Steve Carlton of the Philadelphia Phillies becomes the first pitcher to win four Cy Young Awards

On October 26, 1982  – Steve Carlton of the Philadelphia Phillies becomes the first pitcher to win four Cy Young Awards, taking National League honors. The 37-year-old lefthander, who led the National League in wins (23), innings pitched (295.2), strikeouts (286) and shutouts (6), was a previous winner in 1972, 1977 and 1980. ‘Lefty’, given up by the Cardinals for Rick Wise, in one of the worst trades in baseball history in 1972.

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There are dozens of lefthanded pitchers In the big leagues, men named Valenzuela, Guidry, Reuss, Caldwell, Candelaria, Burns, Gura, and Blue, to name a few. But only one lefthanded pitcher stands so high above the crowd that his peers call him Lefty. Steve Carlton is that good, and Tuesday, he won his fourth Cy Young Award, the only man ever to do so. There are several big-league starters in his approximate age group, guys in their late 30s or early 40s who are still winning ball games. There’s Phil Niekro, who throws a knuckleball; Gaylord Perry, who throws a spitball; Tommy John and Don Sutton, who throw balls with mysterious scuff marks on them. And then there’s Lefty. No tricks. No gimmicks. He’ll be 38 in less than two months, and he’s still what he’s always been a power pitcher. He worked 295 innings for Philadelphia this season, struck out 286 batters, and won 23 games in a year when nobody else won 20. Carlton received 112 points in balloting by a special 24-member panel chosen by the Baseball Writers Association of America. Runnerup was Montreal Expos right-hander Steve Rogers, who received 29 points, followed by Fernando Valenzuela of Los Angeles, 25; Bruce Sutter of St. Louis, 25; Phil Niekro of Atlanta, 18; Greg Minton of San Francisco, 4; Joaquin Andujar of St. Louis and Gene Garber of Atlanta, 1 each, and ‘ Mario Soto of Cincinnati, a half. Only three other pitchers, Jim Palmer (1973-75-76), Tom Seaver (1969-73-75), and Sandy Koufax (1963-65-66) have won the award three times. Carlton won his other Cy Youngs in 1972, 1977, and 1980. Somewhere up there, the late John Quinn must be smiling. It was spring training of ’72, and John Quinn was fighting back the anger and the frustration. He was the Phillies’ general manager at the time, and he had just pulled off what he considered a brilliant deal with the Cardinal’s Steve Carlton for the Phillies’ Rick Wise and people were knocking him for it. Wise had been a 17-game winner for a bad Phillies team in ’71, a bonafide Philadelphia hero. One memorable night in Cincinnati, he had pitched a no-hitter against the Reds and hit two home runs. And then John Quinn traded him. And there was Quinn, smarting from the criticism, sitting on the porch in the back of the old Jack Tar Hotel in Clearwater, Fla., trying to defend the trade. “I think Carlton is the top pitcher in the National League,” he said in a voice vibrating with anger. “This guy, in my opinion, is in the category of Warren Spahn.” He went on like that for a while, his anger rising and falling, then rising again to new heights. “It’s elementary, elementary,” he said. “You have to trade a Rick Wise for a Steve Carlton. This guy’s going to win 20 regardless of where he pitches. He was 20-9, not 17-14. I don’t know how anyone can fault us. I just can’t understand.” And then his eyes lit up, and Quinn, a staunch Republican, shouted: “It’s like you had Lyndon Johnson and somebody else had Eisenhower, and you had a chance to make a trade. What would you do?” There are those who might question John Quinn’s political judgment, but his baseball judgment has been vindicated four times over. Rick Wise would go on to be a good big-league pitcher for a long time, just as his Philadelphia boosters predicted. But Steve Carlton would go on to be a great big-league pitcher for a longer time.