There’s almost nothing anyone could do to vivify the virtuoso summer Paul Skenes just had, the one that on this Wednesday night earned him an extraordinary unanimous selection as the National League’s Cy Young Award winner.

So I won’t try. Other than to reiterate that he’s the best pitcher I’ve ever seen.

Similarly, there’s almost nothing anyone could say to more pointedly paint the one Skenes issue that towers above all in our town — that, of course, being how long we’ll get to appreciate and applaud him here — than what he spoke himself in a 25-minute conference call after he and his family and friends and a couple teammates had finished celebrating in Florida.

So I won’t try. Certainly not to compete with some of the most compelling remarks I’ve heard anyone express about this franchise in two full decades on the beat.

In Skenes’ own words, then, from this session:

• On the award: “Winning it is one thing. It being a unanimous decision is another. It’s pretty special. The Cy Young Award is the Cy Young Award. Every baseball fan knows it. I’ve had a month to think about it now, after the season ended and what it would mean. That’s the answer I’ve come upon, is that it doesn’t change anything about the season that I had, whether I win it or not. It’s the same way I thought about the rookie of the year award last year. It’s a tremendous honor, but we play this game because we love the game. We love to pitch and we love to win. To just be in baseball, we’re stewards of this game.”

• On if he’d trade individual honors for team success: “I’ve thought about this over the past month. I would trade it in a heartbeat. It’s not something that you can have one or the other. Hypothetically, I would trade it. It doesn’t change what I’ve been working to do. I’ve talked about the ‘why.’ It’s funny that my ‘why’ … it can be called motivation, but I think it’s discipline. I’m showing up and doing the work every day. It aligns to winning, and that aligns with individual success. Winning championships comes with a lot of individual players having success. Shohei Ohtani’s an MVP candidate. Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s a Cy Young candidate. They have a dozen other players that are very good players. They all had individual success this year, and that led to a World Series championship. That’s the goal. Whatever it leads to is what it leads to. I started my program two weeks and two days ago for the offseason. From that, it’s been winning a championship. It sucks to start your program before the World Series is over. The plan is to be there next year. That’s what I’ve been thinking about for the past month.”

• On winning in Pittsburgh: “That’s what we need to do. That needs to be the focus everyday in the locker room. I think over the past two years, it’s funny because you show up and everybody’s motivated and happy and hopeful. That’s the feeling that I’ve had over the last couple of years. And then, as the season goes on, the newness wears off and you get into the grind of June, July, August and your why changes. The reason that you show up to the ballpark changes. What you’re trying to accomplish everyday changes. The focus needs to be winning a World Series in Pittsburgh. We haven’t done it since 1979. That’s 46 years. It’s not the longest drought in Major League Baseball, but that’s something we’re working to change from within the clubhouse. I know the organization is doing the same thing. That’s why I’m throwing and lifting and doing all that right now. That’s the goal. I have the Cy Young now. What else do I have to accomplish in this game? A World Series championship. We just gotta get everybody pushing in the right direction. I think it’s gonna be better next year, but talk is cheap. We have to show up and do it. I have confidence that we’re going to and that we’re going to get better. But there’s a long way to go. I’m excited for the challenge.”

• On what he meant by being a steward of the game: “At the end of the day, if I do nothing else in this game, I’m the 2025 Cy Young Award winner. What does that get me? You can talk to people who won the award in 1965, and now people probably don’t know their name. Pick whatever year. The recognition is great. It’s temporary. It’s about advancing the game, making the game better. Making the Pittsburgh Pirates jersey that I’m wearing better. From the time I got here to the time I leave. We’re stewards of the game. We’re stewards of the city of Pittsburgh. It’s a whole lot bigger than all of us, and everybody needs to realize that, I think. Because the 6-year-old who’s playing T-ball is a steward of the game, too. We’re making the game better for him or her. We need to realize that.”

• On a report out of New Jersey this week, quoting an unnamed player, that Skenes wants to play for the Yankees: “I got shown the tweet and really didn’t think anything of it. I got some texts about it. I’m on the Pirates. My goal is to win with the Pirates. I love the city of Pittsburgh. The fans are hungry to have a winner in Pittsburgh, and I want to be a part of the group that did that. I think about it the same way as when I was at the Air Force Academy. We’d never been to a conference championship and, in my sophomore year, we ended up winning the conference. We’d never finished in the top four before that. Pittsburgh … the way that fans see us outside of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh is not supposed to win. There are 29 fan bases that expect us to lose. I want to be a part of the group, a part of the 26 guys that change that.”

• On the veracity of the report: “I don’t know where that came from. The goal is to win. I don’t know the reporter that reported it. I don’t know the player that supposedly said that. But the goal is to win and the goal is to win in Pittsburgh.”

• On what he’s heard about 2013-15, the Pirates’ most recent playoff years: “Yeah, I watched it as a fan. Everybody in Pittsburgh talks about that. You run into a fan on the street, they’re still talking about that, and I think that shows how special it is. My agent … I don’t even think he was an agent at that point, but he was at that 2013 game, and he said it was the coolest atmosphere he’s ever been to in sports. The city’s craving it. The fans are craving it. I forget whose Pirates Hall of Fame ceremony it was, but he was talking about the ‘City of Champions,’ about how it was the fans making it that. This isn’t my city. I’m not from Pittsburgh. I’m adopted by the city, and the fans are the ones that show up for us when we’re winning. And then, I personally love that, if we’re losing, the fans don’t show up in the same numbers. It’s not like Chicago or St. Louis. If you want fans here, you gotta win. And they deserve it. I want to be a part of the group that accomplishes that. It’s been 10 years, the second-longest playoff drought in the big leagues. It’s been 46 years since we won a World Series. This is why I’m gonna show up to the ballpark, and I’m going to work to get everybody pushing in the same direction. I know there are other guys who are gonna do the same. That’s all the truth.”

• On whether he believes that hunger exists within the organization: “I do. As you look at the organization as a whole, I think there are people in Double-A who don’t realize it, people in High-A who don’t realize what Pittsburgh needs. There are people whose first time coming to Pittsburgh is when they make their major-league debut. But you realize it pretty quick. And there are people, I think — probably not enough people — but we can change that, people who realize that Pittsburgh deserves this, is craving this. And so, like I said, we’re going to change it. Donnie Kelly is the perfect guy to manage the Pittsburgh Pirates. Obviously he knows baseball. He’s a people person, baseball guy. That’s all great. That’s what makes managers manager material. But he’s from Pittsburgh, and I’ve talked to him, and he said that he wouldn’t want to do it anywhere else besides Pittsburgh. That’s how people are in Pittsburgh. It’s such an interesting city, such an interesting character, and that needs to be our identity coming into next year, I believe. That’s kind of what I think we need to to get back to, that gritty, blue-collar personality that Pittsburgh is. I’m going to push for that. I know there are others that are going to push for that, and then whoever’s new to the organization, they’re going to realize real quick. But that’s what the goal is. I wish it were February 10 already, or whatever spring training reporting date is, because I’m incredibly excited to do this and to push in this direction for next year.”