Dickey is 2012 NL Cy Young winner

New York Mets ace and former Herd starter R.A. Dickey was named the National League Cy Young Award winner on Tuesday night. The knuckleballer is now one of six former Bisons pitchers who also have won a Cy Young Award, joining Cliff Lee, Bartolo Colon, C.C. Sabathia, Dwight Gooden and Ferguson Jenkins.

Gooden was the only pitcher who won the award before pitching for the Bisons.

Dickey was 20-6 with a 2.73ERA in 34 games and 33 starts with the Mets last year. The righty struck out 230 batters in 233.2 innings of work with five complete games and three shutouts.

Dickey's fantastic season in Queens came two years after his time with the Bisons. He started the 2010 campaign with the Herd and was 4-2 with a 2.23ERA and two complete games. One of those starts was arguably the most impressive pitching performance in the history of Coca-Cola Field. On April 29, 2010, Dickey pitched a one-hit complete-game shutout against the Durham Bulls. In that 4-0 win, Dickey allowed a lead-off single before retiring the final 27 batters he faced.

The Bisons now have six former players with Cy Young awards with Dickey joining Colon, Lee, Sabathia, Gooden and Jenkins.

Colon, who tossed the only no-hitter in the Bisons modern era in 1997, won 21 games for the Los Angeles Angels in 2005. Sabathia pitched one game at Coca-Cola Field on a major league rehab assignment in 2006 and won 19 games with Cleveland the following season. Lee went 22-3 with a 2.54ERA with the Indians in 2008 to take home the honor. He toed the slab for the Bisons in parts of three seasons: 2002, 2003 and 2007.

Dwight Gooden collected his hardware for the Mets in 1985 before making major league injury rehab assignments with the Bisons in both 1998 and 1999.

Jenkins, the only pre-modern era pitcher on the list, pitched for the Bisons in 1962. Nine seasons later, Jenkins went 24-13 with a 2.77ERA with the Chicago Cubs.