When the Mariners' Felix Hernandez received a phone call in Venezuela telling him he had won the American League Cy Young Award, he told the Seattle Times he did something he hasn't done in a while. He burst into tears.

"I don't have any words to explain how I feel," he said. "I mean, you cannot explain it. The first time I heard I won the Cy Young, my mind was, 'Really? Really?' And they said, 'Yes, you won the Cy Young.'

"And I started crying. And my wife jumped on me. And my whole family started jumping around the house. It was a lot of talking, a lot of jumping. It was a great, great, amazing thing, man."

Hernandez is the first starter to win the award with fewer than 15 victories. He went 13-12 this year but had a 2.27 ERA and 2492/3 innings pitched with six complete games and 232 strikeouts.

Felix got 21 of the 28 first-place votes and 167 points in balloting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America, followed by the Rays' David Price (111) and the Yankees' C.C. Sabathia (102).