TORONTO -- On the outfield walls of SkyDome were the ghost images of Blue Jays past: Joe Carter, George Bell, Devon White, Dave Stieb.

On the mound, though, Roger Clemens stirred up far more ancient, far more worthy phantoms. With his 4-2 victory over the Jays Wednesday night, the Rocket became the first pitcher since Rube Marquard (1912) to go 19-1 in a season, broke the Yankee record of consecutive wins in a season (14) set by Jack Chesbro (1904) and tied by Whitey Ford (1961), and moved a little closer to the record for highest winning percentage by a righthander with at least 200 decisions held by Christy Mathewson (.665).

"Can't say I know too much about Rube Marquard," he said afterward. "I'll have to read up on him."

William Roger Clemens does know a lot about one of Rube's contemporaries, though: Denton True Young. Barring any cataclysmic changes, like Frank Robinson ruling that this season doesn't actually count, the Rocket is about to win his sixth Cy Young Award. His total of five is already unprecedented. What this next one will do is move him past Cy Young, who would have won five Cy Young Awards had they decided to name the trophy for him while he was pitching instead of after he died.

Actually, and assuming they gave one out in each league, Cy would have been a shoo-in only four times: 1892 when he went 36-12 with a 1.93 ERA for Cleveland; and three straight -- 1901-1903 -- when he was the dominant pitcher in the fledgling American League for the Red Sox. Give him one more in 1895, when he was 35-10 with a 3.24 ERA, although voters might have been tempted to award it to rookie Wizard Hoffer, whose 31-6 record and 3.21 ERA gave Baltimore the pennant.

You can be the judge on the 1893 season, but we're assuming the writers would have favored Kid Nichols (34-14, 3.52 ERA and first place) or fireballing Amos Rusie (33-21, 3.23 ERA and twice as many strikeouts as anyone else) over Young (34-16, 3.36 ERA).

Now, we're not suggesting they rename the Cy Young Award, although some historians believe sentiment (Cy had just died) orIginally won out over judgement -- Walter Johnson was considered his superior. But you know something? Roger Clemens is a better pitcher than Cy Young was.

Sure, the old guy had 511 wins, but he also had more losses than anyone in history, and his winning percentage of .618 seems wan in comparison to the Rocket's (.661). And when he was Roger's age, Cy was running out of steam.

After Clemens surrendered a two-run homer to Alex Gonzalez in the eighth Wednesday night, he walked off the mound to a chorus of boos and a smattering of polite applause. At that point, an epiphany hit. It wasn't just that the Blue Jays didn't know what they were missing; it was that they didn't know what they were seeing: The best pitcher since ... well, you pick a ghost.

Someone who's throwing a dead ball.

Steve Wulf is executive editor of ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at steve.wulf@espnmag.com.