Price, Dickey win Cy Young
In the moments before hearing the announcement, the nominees for the Cy Young award anxiously awaited the results. That nervousness was one of only a few similarities between the two winners, however, as David Price of the Tampa Bay Rays and R.A. Dickey of the New York Mets took home the pitching honors.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Price and Dickey were born just 34 miles away from each other in central Tennessee. From there it is harder to find common ground as Price won the award in a nail-biter race with one more vote than Jason Verlander and Dickey won in a landslide.
An even bigger difference between the two pitchers is their style. Price, who was a top draft pick, is a southpaw with high heat, throwing near 98 mph. Dickey, however, is the first knuckleball pitcher to win a Cy Young.
“Isn’t that awesome?” Dickey said. “It just shows you there’s not just one way to do it, and it gives hope to a lot of people.”
Price, who was a runner-up two years ago, received 14 of 28 first-place votes and finished with 153 points. Verlander, who received 13 first-place votes, came in second with 149 points. It was the closest American League battle since 1969 when Mike Cuellar and Denny McLain tied. Price finished the season 20-5 with a 2.56 ERA in 211 innings pitched.
“It means a lot,” Price said. “It’s something that I’ll always have. It’s something that they can’t take away from me.”
In the National League, what was expected to be a close race turned into a overwhelming victory for Dickey, who earned 27 of 32 first-place votes. Dickey had 209 total points, which gave him 113 more than the 2011 winner Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Dickey led the NL in strikeouts, innings, complete games and shutouts during the 2012 season. Throughout most of the season, Dickey also suffered an abdominal injury that did not reach the public eye until the season ended. Dickey finished the year 20-6 with a 2.73 ERA in 233.2 innings pitched.
“It brings a real degree of legitimacy I think to the knuckleball fraternity and I’m glad to represent them, and I’m certainly grateful to all those guys,” Dickey said. ‘This was a victory for all of us.”
