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Giants' Lincecum wins Cy Young Award

Henry Schulman, Chronicle Staff Writer

(11-11) 21:53 PST San Francisco -- Tim Lincecum might have more nicknames than any 24-year-old in major-league history. He is the Freak, the Franchise and even his favorite, Seabiscuit. Now, he has a more regal identity that will cling to his given name as long as he lives.

Henceforth, he will be Tim Lincecum, 2008 National League Cy Young Award winner.

The Giants' brightest light, who only 29 months ago was throwing for the University of Washington, was lounging on his sofa Tuesday morning, watching NFL highlights on TV, when he got the call saying he had become the second San Francisco Giant, and first in 41 years, to win the sport's highest pitching honor.

Mike McCormick, who won in 1967, later offered his congratulations to Lincecum.

Lincecum said he was stunned to learn he had won, not only because he figured Brandon Webb, Johan Santana or CC Sabathia would win, but also by his landslide victory. Lincecum received 23 of 32 first-place votes from members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America. Webb and Santana, who finished second and third, respectively, each had four first-place votes. Sabathia got the final one and finished fifth, behind Phillies closer Brad Lidge.

Lincecum appeared on every ballot except the one cast by Chris De Luca of the Chicago Sun-Times.

The first word out of Lincecum's mouth when he learned he won was, "Really?"

"I was more shocked than anything," he said. "With the competition, I was just hoping to be in the mix. I was thinking Webb or Santana or even CC had it. As far as that goes, my reaction was, 'Woo hoo!' I literally yelled a couple of times after I got off the phone."

General manager Brian Sabean, who in 2006 took a chance on the pencil-thin pitcher with a whip-like delivery and selected him with the Giants' first pick of the 2006 amateur draft, also seemed taken aback by how easily Lincecum won an award that eluded such stellar Giants as Juan Marichal and Jason Schmidt.

"In Obama-like fashion, it wasn't close," Sabean said. "I wonder what we were worrying about here on the West Coast."

Then, turning to Lincecum at a ballpark news conference, Sabean said, "You certainly were the focus of everything that was good about the Giants this year. The organization has a lot to be proud of because of your individual accolade. ... Your age of innocence is over. A lot is going to be expected of you now."

Lincecum can begin attacking those expectations April 7, when the Giants open the 2009 season at home against Milwaukee. Manager Bruce Bochy left no doubt who will get the ball.

"It's something he earned already," Bochy said. "I'd say, you win the Cy Young, there's a good chance you're the starting pitcher next Opening Day."

Tuesday, however, was not about looking forward, but reflecting upon one of the greatest single-year performances by anyone who has worn a Giants uniform, resulting in a Cy Young win in Lincecum's first full season - a rarity accomplished by a small group of pitchers that included Dwight Gooden, Bret Saberhagen and Fernando Valenzuela.

The writers looked past wins - Webb had 22, Lincecum 18 - and rewarded the Giant for dominating in so many categories, including strikeouts. Lincecum led the majors with 265. Writers surely noted as well that the 72-90 Giants went 22-12 when Lincecum pitched and 50-78 when he did not. Bochy called Lincecum's performance a "silver lining in our season."

Lincecum called his win "a tremendous honor. All those people I was going up against were great pitchers. They've all been Cy Young winners before. Just to be in that elite group, going against past ones, hopefully you can slip by - and that's what happened. You've just got to give yourself a pat on the back. At last that's what I've done."

One of the first people Lincecum called was closer Brian Wilson, who was sitting in a dentist's chair.

"I was screaming when he told me," Wilson said in an e-mail. "I'm not sure if that was a reaction to the drill cutting into my gums because of my overaggressive fist pumping I was displaying on the chair. Like I said before, I knew it was his when he took the mound every start."

"That's great, man. Wow," catcher Bengie Molina said when told of Lincecum's win. "He pitched so great. I'm so happy for him. I'm hoping he enjoys it. I know it's an individual award, but looking back and seeing the year we had as team, for him to come out with Cy Young is amazing. It's unbelievable."

Pitching coach Dave Righetti said the news "sent a chill through me a little bit." Righetti feared for Lincecum's chances after spending a week in New York and hearing nothing but Santana, Santana and more Santana from writers.

"They didn't even mention Timmy," Righetti said. "I didn't bother arguing with them. I said, 'You guys are nuts if you didn't watch these games and what he did the whole year.' I guess a lot of writers did, obviously. They voted him the winner."

More than that, they gave Lincecum a moniker that does not sound as Freaky or Franchise-y or Seabiscuit-y as some of the others.

"As far as living up to that name, Cy Young, it's something I've talked to Mike McCormick about," Lincecum said. "He said forever I'll be known as a Cy Young winner no matter how bad I (do). I guess if I get 20 years down the road and look back on it, I can't say that's a bad thing."
More Lincecum

-- Tuesday was the biggest day of the year for the Giants. A1

-- A Chicago writer was the only voter to leave Tim Lincecum off his ballot. D5

How they voted

Voting for the Cy Young Award by the Baseball Writers' Association of America with five points for a first-place vote, three for second, one for third.