Frank Robinson.

And he played for Hall of Fame managers Leo Durocher, Al Lopez and Walter Alston.

That's some company.

And speaking of the Hall of Fame...


HE OPENED THE HALL OF FAME FOR RELIEVERS

Before Fingers, Sutter, Goose and Eck made it into the Hall, Wilhelm paved the way.

It took 8 ballots, but he was elected to Cooperstown in 1985 along with Lou Brock and Veteran Committee inductees Enos Slaughter and Arky Vaughan.

I'm sure there was a lot of hemming and hawing and a lot of voters who would blather on about "we can't elect a specialist to the Hall of Fame." But eventually reason won out.

There will be other relievers elected but Wilhelm will be the first.

He put wonderful numbers over his 21 seasons in the bigs and thankfully was living when he was elected in.

Was the greatest reliever of all time?
I'm not sure.

But I do know he belongs in the conversation.

I am man enough to admit I watched that Susan Boyle clip and smiled, laughed and cried a little.

Nothing wrong with letting something move you.

Try watching Rocky, Hoosiers or Field of Dreams and look me in the eye and tell me ONE of them didn't move you to tears!

(Actually you won't be able to look me in the eye because I'll be crying.)

For the two people on the planet who haven't seen it, here's the clip.

Now for those of you sports fans who don't understand what the big deal is, let me put it into terms that might clear it up.

When you watch a sporting event, there is inevitably an out of this world scenario that pops into your head. "Wouldn't it be amazing" if this happens or that happens. It usually is a big upset, or an unknown getting the big hit.

And it would be amazing because most times it doesn't happen. Most times the better team wins. Most times the stars beat the obscure players.

But every once in a while a scenario unfolds that is so incredible, so amazing that people constantly describe it as "out of a movie" or "if they put it into a movie, nobody would believe it."

Think of the Kirk Gibson homer. When he was limping around at home... with 2 strikes on him... and Dennis Eckersley on the mound... you had one part of your brain imagine if suddenly he hit a homer. But you knew it wasn't going to happen.

With closers changing teams all the time, it was surprising for me to find out that only 5 pitchers have thrown the clinching pitch in a post season series for more than one franchise.

The 5 names are the kind of elite All Star closers you would expect to see...

Tug McGraw closed out the 1973 NLCS for the Mets and the 1980 World Series for the Phillies.

Goose Gossage clinched the 1978 ALCS and World Series and the 1981 Division Series and ALCS for the Yankees and the 1984 NLCS for the Padres.

Dennis Eckersley closed out series for the A's in 1988, 1989 and 1990 and finished the 1996 Division Series for the Cardinals.

Randy Myers finished the 1990 NLCS and World Series for the Reds and then the 1996 and 1997 Division Series as a member of the Orioles.

The last one to do it was Robb Nen who finished the 1997 Division Series for the Marlins and the 2002 Division Series for the Giants.

So this year, who can join this elite group?

The way Josh Beckett pitched last night, it was similar to his World Series clinching shut out for the Marlins in 2003... but it is unlikely anyone but Papelbon will be in a series ending situation.

Another Red Sox pitcher, Mike Timlin, closed out the 1992 World Series... but that was a fluke, as would be any big game appearance this year!

Jose Mesa. JOSE MESA? Yeah, he closed out a few series for Cleveland... not the World Series of course... and he might not be the guy you want on the mound for various reasons.

Which leads us to Joe Borowski.
He finished the 2003 Division Series for the Cubs... making him part of even a smaller fraternity: Guys who closed out post season series for the Cubs.

The other two were Hall of Famer Three Finger Brown (1907 World Series) and the strangely named Orval Overall (1908 World Series).

So if the Indians win this series and Borowski is on the mound to clinch it... forget his ERA above 5 and his many blown saves... he will be in select company for closers!

Keeping my inexplicable theme of talking about films from the early 2000's today, I move from the brilliant In the Bedroom to the rancid Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever.

Its title, besides being possibly the worst in movie history (rivaled only by V. I. Warshawski, Hideous Kinky and Cops and Robbersons) comes very close to referencing two Hall of Fame pitchers.

Those pitchers are of course Dennis Eckersley, aka Eck and Tom Seaver.

And because I am a strange man whose mind wanders to strange places sometimes, I wondered if Eck ever went up against Seaver.

It was a question that I did not know the answer to, especially when you consider that Seaver spent almost his entire career in the National League before interleague play while Eck's early career was all in the American League.

Well, as the brilliant Emmy winning comedy writer Dan Cronin once noted "because of the internet, there are no more idle thoughts."

So I looked up their respective career numbers and the window of a meeting was closer than even I thought. Eck's first 9 seasons in baseball were all in the AL, and Seaver was in the NL during that time. In Eck's 10th season he was traded in May from Boston to the Chicago Cubs... but Seaver was now in the American League pitching for the White Sox.

So there was less than a two month window for them to have played each other.
(They both pitching in the 1977 All Star Game in Yankee Stadium, but that was an exhibition and hardly ballistic.)

Thanks to baseball-reference.com, the reason why the internet was created, I have found that there was indeed one meeting... ECK VS. SEAVER!











The game took place at Fenway Park on May 4, 1984.

Only 17,550 were in attendance as the White Sox were doing a feeble defense of their Division Championship and the Red Sox had fallen hopelessly behind the eventual World Champion Tigers.

The game remained scoreless until the top of the third when Carlton Fisk, another future Hall of Famer, haunted the Red Sox with an RBI single scoring Jerry Dybzinski, the greatest player named Dybzinski in baseball history.

The White Sox took a 3-0 lead when Tony Armas homered in the 4th to cut the lead to 3-2.

Then Eck and Seaver bore down and let's just say it was Ballistic!
That was until manager Ralph Houk lifted Eck for Mark Clear. My dad used to call him Mark "Ball One" Clear because inevitably his first pitch would be ball one.

Well, he let up a double to Dybzinski, walked Rudy Law, allowed an RBI hit to Fisk and a sac fly to Harold Baines. Nice work Clear!

Seaver would cruise until the 9th when Reid Nichols hit a pinch hit double and Seaver was lifted for Al Jones, who recorded the save.

The White Sox won 5-3...

Future Hall of Famer Wade Boggs also played, going 1-3 with 2 walks.
Jim Rice, who should be in the Hall of Fame, was hitless in 5 at bats.
And future Red Sox broadcaster Jerry Remy went 2-5 with 2 stolen bases.


Seaver defeated Eck...
Like Ecks vs. Sever, there was no rematch.