Tuesday, November 16, 1999 - The Michigan Daily - 17 Big Unit has Cy Young in NL, too Johnson: Forget wins and losses, forget ERA, this was a career year NEW YORK (AP) - Randy Johnson got a lot more support from Cy Young voters than he did from the Arizona Diamondbacks. Looking past a won-lost record that wasn't nearly as good as Mike Hampton's, baseball writers made the Big Unit only the second pitcher to win a Cy Young Award in each league, giving his a large victo- ry yesterday in voting for the National League prize. "I'd like to think this award isn't solely based on wins and losses," said Johnson, 17-9 with a 2.48 ERA. "There was a lot more to the season I had than wins and losses. Quite honestly, I feel still this was the best year I had in my career." He received 20 first-place votes, 11 seconds and one third for 134 points in balloting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. Hampton, who went 22-4 for Houston and led the NL in wins, was second with I1 first-place votes, 17 seconds and four thirds for 110 points. Atlanta's Kevin Millwood was third with one first, four sec- onds and 18 thirds for 36 points. "I don't think the voters could have gone wrong picking either of the three," Johnson said. Looking past his record, Johnson was dominating. The 6-foot-10 left-hander led the major leagues with 12 complete games and 364 strikeouts in 271 2- 3 innings. He was 19 short of the strikeout record set by Nolan Ryan in 1973, winding up with the fourth- highest single-season total, and struck out 10 or more 23 times, matching the record Ryan set with the California Angels in 1973. "The one thing that was the least in his control was the wins and losses," Diamondbacks manager Buck Showalter said. "Scoring runs and catching the base- ball, t's the thing he couldn't control, Thank goodness people realized that." Arizona scored just 11 runs in his nine losses. and he left four games with leads the bullpen failed to hold. From June 25-July 10, Johnson had a stretch of four starts in which his team was shut out. He allowed just six runs during that stretch, but Arizona got only six hits - the Diamondbacks were no-hit by the Cardinals' Jose Jimenez, one-hit by Cincinnati, two- hit by St. Louis and three-hit by Oakland. "I didn't dwell on it," Johnson said. "I never com- plained about anything because I realized it was part of the game and sometimes whatever goes around comes around." Johnson had a 1.41 ERA in those games, but his record dropped from 9-3 to 9-7. "Sometimes I've pitched extremely well and the opposing pitcher has pitched that much better," Johnson said. "I have respectable numbers outside the won-loss record. Unfortunately, people look at the won-lost record and evaluate the year or your career on that, and it's not really fair sometimes." Johnson, 36, joined Gaylord Perry as the only pitchers to win Cy Youngs in each league. The Big Unit won the AL Cy Young with Seattle in 1995; Perry won with Cleveland in 1972 and with San Diego in 1978. "To win this award in both leagues is quite an accomplishment," Johnson said. "I'm going out on a limb but I'm assuming Pedro Martinez will win tomorrow. It will be myself and Pedro and Gaylord Perry. That's great company. Martinez, who won it for Montreal in 1997, went 23-4 with a 2.07 ERA for the Boston Red Sox this year. Johnson, who earned a $250,000 bonus for win- ning the award, became only the second pitcher since 1991 to break the hold by Atlanta's Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz. AP PHOTO This imposing sight is one of the main reasons Randy Johnson became the second pitcher ever to win the Cy Young in both leagues. Hokies second in lastest BCS Michigan 10th, behind Big Ten champ Wisconsin which is seventh Virginia Tech is No. 2 and could- n't be happier - at least for now. The Hokies moved into second place .in the Bowl Championship Series standings on Monday, behind Prida State and ahead of up-and- Sning Nebraska. A week ago, Tennessee pulled in front of Virginia Tech and into sec- ond place even though the Hokies were undefeated and the Volunteers had a loss. Hokie fans were hopping mad about it, too. But Arkansas knocked off the Vols 28-24 on Saturday, and Virginia Tech (9-0) is second behind rida State (10-0) in the weekly standings. The final BCS standings, on Dec. 5, will determine which teams play in college football's designated national title game - the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 4. The standings are based on a for- mula that considers The Associated Press media poll and the USA Today/ESPN coaches' poll, eight f puter rankings, sngth-of-sched- and losses. Florida State and Virginia Tech are 1-2 in both polls. Nebraska (9-I) jumped from sixth to third place with its 41-15 win over Kansas State and trails the Hokies by 2.4 points. Florida State leads Virginia Tech by 3.66 points. Florida (9-1) is in fourth place, .59 points behind Nebraska, fol- lowed by Tennessee, Alabama, Wisconsin, Kansas State, Texas and Michigan. Florida State, which plays at Florida on Saturday in what becomes a title-elimination game, had the same total as last week, 2.64 points - I for poll average, I for computer rank average, 0.64 for strength-of-schedule, and zero for losses. The Seminoles beat Maryland 49-10 on Saturday. Virginia Tech, a 43-10 winner over Miami, had 6.30 points - 2 for poll average, 2.14 for computer rank average, 2.16 for strength-of-sched- ule and zero for losses. Nebraska had 8.70 points - 4 for poll average, 2.86 for computer rank average, 0.84 for strength-of-sched- ule and I for losses. Virginia Tech could be hurt by a weak schedule. The Hokies play the 54th toughest schedule of the 114 1- A teams, while the Seminoles' schedule is rated 16th, the Huskers' 21st and the Gators' 25th. If Florida State beats Florida, the Seminoles will play in the title game a second year in a row. But if Virginia Tech beats Temple on Saturday and Boston College on Nov. 26, there's a chance the Gators or Huskers - or both - could still slip past the Hokies in the stand- ings. A Florida win on Saturday, plus a win in the SEC title game might be enough to boost the Gators ahead of Tech; a Nebraska victory over Colorado and in the Big 12 title game against No. 6 Texas - the only team to defeat the Huskers - could move the Big Red ahead. The Seminoles are first in seven computer ratings; Nebraska is first in the other - the Dunkel Index. Virginia Tech is second on six com- puters; third on one; and fifth on the other - the Seattle Times. The BCS considers only the top seven com- puter ratings. PHOTOG/Daily The Seminoles are No. I in the BCS because they have been crushing opponents the way they're crushing Maryland's Tony Jackson here in-their 49-10 victory over the Terrapins last Saturday. 1 F * 'a. - K 'A -~ K. to . ,,. r a..