Bobby Orr squares off against Cy Young in the third round of the Boston’s Biggest Sports Legend tournament.
Not many 12-year-olds attract professional hockey scouts, and not many 14-year-olds sign professional hockey contracts. But Bobby Orr wasn’t like most human beings. From a young age until the day he hung ‘em up, Orr was always a step ahead of the pack. Despite playing just nine full NHL seasons, Robert Gordon Orr is regarded as one of the greatest hockey players of all time. The subject of one of the sports world’s most recognizable photos, Orr popped the game-winning goal to seal the 1970 Stanley Cup Finals against the St. Louis Blues. It was the B’s first Cup in 29 years, and Orr took home a plethora of hardware, winning the Norris (best defenseman), Ross (top point scorer), Hart (regular-season MVP) and Conn Smythe (MVP Stanley Cup playoffs) Trophies that season. He went on to secure another Cup for Boston two seasons later and end his career with eight Norris Trophies, two Hart Trophies, two Ross Trophies and 915 points in 657 games played. The 1970-71 campaign turned out to be Orr’s most productive season as he scored 37 goals, had 102 assists and finished the year with a plus-124 rating — an NHL record that still stands to this day.
When your name is synonymous with excellence, chances are you were a pretty impressive performer. “Impressive” just begins to describe Cy Young, the pitcher who defined what it meant to be an ace before the term existed. Young collected 286 wins in the National League prior to joining the Boston Americans in 1901. There, he went 192-112 over eight seasons, pitching more than 2,700 innings and striking out 1,341 batters. Young helped lead the Americans to the first World Series title in baseball history, going 2-1 with a 1.85 ERA against the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1903. His 511 wins are nearly 100 more than anyone else, and he’s thrown 1,300 more innings than anybody. His 749 complete games also are the most ever, and shortly after his death in 1955, the Cy Young Award was created to honor baseball’s best pitcher every year.
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