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In 1956 in the real world, the Cy Young award was established to honor the best pitcher. Cy Young died in 1955. We have now reached 1956 in this league and I will be renaming the Pitcher of the Year award in each league (excluding the minor leagues) in honor of a particularly memorable pitcher.

MLB: J.P. Avila
It is with great honor that I memorialize this name to give all current and future pitchers something to work for every day. Avila is still the only player in MLB history with over 100 career WAR. Devon McFadden is the only other to even cross over the 90 mark. Avila won the best pitcher award 9 times and was MVP 6 times. He led the league in WAR for nine straight years from 1901 through 1909 and his memory will always be linked to Celio Cabedo. Cabedo was as dominant in the American League as Avila was in the National League, but his career was stopped short due to a torn labrum. Had Cabedo continued to trade dominance with Avila, this award may have a different name. Speaking of different names, Avila was originally known as "Twomey Van Gorp," the absolute worst fake name ever.

Atlantic League: Hayden Lloyd
The Atlantic League pitching award lands similarly to the hitting award which was named for Eric Rubio. Lloyd's name dominates the all-time leaderboards for the league and he was top pitcher twice. He pitched only 17 games in the major leagues between the Tigers, Yankees, and Pirates, and had 7 walks and 7 strikeouts over 26.7 innings.

NCAA: Joe Hubbard (Illinois Fighting Illini)
Back in 1903, I wrote: "If the NCAA had a hall of fame, he would be in it." Not only did Hubbard get inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame, he got the level of recognition only one other college player has received - a major award named after him. Zach Jensen, Goran Williams, Matt Olstad, John Kalinoski, and Martin Knisley were all college pitchers with more MLB WAR. Linden Leib, Joe Robinson, Quetzal Garcia, Gabriel Ramey, and Leonard Kurtz all had more WAR in the NCAA, but all did it in four years as compared to Hubbard's three.

California Interscholastic Federation (CIF): Auggie Lee (Elk Grove Thundering Herd)
Lee never won a yearly pitching award in high school and was only pitcher of the month once in his four years. He was drafted in the 3rd round and had a dominant but brief MLB career, landing in the Hall of Fame on the strength of his five Pitcher of the Year awards in six years. Paul Tanksley and Lucas Roe were two more good MLB pitchers from the CIF league.

Florida High School Athletic Association (FLHSAA): Alphonse Delaney (Pensacola Catholic Crusaders)
Delaney's MLB career never quite jumped into the elite level, but he did have some high 4 to 5 WAR seasons. Alex Derk and Colton Anderson were two other Florida pitchers with similar careers to Delaney.

Georgia High School Association (GHSA): Everett Williams (North Cobb Warriors)
Williams is the lone Hall of Fame pitcher to come out of a Georgia High School, but there were plenty of other deserving candidates. Danny Brozoski was a borderline hall of famer, Marcello Adler and Sawyer Garrett were dominant while in the league but unable to transfer that to MLB success, and Eduardo Santiago had the best mixture of MLB and GHSA career. It's hard to trump a Hall of Fame career.

Illinois High School Association (IHSA): Devon McFadden (Teutopolis Wooden Shoes)
Yet another high school pitcher turned Hall of Fame inductee. How do you beat out a Hall of Fame inductee? Well McFadden is in the inner circle with the likes of Avila, Tomas Reed, and Johan Velez. Bond Lott also made the Hall out of this league. Nicky Waitman is still active but has a potential Hall of Fame career and Jeremiah Joy was another great pitcher out of Illinois.

New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHSAA): Jeremy Thompson (Archbishop Molloy Stanners)
Thompson turned in a borderline HOF career spent entirely with the Twins. His number 24 was retired by the team back in 1927.

New Mexico Activities Association (NMAA): Rick Vandervelde (Mayfield Trojans)
Vandervelde is the lone Hall of Fame pitcher to come from a New Mexico High School and had by far the best career of a pitcher hailing from the state. Josh McPherson and Cherokee Logterman are two memorable names from their high school days, but had different levels of success in the majors.

North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA): Justin Zygmunt (Cape Fear Colts)
Zygmunt was an elite MLB pitcher who was born in Virignia but attended High School Fayetteville, North Carolina at Cape Fear. He was not very memorable in high school which led to him getting drafted in the 7th round, but his career really skyrocketed in the majors. Active pitcher and borderline HOF candidate E.J. LaFleur also pitched in the NCHSAA as well as retirees Ken Mishoe and Jayden Thomas (also with Cape Fear).

Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA): Marlon Pepper (Jesuit Crusaders)
While the recently retired Jaden Breaux had more MLB WAR than Pepper, his name is not as memorable in association with the OSAA. Pepper attended for 5 years, putting up 3.5 WAR as a 14-year old. He won the MVP and Pitcher of the Year that season, then went on to win the POY four more times and finish 2nd in the MVP twice.

Texas University Interscholastic League (TUIL): Justin Glatfelter (Monterey Plainsman)
There were three Hall of Fame caliber pitchers in the running, but the award goes to the youngest and still active. Hart Dykeman and Henry Angelbeek both attended Texas high schools but Glatfelter's career is better than both. Woody Garner's high school career was probably better than all three but his MLB career - though still good - was not near the level of the others.

Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA): Gabe Morton (Denmark Vikings)
Morton was the clear choice as the only HOF pitcher from Wisconsin. I was hoping for Chris Adams to have a better career but he had injury problems that cut it short. Cristopher Guzman was another possible choice but Morton's MLB career was much better. The namesake of both the MVP (Johan Velez) and Pitching award for the WIAA both came from the same high school. More than that, they were actually classmates, attending from 1918-1921. Oddly enough, the team was 91-69 during that span and only made the State Championship once, losing to the Peshtigo Bulldogs.