The History of the Major League Baseball Rookie of the Year Award

The Major League Baseball Rookie of the Year Award has been handed out since 1947, with the indomitable Jackie Robinson the first ballplayer to receive it. The Rookie of the Year Award was given to just one player for the first two years of its existence, until 1949 when each league decided to select a Rookie of the Year. In order to be considered a "rookie" a player must have had less than 130 at bats or 50 innings pitched in the major leagues and spent less than 45 days on the active rosters of major league clubs, with time on the disabled list or any time after rosters are expanded on September not counting against them.
There have been several Hall of Famers that the Baseball Writers Association of America, the actual people who vote for the Rookie of the Year Award each year, has chosen for the honor, starting with Robinson. Willie Mays, Frank Robinson, Luis Aparicio, Orlando Cepeda, Willie McCovey, Billy Williams, Rod Carew, Tom Seaver, Johnny Bench, Carlton Fisk, Eddie Murray, and Cal Ripken Jr, were all winners of a Rookie of the Year, everyone a Hall of Fame player now. Future Hall inductees such as Albert Pujols, Derek Jeter, and Mike Piazza have garnered one as well. However, there have been some flashes in the pan that have grabbed a Rookie of the Year and then melted away into baseball obscurity, especially when it comes to the American League's version of the award.

Harry Byrd of the Philadelphia Athletics went 15-15 in 1952 to win the Rookie of the Year in the AL, but then turned right around and lost 20 games the next season for the woeful club. He was shipped to the Yankees and then moved from team to team before he was no longer in the sport by 1957 with a 46-54 career record. 1958 was a particularly lean year for first year stars, as the Senators diminutive Albie Pearson, an outfielder, hit .275 with just 3 homers and 33 runs batted in to win Rookie of the Year. In nine seasons in baseball, Pearson managed to hit .300 just once and finished with a .270 lifetime average.
Boston's Don Schwall went 15-7 in 1961 but it was all downhill from there after he was named the AL Rookie of the Year; he was 34-41 for the remainder of his career." Super Joe" Charboneau was the easy choice in 1980 with his 23 dingers and 87 RBI, but his hard living had him out of baseball two years later with numbers that didn't come close to approaching his rookie year's. Bob Hamelin's 24 homers along with 65 runs knocked in for the 1994 campaign helped him to an almost unanimous decision in the voting for Rookie of the Year, over Manny Ramirez! Hamelin batted .161 the next season and didn't make it to the new millennium in the game while Ramirez is headed to Cooperstown when he hangs 'em up.

After naming Japanese players such as Hideo Nomo, Kaz Sazaki, and Ichiro Suzuki as Rookies of the Year, even though they were veterans of the Japanese leagues, the writers decided to "set a precedent" in 2003 and deny Hideki Matsui of the Yankees the award. He had batted .287 with 106 RBI, but the watchdogs of the sport handed the trophy to Royals shortstop Angel Berroa, who accumulated 73 runs batted in. Berroa can't even stay on the lowly Royals roster nowadays while Matsui is working on his fourth 100 RBI season. Oakland's Bobby Crosby was the 2004 Rookie of the Year with 22 homers, but since then he just about lives on the disabled list and is a .220 hitter when he gets on the field.

The National League's busts have been few and far between in regard to their Rookies of the Year. Dodger second baseman Jim Lefebvre might qualify since he tailed off at the plate after his initial two seasons in the game, and he was named the 1965 ROY over another second baseman, Joe Morgan of the Astros, who would later become a two-time league MVP and Hall of Famer. The only obvious flop was the Padres' Butch Metzger, an 11-4 reliever in 1976 who was out of baseball two years later. There have been more than a few tragedies associated with the Rookie of the Year Award. The Indians Herb Score won it in 1955 and then was even better in 1956, but on May 7th, 1957 a line drive from the bat of the Yankees' Bobby Richardson struck Score in the face and his career was never the same. Ken Hubbs of the Cubs won in 1962 but was killed in a plane crash after the '63 season. Thurman Munson met a similar fate; he died in 1979 and had won his Rookie of the Year nine years earlier. Mark Fidrych of Detroit blew out his arm after being named ROY in 1976, Steve Howe of the Dodgers had a fine career ruined by substance abuse and was killed in a truck crash last year, while Kerry Wood's 1998 season was great enough for him to win, only to be plagued by arm problems ever since.