Chris Young (pitcher) - Collegiate Career

Collegiate Career

In his freshman season at Princeton University, Young was the first male athlete to be named Ivy League Rookie of the Year in two sports—basketball and baseball—and was a unanimous selection for both awards. In addition, Young was named second-team All-Ivy in basketball and was basketball Rookie of the Week each of the final six weeks and seven weeks overall. His season was capped with Ivy League Player of the Year and freshman All-America honors from Basketball Weekly. Statistically, Young set Princeton Tigers men's basketball freshman records for points (387) and rebounds (160) by averaging 12.9 points and 5.3 rebounds a game with the 1998–99 Princeton Tigers men's basketball team. He also had 39 points, 19 rebounds, and 15 assists in three games at the Rainbow Classic basketball tournament, hosted by the University of Hawaii. He posted a season-high 24 points in an National Invitation Tournament win against the NC State Wolfpack. In baseball, Young led Princeton and the Ivy League with a 2.38 ERA. During this performance he allowed only one home run over the course of 150 batters faced, and was twice named Ivy League Rookie of the Week.

Young concluded his college basketball career by starting every game with the 1999–2000 team. Among his accomplishments that season were 22 double-digit scoring games, breaking his own single-season school record for blocked shots with 87, and leading the team with 13.8 points per game, 6.3 rebounds per game, 87 blocked shots and 40 steals. He was also second on the team with 105 assists. Young had the highest rebounding average of any Princeton player since 1978 and was also the thirteenth player in school history to record 100 assists in a season. For his college basketball career, Young accumulated 801 points, 350 rebounds, and 142 blocks. His best game performances included a 20-point game on the road against the 11th-ranked Kansas Jayhawks, a career-high 30 points against Harvard, and a school record of nine blocked shots against the Ohio Bobcats.

During his sophomore baseball season in 2000, Young was the Ivy League's leading pitcher with a 1.82 ERA overall and a 1.05 figure in conference games. He compiled a perfect record of 5–0 in eight appearances, with 52 strikeouts in 49⅓ innings. Young was a unanimous first-team All-Ivy League baseball selection, and he led the Tigers to their first Ivy League title since 1996. Young pitched a complete game and struck out seven batters in the 5–2 win in the championship series opener against Dartmouth.

Young was selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the third round of the 2000 amateur draft and signed a $1.65 million contract with Pittsburgh on September 6 after holding out until he gained assurances that he would be able to complete his collegiate education. His athletic career was not entirely on hold as an upperclassman, and he was able to get some low minor league experience before completing his degree at Princeton in politics in June 2002 and becoming a full-time professional athlete. He played in the class A minor leagues after his junior year. Young then completed his senior thesis, entitled "The Impact of Jackie Robinson and the Integration of Baseball on Racial Stereotypes in America: A Quantitative Content Analysis of Stories about Race in the New York Times" while commuting on minor league buses as a player for the Hickory Crawdads. Young was also offered a two-year guaranteed contract to play basketball for the Sacramento Kings of the National Basketball Association in 2002 by fellow Princeton alum and Kings president Geoff Petrie.