A's Zito wins AL Cy Young

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA - In jeans, loafers, a stone necklace and a concert T-shirt with the sleeves cut off, Barry Zito received his first Cy Young Award in the same way he pitches: with his own unique, inimitable style. <br> <br> By beating Boston teammates Pedro Martinez and Derek Lowe in the American League voting announced Thursday, Zito became the youngest pitcher to win the award since Roger Clemens, who also was 24 when he won the first of his six Cy Young Awards in 1986. <br> <br> While reflecting in the glow of his spectacular season, the Oakland Athletics&#39; left-hander with the dangerous curveball thought about his fairly strange route to such heights at such a young age. From his unorthodox training methods as a kid to his affinities for surfing, guitars and stuffed animals, it&#39;s clear there&#39;s no other pitcher quite like Zito. <br> <br> And in the American League in 2002, there wasn&#39;t a pitcher better than him, either. <br> <br> ``I&#39;ve heard it a lot: &#39;What are you doing? I&#39;ve never seen anyone do that before, Zito,&#39;&#39;&#39; he said in an impromptu conversation with the voices in his head. ``It&#39;s like the story of my life.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Zito, 23-5 with a 2.75 ERA as Oakland won 103 games and the AL West, received 17 first-place votes, nine seconds and two thirds for 114 points from a panel of the Baseball Writers&#39; Association of America. <br> <br> Martinez, a three-time winner, got 11 firsts, 12 seconds and five thirds for 96 points after going 20-4 with a 2.26 ERA. Lowe, 21-8 with a 2.58 ERA, was third with 41 points. <br> <br> ``It&#39;s great to win it and be mentioned in the same sentence with all those great players, but it was also nice to take a deep breath and focus on next year,&#39;&#39; Zito said. ``I want to see myself as a guy that can possibly do this every year, or at least be in contention.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> All season long as the A&#39;s steamrolled toward the playoffs on the backs of their three superb starters - Zito, Mark Mulder and Tim Hudson - Zito deflected any questions about the award. After all, Hudson and Mulder both had recent brushes with Cy Young, only to finish second in a chronological line of disappointment. <br> <br> Hudson, a 1997 draft pick, had his first 20-win season in 2000, but he finished second to Martinez. Mulder, a top pick in 1998, won 21 games in 2001, but finished second to Clemens. <br> <br> ``They started on me in spring training: &#39;Zito, it&#39;s your turn to get second place this year,&#39;&#39;&#39; said Zito, a 1999 draft pick who just finished his first 20-win season. <br> <br> Zito was strong throughout the summer, emerging as Oakland&#39;s stopper by going 13-1 in games after an A&#39;s loss. He made his first All-Star team and finished with the highest winning percentage in franchise history - not by changing or adding anything to his repertoire, but simply by sharpening his mental game to accompany his physical gifts. <br> <br> ``In the last couple of months of 2001, I realized some things about myself mentally,&#39;&#39; Zito said. ``I figured it out, so to speak ... and I carried that over into this season.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> He has more than his share of eccentricities, but Zito only seems wacky. He works as hard as anyone, and his looping curveball is the product of years of work that began when he pitched entire simulated games to his father in the backyard before his Little League appearances. <br> <br> But Zito also appreciates the world beyond baseball. He spends his winters mostly in Los Angeles, where he plays guitar in his sister&#39;s band and monkeys around in his recording studio. He&#39;s also taking acting classes - and the true California boy loves surfing. <br> <br> ``Fastball, curveball and changeup, you can only create so much and give your personal expression,&#39;&#39; he said. <br> <br> After the A&#39;s season abruptly ended with a division series loss to Minnesota in which Zito made just one mediocre start, he wasn&#39;t much interested in baseball. He stayed in his San Francisco home, and he didn&#39;t watch the World Series on TV. <br> <br> But on Wednesday night, Zito began to contemplate the award when he crashed at a friend&#39;s house. He called his agent and checked the television Thursday morning, but there was no news. <br> <br> When the A&#39;s called with the verdict, he put on some casual wear - a Ben Folds T-shirt that was quite tame for a guy who favors lime-green jackets and pink shirts at times on the road - and headed for the Coliseum, where he met the media for the first time as an award-winner. <br> <br> ``After what our pitchers have done in the last three years, this is a great way to cap it,&#39;&#39; A&#39;s assistant general manager Paul DePodesta said. ``It also says a lot about our scouting and player development. He&#39;s certainly deserving, and I was happy that one of them finally got it.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Zito gets a $100,000 bonus for winning. Martinez, who won the NL award with Montreal in 1997 and the AL award in 1999 and 2000, gets a $500,000 bonus for finishing second. Lowe, who pitched a no-hitter against Tampa Bay on April 27, gets $50,000 for finishing third. <br> <br> ``A guy like Pedro really can&#39;t be beat,&#39;&#39; Zito said. ``I remember guys talking like, &#39;We have to wait for Pedro to get out of the league before we can win the Cy Young.&#39; I&#39;ve been watching that guy ever since I&#39;ve been coming up. He&#39;s immortal. He&#39;s a God.&#39;&#39;