Baseball Legend Cy Young Was Master Mason

As the 2012 Major League baseball season pushes into its second half, at least one historic, statistical record shows no chance of being broken. That record is held by Hall of Fame baseball player – and Mason – the late Cy Young.

In his astounding baseball career of more than 20 years, Cy Young won 511 games as a pitcher.

On the Hall of Fame list of pitchers, no one else has even won 400 games.  Walter Johnson has 417; Grover Alexander and Christy Mathewson, 373 each; and Warren Spahn, 363. In the modern era, winning 300 games is a sought-after accomplishment.

No wonder, one of the most prestigious awards given out each year is the Cy Young Award, to the best pitcher each in the American and National Leagues.
Denton True Young was born March 29, 1867 in Gilmore, Ohio.  He earned the nickname, Cyclone – later shortened to "Cy" – because of his fast ball pitching.  He won more than 30 games a season 5 times, and recorded 20 or more victories 15 times.

It was during the peak of his baseball career – 1904 – that he became a Mason.  It was, of course, in the winter before he had to report for spring training.

Brother Young, according to records at the Grand Lodge of Ohio, received his Entered Apprentice Degree on February 1, 1904; his Fellowcraft Degree on February 15, 1904; and his Master Mason Degree on February 29, 1904, all in Mystic Tie Lodge, #194, in Dennison, Ohio.6

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Old timers over the years say they remember Cy Young, long after he retired from baseball.  He would occasionally attend Lodge meetings and Masonic funeral services.
Cy Young's baseball career included two stops in Cleveland.  One, from 1890 to 1898, was when Cleveland was in the National League; the other, from 1909 to 1911, with the current American League franchise.  Over his career, he also pitched for teams in Boston and St. Louis.

Brother Young died on November 4, 1955, at the age of 88, in Newcomerstown, Ohio.

The memory of Cy Young is still vivid today.

In a 2011 issue of MLB Insiders Club Magazine, noted baseball historian Bill Francis was asked who he would select, if he could invite three baseball-related guests – living or dead – to dinner.  He responded that he would invite Jackie Robinson, who broke Major League baseball's color barrier, and Albert Spalding, who was a 19th Century baseball player and founded one of America's prominent sporting goods businesses.

The third choice by historian Francis for a dinner guest was Cy Young.  Here's why:

". . .because he had such a long career.  He lived from 1867 to 1955, so he was born two years after the Civil War. Even though he retired to his farm (in Ohio), this is a guy who was always trotted out to every baseball winter banquet.  Young . . . was there for everything. So if you want to see how baseball changed from becoming a farm boy sport to an international, televised, air travel sport, it's all there with Cy Young."

(Original version in Grand Lodge of Ohio Beacon, Summer, 2011)