Denton True "Cy" Young (March 29, 1867 – November 4, 1955) was an American baseball player who pitched for five different major league teams from 1890 to 1911. Young was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937. One year after Young's death, the Cy Young Award was created to honor the previous season's best pitcher.

During his 22-year career, Young established numerous professional pitching records in the majors, some of which have stood for a century. Young retired with 511 career wins, 94 wins ahead of Walter Johnson, who is second on the list of most wins in Major League history.

Gregory Alan "Greg" Maddux (born April 14, 1966) is a former Major League Baseball pitcher. He was the first pitcher in major league history to win the Cy Young Award for four consecutive years (1992-1995), a feat matched only by Randy Johnson (1999-2002). During those four consecutive seasons, Maddux had a 75-29 record with a 1.98 ERA, while allowing less than one runner per inning.

Maddux is the only pitcher in MLB history to win at least 15 games for 17 straight seasons. In addition, he holds the record for most Gold Gloves With eighteen. A superb control pitcher, Maddux won more games during the 1990s than any other pitcher, and is 8th on the all-time career wins list, with 355. Since the start of the post-1920 live-ball era, only Warren Spahn (363) recorded more career wins than Maddux. He is one of only 10 pitchers ever to achieve both 300 wins and 3000 strikeouts.

William Roger Clemens, nicknamed "Rocket" (born August 4, 1962) is a right-handed Major League Baseball pitcher who is currently inactive. Clemens has won the most Cy Young Awards with 7. He played for 13 consecutive seasons for the Boston Red Sox, more than half of his career. In 1997, he signed with the Toronto Blue Jays. In each of his two seasons with the Blue Jays Clemens won the pitching triple crown (leading the league in wins, ERA, and strikeouts) and a Cy Young Award.

Clemens was traded to the New York Yankees for the 1999 season, where he had his first World Series success. In 2003, he reached his 300th win and 4,000th strikeout in the same game. Clemens is one of only four pitchers to have more than 4,000 strikeouts in their career (the others are pitchers Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson, and Steve Carlton). Clemens played three seasons with the Houston Astros, where he won his seventh Cy Young Award. He rejoined the New York Yankees during the 2007 season.

Walter Perry Johnson (November 6, 1887–December 10, 1946), nicknamed "The Big Train," was a right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball between 1907 and 1927. One of the most celebrated players in baseball history, Johnson established several pitching records, some of which remained unbroken for nearly a century.
In a 21-year career, Johnson had twelve 20-win seasons, including ten in a row. Twice, he topped thirty wins (33 in 1912 and 36 in 1913). Johnson's record includes 110 shutouts, the most in baseball history. Johnson had a 38-26 record in games decided by a 1-0 score; both his win total and his losses in these games are major league records. On September 4, 5 and 7, 1908, he shut out the New York Highlanders in three consecutive games.

Steven Norman Carlton (born December 22, 1944) is a former left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball, from 1965 to 1988. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1994. He was affectionately known to Philadelphia fans as "Lefty". He played the most number of years for the Philadelphia Phillies, receiving his greatest acclaim as a professional and winning four Cy Young Awards. In addition, Carlton spent time with the St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago White Sox, San Francisco Giants, Cleveland Indians and Minnesota Twins.

Carlton has the second-most lifetime strikeouts of any left-handed pitcher (4th overall), and the second-most lifetime wins of any left-handed pitcher (11th overall). He was the first pitcher to win four Cy Young Awards in a career. He held the lifetime strikeout record several times between 1982 and 1984, before his contemporary Nolan Ryan passed him. One of his most remarkable records was accounting for nearly half (46%) of his team's wins, when he won 27 games for the last-place (59-97) 1972 Phillies. He is still the last National League pitcher to win 25 or more games in one season, as well as the last pitcher from any team to throw more than 300 innings in a season. He also holds the record with the most career balks of any pitcher, with 90 (double the second on the all time list, Bob Welch).

Lynn Nolan Ryan, Jr. (born January 31, 1947) is a retired Major League Baseball pitcher.

Ryan played in a major league record 27 seasons for the New York Mets, California Angels, Houston Astros, and Texas Rangers, from 1966 to 1993. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999.
Nolan Ryan's signature

Ryan, a hard-throwing right-handed pitcher, threw pitches that were regularly recorded above 100 mph, even past the age of 40. The media tagged him, or more specifically his pitching, as "The Ryan Express".

While his lifetime winning percentage was a relatively pedestrian .526, Ryan was an eight-time MLB All-Star, and his 5,714 career strikeouts rank first in baseball history. He leads the runner-up, Randy Johnson, by 839 strikeouts. Similarly, Ryan's 2,795 bases on balls lead second-place Steve Carlton by 962—walking over 50% more hitters than any other pitcher in Major League history.

Ryan is the all-time leader in no-hitters with seven, three more than any other pitcher. He is tied with Bob Feller for most one-hitters, with 12. Ryan also pitched 18 two-hitters. Despite the seven no-hitters he has not thrown any of baseball's perfect games.

Donald Howard Sutton (born April 2, 1945) is a former Major League Baseball player and television sportscaster. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998.
A right-handed pitcher, Sutton played for the Sioux Falls Packers as a minor leaguer, and entered the major league at the age of 21. Don Sutton's major league debut was on April 14, 1966, the same day that future 300-game winner Greg Maddux was born. In the majors, he played 23 years for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Houston Astros, Milwaukee Brewers, Oakland Athletics, and California Angels. He won a total of 324 games, 58 of them shutouts and five of them one-hitters, and he is seventh on baseball's all-time strikeout list with 3,574 K's. He also holds the major league record for number of consecutive losses to one team, having lost 13 straight games to the Chicago Cubs.

Sutton was a 4-time All-Star. He also holds the dubious distinction of being the player with the most at-bats without a home run (1,354). When asked how close he ever came to hitting a home run, Don deadpanned "A triple."

Philip Henry Niekro (born April 1, 1939) is a former pitcher in Major League Baseball. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1997.

A native of Blaine, Ohio, Niekro attended Bridgeport High School in Bridgeport, Ohio, and was a boyhood friend of NBA player John Havlicek. Phil and his younger brother, fellow major league pitcher Joe Niekro, learned to throw a knuckleball from their father Joe Niekro, Sr. in their backyard as kids.

With 318 career victories, Niekro is the winningest knuckleball pitcher of all time, and currently ranks 16th on the all-time wins list. He also won the National League Gold Glove Award five times. Phil and Joe Niekro are the winningest brother combination in baseball history, with 539 wins combined. Phil Niekro's 121 career victories after the age of 40 is a major league record, and his longevity is attributed to the knuckleball, which, while a difficult pitch for pitchers to master, is easy on the arm and difficult for batters to hit. His usage and skill level with the knuckleball earned him the nickname of "Knucksie" later in his career. He is also the uncle of former first baseman and current pitcher for the Atlanta Braves Lance Niekro. The baseball field in Phil's hometown of Bridgeport, Ohio has been named Niekro Diamond in honor of Phil and Joe Niekro.

Gaylord Jackson Perry (born September 15, 1938 in Williamston, North Carolina) is a former right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball. Elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991, Perry won 314 games over a 22-year career starting in 1962.

Perry, a five-time All-Star, was the first pitcher to win the Cy Young Award in each league, winning it in the American League in 1972 with the Cleveland Indians and in the National League in 1978 with the San Diego Padres. He is also distinguished, along with his brother Jim, for being the second-winningest brother combination in baseball history—second only to the knuckleballing Niekro brothers, Phil and Joe. While pitching for the Seattle Mariners in 1982, Perry became the fifteenth member of the 300 win club.

George Thomas "Tom" Seaver (born November 17, 1944) is a former right-handed Major League Baseball pitcher who broke into the major leagues in 1967 and retired in 1987. He played for four different teams in his career, but is remembered primarily for his time with the New York Mets. Nicknamed "Tom Terrific" and "The Franchise", Seaver had 311 wins, 3,640 strikeouts and a 2.86 earned run average during a 20-year career. In 1992, he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame by the highest percentage ever (98.8%), and currently has the only plaque at Cooperstown wearing a New York Mets hat.

He won the National League Rookie of the Year Award in 1967, and three NL Cy Young Awards as the league's best pitcher. As the Mets' all-time leader in wins, Seaver is considered the greatest player in New York Mets history, as well as one of the best starting pitchers in the history of baseball.

Thomas Michael Glavine (born March 25, 1966) is a former left-handed starting pitcher in Major League Baseball.

With 164 victories during the 1990s, Glavine was the second winningest pitcher in the National League, second only to teammate Greg Maddux. He is a five-time 20-game winner and two-time Cy Young Award winner, and one of only 24 pitchers (and just 6 left-handers) in major league history to earn 300 career wins.

Randall David Johnson (born September 10, 1963), nicknamed "The Big Unit", is a former left-handed Major League Baseball starting pitcher. Over a 22-year career, Johnson played for six different teams.

The 6-foot-10-inch (2.08 m) Johnson was celebrated for having one of the most dominant fastballs in the game. He regularly approached, and occasionally exceeded, 100 miles per hour during his prime. He also threw a hard, biting slider. Johnson won the Cy Young Award five times, second only to Roger Clemens' seven.

Johnson finished his career first in strikeouts per nine innings pitched among starting pitchers (10.67), second all-time in total strikeouts (4,875; first among left-handed pitchers), third in hit batsmen (188), tenth in hits allowed per nine innings pitched (7.24), 22nd in wins (303), and 57th in shutouts (37). He pitched two no-hitters, the second of which was also one of the perfect games in Major League Baseball history.