He is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. The Cy Young Award, the premier annual award given to the best major league pitchers in each league, is named in his honor.
Young set a career record for wins, 511, which will probably never be matched. (Current seasons produce just a few pitchers with more than 20 wins, at which pace a pitcher would have to pitch for more than 25 years to surpass the record.)
Young began his major league career in 1890 and achieved stardom rapidly. He was one of the few star hurlers to maintain his level of success after the pitching mound was moved back to its present 60 feet 6 inches in 1893. He maintained that level for over two decades, retiring after the 1911 season; his arm was as strong as ever, but, he told an interviewer, he couldn't field bunts as well as he once could, and "when the third baseman has to do my work for me, it's time to quit."
His longevity was considered unique -- the injury rate caused by pitching conditions at the turn of the century resulted in even the most talented having pitching careers that rarely lasted one decade, let alone two.