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Tim Lincecum is the greatest baseball player in the history of the University of Washington. The only Husky to win the Golden Spikes Award as the nation’s top college player, he holds the school record for starts and wins.

Lincecum burst onto the collegiate scene in his freshman year by capturing the Pac-10’s Pitcher of the Year award. Three seasons later in 2006 his season was something to behold. A unanimous All-American selection and Pac-10 Pitcher of the Year, he went 12-4 with a 1.94 ERA while striking out 199 batters in 125 1/3 innings. His performance earned him the Golden Spikes.

At the conclusion of his time in Washington, Lincecum was drafted by the Giants as the 10th overall pick. That made him the first from his school to be selected in the first-round. In 2016 the Pac-12 career strikeout leader Lincecum was named to the conference’s All-Century team.

Lincecum has the most career MLB wins (110) among pitchers from the University of Washington. Second on the list is Tigers great Fred Hutchinson with 95.

Shown here is a government postcard signed by Hutchinson. Notice the cancellations from Detroit, Michigan on June 26, 1954. Hutch’s Tigers faced off against the Senators that day.

As the Motown manager Hutchinson pushed all the right buttons, overcoming a pair of three-hit games by Mickey Vernon and Roy Sievers to beat Washington 5-4 at Tiger Stadium.

The US Postal Service’s postmark adds value and context to the autograph. Hutchinson signed this in his third season at the helm in Detroit, his first solely in the role of skipper after being player/manager in 1952 and ’53.

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Tim Lincecum had a big league career that included many awards an accolades. After a solid 2007 rookie year in which he went 7-5 in 24 starts with a 112 ERA+, he quickly became one of the game’s greatest twirlers.

Nicknamed “The Freak”, Lincecum dominated in 2008, leading the league in strikeouts (265), ERA+ (168) and WAR (7.8). He earned the first of four-straight All Star selections and the first of consecutive Cy Young Awards.

In 2009 he put up a career-best 171 ERA+ while again topping the Senior Circuit in strikeouts and WAR. The following season Lincecum was the National League’s most prolific strikeout artist for the third year in a row. The 2010 campaign also marked the first of his three World Series-winning seasons. In the Fall Classic he won both of his starts and struck out 13 in 13 1/3 innings.

The 2011 season marked his fourth-straight 200-K season and top-10 Cy Young finish. Though he posted a losing record at 13-14, his ERA+ remained high at 127. It capped a run in his first five seasons in which he collected 24.4 WAR and a 137 ERA+. With all the accolades and 1,127 strikeouts to his credit, Lincecum appeared on track for Cooperstown.

Sadly, Lincecum’s time as a frontline starter were over. He stumbled in 2012 with a 3-10 record and a 6.42 ERA at the All Star break. Though he improved during the second half Lincecum finished the year with a 10-15 mark and a 5.10 ERA.

The Giants again went to the postseason and Lincecum again contributed positively. In one start and five relief appearances spanning 17 2/3 innings he pitched to a 2.55 ERA to help San Francisco win it all.

In 2013, Lincecum still made headlines. On July 13th, he authored the first no-hitter in Petco Park history with a 148-pitch performance. Then in September 20th at Yankee Stadium he struck out Curtis Granderson and became the fastest in Giants history to reach 1,500 career strikeouts.

In 2014 Lincecum twirled his second no-hit game. San Francisco won 88 games and returned to the postseason as the NL wildcard. Despite a woeful 73 ERA+ Lincecum made the playoff roster. Though he was the only Giants players not to appear in the NLDS and NLCS. In his lone World Series appearance in Game 2 he struck out two of the five batters he faced and did not allow a man to reach. The Giants won a 7-game thriller over the Royals to earn their third title in six years.

His final season in the City by the Bay came in 2015. Fifteen starts into the year he was diagnosed with a degenerative condition in his hips and was given cortisone shots. When his body did not respond favorably, Lincecum had hip surgery on September 3rd.

A free-agent at the end of the season, Lincecum signed with the Angels in May, 2015. He went 2-6 with a 9.18 ERA to end his career.

Shown here is the receipt Lincecum signed to received his 2011 All Star ring.

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The Cy Young Award was inaugurated in 1956 to recognize pitching greatness. For the first 11 seasons it was given to one pitcher in all of baseball. Then in 1967 the honor was opened up to include each league’s top hurler.

The first pitcher to receive it in back-to-back seasons seasons was the Dodgers Sandy Koufax in 1965 and ’66. When Tim Lincecum earned his second consecutive Cy Young Award in 2009 he joined the elite company of Koufax and five others.

Detroit’s Denny McLain did it in on the heels of the Dodger southpaw in 1968 and 1969. Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer matched the feat in ’75 and ’76 for the Baltimore Orioles.

Roger Clemens earned a record 7 Cy nods. He went back-to-back in ’86 and ’87 for Boston then again in ’97 and ’98 for Toronto. In between Clemens’ sensational seasons Greg Maddux reigned supreme. Each of the four seasons from 1992 through 1995 he took home the Cy Young Award.

In 1999 and 2000 each league had back-to-back winners in the Red Sox Pedro Martinez and Arizona’s Randy Johnson. The Big Unit then claimed the hardware in 2001 and 2002 to match Maddux’s mark of four in a row.

Shown here is a ball autographed by the award’s namesake Cy Young. Above his signature is that of Bill Dinnenn. In baseball’s first World Series in 1903 the pair combined for five wins to give the Boston American’s the victory over Honus Wagner’s Pittsburgh Pirates.

The ball was signed at the 50-year reunion of the first matchup between the champions of the American and National League.  The other panels of the ball feature four more who from the event, Hall of Fame player/manager of the Pirates Fred Clarke, Art Krueger, Fred Parent, and Tommie Leach.

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In 2011 Tim Lincecum made Giants franchise strikeout history. On May 4 he sat down 12 Mets, the 29th game he reached double-digits in K totals. That broke the team’s record formerly held by the great Christy Mathewson.

A month later on June 6, Lincecum victimized Jerry Hairston Jr. for the 1,000th strikeout of his career. That made him just the 8th pitcher since 1900 to reach the mark in his first five seasons and the fastest in Giants history to the plateau.

Shown here is a rare autograph of Giants Hall of Fame pitcher Mathewson. As a member of the Hall of Fame’s inaugural class of 1936, Matty was voted in with Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, and Walter Johnson.

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Tim Lincecum’s career can be divided into two distinct parts. In his first five seasons Tim was at his best. Four All Star selections, two Cy Young Awards and two other top-10 finishes all came from 2007 through 2011. He also helped the Giants capture the 2010 World Series championship. During the run he had 69 wins, a 2.98 ERA (137 ERA+) while averaging 4.9 WAR per season.

Though Lincecum’s final five seasons featured two Fall Classic triumphs, he was individually ineffective. From 2012-2016 Lincecum was 7 games under .500 in his final 89 career decisions. His 4.94 ERA translates to a ERA+ of just 72.

Despite his downward trajectory, Lincecum still had moments of greatness.

On July 13, 2013 he pitched a no-hitter at San Diego, the first in Petco Park history. Calling the pitches for Lincecum was catcher Buster Posey. The Giants receiver also starred offensively, going 4-for-4 with two runs batted in.

The following June 24, he twirled another gem against the Padres, this time at San Fransisco’s AT&T Park. In the process Lincecum joined Cooperstown’s Addie Joss as the only men to no-hit the same team twice.

Shown here is the receipt catcher Posey signed to receive his 2015 All Star Game ring.