“Elevating everyone’s game”

In a not-so-shocking announcement 51 years ago today, the Phillies’ Steve Carlton is named the unanimous choice as the National League’s Cy Young Award winner.

Carlton earns the award by going 27-10 with a 1.97 earned-run average for a last-place Philadelphia team that manages to win only 59 games for the season.

The 1972 Phillies also go 2-2 in games where Carlton does not receive a decision, meaning they are 30-85 in games he does not pitch.

Larry Bowa backing up Steve Carlton

As for those 27 victories, no pitcher has done better since Carlton’s 1972 season.

Often overlooked in his remarkable 27-win season in 1972 is Carlton’s record on Memorial Day is a pedestrian 5-6. From there, Carlton picks up 22 wins in his final 26 decisions.

“He had a way of elevating everyone’s game, even the year we were horrendous,” former Phillies shortstop Larry Bowa later tells the Philadelphia Inquirer of Carlton’s career in general and 1972 season in particular.

“He was never indecisive on the mound,” Bowa says. “Before the game, he’d go over the hitters and say, ‘This is how I’m going to pitch and this is where I want you to play him. He had a game plan of how to pitch to each hitter and he stuck to it. And he wanted you in a certain spot, and if they didn’t hit it there, it was his responsibility. That’s how he wanted it.”