Fairy tales can come true, it can happen to you, if you’re young at heart. Here is the best part, you have a head start, if you are among the very young at heart. -Frank Sinatra
Public Service Announcement: Ok, here we go! Baseball is quickly becoming a young man’s game. Blame it on the PED crackdown. Blame it on the rain. Blame it on the stars. Whatever you do, don’t put the blame on Zach Greinke and Tim Lincecum. Baseball is becoming more athletic, moving away from slow-pitch softball and moving toward hi-octane speed. Speed kills! Blood makes the grass grow! Hoorah! Zach Greinke kills. Tim Lincecum makes the grass grow. Hoorah!
The two Cy Young Award winners this season, Tim Lincecum and Zach Greinke, were each 25 at the end of the season. Big deal you say? Who cares you say? I say there’s been only two other seasons since the Cy was first awarded in each league in 1967 in which two winners were younger than 26 at season’s end. I say it happened in 1985 with Doc Gooden, 20 and Bret Saberhagen, 21. I say it also happened in 1969 when 25-year old Denny McLain shared the American League Award with Mike Cuellar, 32, while 24-year old Tom Seaver took home the NL hardware. I say what Harold MacMillan said. I say the wind of change is blowing through the continent.
I’m finding it very difficult to remember a time when so many star players in their mid-30s were looking so very old all of a sudden. Guys like my hero of all heroes, David Ortiz. Guys like Derrek Lee. Guys like Edgar Renteria. Like Magglio Ordonez, Jason Giambi and Brian Giles. Guys like that there. Guys a little HGH sure coulda helped. With not only steroid testing, but also amphetamine testing in place, clubs no longer can count on players extending their prime years through their mid- and late-30. Clubs have to go young. Cy Young.
Cy Young: All us Youngs could throw. I used to kill squirrels with a stone when I was a kid, and my granddad once killed a turkey buzzard on the fly with a rock.”
Public Spectacle:
Peace out homies. Six two and Even!
Need More? Kansas City Royals, MLB, San Francisco Giants, Tim Lincecum, Zack Geinke
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