ANTI-YANKEE BIAS SHOWS IN CY YOUNG VOTING--

Bias against Yankees shows in Cy Young Award

Nov. 11, 2005 12:00 AM On the West Coast we believe there is a thing called the East Coast bias. In New York, they believe there is a thing called the Yankees bias. How else to explain how Mariano Rivera didn't win the Cy Young Award?The best closer in the history of the game happened to have the best year of his career and he gets beat out by a guy who posted a fine-but-hardly-stellar ERA of 3.48. Bartolo Colon did win 21 games but his 157 strikeouts were far from phenomenal - you could even make the argument that Johan Santana had a better year as a starter.

So how does a guy whose numbers are good but not Bob Gibson-like win the award over a reliever who at one point in the season converted 37 straight save chances. Rivera had 43 saves. He had 80 strikeouts and just 18 walks, and he gave us just one run on the road all year. 6 voters didn't even put Rivera on their ballot. The only logical explanation is that there is, indeed, a Yankee bias. John Gambadoro, azcentral