I do think people in Cy Young's time would have probably said he was the greatest. He was clearly revered in his time. He's referred to as the "Grand Old Man" on his Tom Barker game card, for example. Nobody had ever seen a Perfect Game before either.
He was a bridge between the old game and what we now know as modern baseball and he pitched equally well in both worlds. Somebody mentioned him not being in the 1936 HOF class. Well, that vote was split into two votes for players: a 19th century vote and a 20th century vote. Cy Young straddled both centuries and his votes were split between them. That's why he wasn't inducted. The next year they did away with the split century vote and he got in.
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