Three Of The Last Four Cy Young Winners Are From North Texas. The Fourth is Named Dallas.
Josh Hamilton once said that Dallas isn't a baseball town. But, if that's true, why do we keep producing superstars, Josh? Huh? Tell us that, OK?
Check it out: Three out of the last four Cy Young award winners are all from North Texas. And the fourth, well, his name is Dallas, so we'll go ahead and take that. too.
Yesterday, it was announced that this year's National League Cy Young Award winner is Jake Arrieta, who hails from Plano East Senior High School. The Chicago Cub had a breakout year during the 2015 season: He earned a no-hitter in August and went on a spectacular stretch in the last half of the season by posting a 12-1 record with an 0.75 ERA to boot. Those are video game numbers. His full season totals were 22-6 with a 1.77 ERA.
Meanwhile, the Houston Astros' Los Angeles Dodger Clayton Kershaw and Cleveland Indian Corey Kluber, are from Dallas and Coppell respectively.
Yes, Dallas is a baseball town.
More proof? A couple of Your Texas Rangers have even taken home some postseason hardware this year, too. Rangers manager Jeff Bannister was named the American League's Manager of the Year. Bannister, in his first year on the bench in Arlington, led the team to an AL West title after an abysmal start to the year. The team went 42-46 before the All-Star break and finished the season going 46-28. Bannister is just the fifth manager in Major League history to win the award in his first season at the helm.
Additionally, first baseman and designated hitter Prince Fielder won the AL Comeback Player of the Year Award. Thanks to a neck injury, Prince fielder only played 42 games during the 2014 season, which ended his at-the-time streak of 547 consecutive games started. This year, a healthy Fielder batted .305 with 23 home runs and 98 RBI.
Tonight, when the MVP awards are announced, that will mark the official end of this season — and then we'll get to have a lot of great post-season discussions. There will also be a lot of not-great post-season discussions, like urging the Rangers to move to Downtown Dallas. Now, that's the true bridge to nowhere…