SAN FRANCISCO — Tim Lincecum hung up the phone after learning the good news he'd been waiting more than a month to hear.

"My reaction was 'Whoo hoo!"' the newly crowned NL Cy Young Award winner hollered for a news conference bigger than any the San Francisco Giants had seen since the days of home run king Barry Bonds.

"I literally yelled it a couple times after I got off the phone, so it was pretty nice."

Back in spring training, Lincecum and Giants closer Brian Wilson joked about this day — how they both wanted to win a Cy Young Award.

Neither could have expected it now — not this soon.

Lincecum just finished his first full major league season, two years removed from college and all of 24 years old. He was once mistaken for a bat boy by ballpark security when he was called up last year. Teammates tease him with the nickname "Franchise" — a moniker Lincecum said he doesn't dare mention in public.

Lincecum, who graced the cover of Sports Illustrated this season, joins Mike McCormick (1967) as the only San Francisco pitcher to win the Cy Young — and he earned it in commanding fashion Tuesday.

The diminutive right-hander known for his fierce competitive nature received 23 of 32 first-place votes and 137 points in balloting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. Brandon Webb of the Arizona Diamondbacks got four first-place votes and finished second with 73 points.

Listed at 5-foot-11 and 160 pounds, Lincecum defied detractors — and the laws of physics — by overpowering baseball's best hitters.

"I don't remember anybody in my time who had that style of pitching, who put that kind of torque on his body," McCormick said on a conference call. "I think that article in Sports Illustrated that called him a freak probably sums it up."

Lincecum went 18-5 with a 2.62 ERA and a majors-leading 265 strikeouts, remarkable numbers for a fourth-place club that finished 72-90. Putting up those numbers on a struggling team certainly helped his cause.