Idiots Write About Sports

I haven’t had much to say about Bobby Crosby winning the Rookie of the Year award. Maybe it’s because things didn’t work out so well for Oakland’s last rookie-of-the-year winner. (Although Nate Silver of Baseball Prospectus points out that Rookie of the Year winners are more likely to morph into Derek Jeter than they are Pat Listach — and perhaps most likely to become Ozzie Guillen or Walt Weiss.) Or maybe it’s because Crosby finished the year in such unspectacular fashion — .170/.267/.295 batting average/on-base percentage/slugging percentage in August, .219/.316/.438 in September. At any rate, I cast my vote for Shingo Takatsu over at the Baseball Prospectus year-end awards, and I’m not sure my vote can be attributed entirely to spite from a pennant race gone wrong.

No, I’m far more intriuged by the National Leage version of the award, won by Pittsburgh’s Jason Bay. Bay is the first Pittsburgh Pirate to capture the Rookie of the Year award, a fact that surprises Baseball Musing’s David Pinto (but not your humble author, since Rob Neye devotes an entire essay to the subject in his excellent Big Book of Baseball Lineupes. What’s even more surprising is that Bay’s win is the first time a Pittsburgh player has even come close to winning the Rookie of the Year award.

OK, that’s a bit of an overstatement. Johnny Ray came close to winning the award in 1982 when he finished second to Steve Sax by a vote of 63 points (and nine first-place votes) to 57 points (and six first-place votes). (Although, some might argue that the voters got it wrong that year and should have handed Rookie-of-the-Year honors to the third-palce finisher, Willie McGee. I freely admit that retroactive factors may have influenced that statement, as McGee wound up having a much better career than either Sax or Ray. But a .709 OPS on a pennant-winning team seems like a better 1982 than either Sax or Ray enjoyed.)

Apart from Johnny Ray, a Pirate has finished as the runner-up three times. In 1991, Orlando Merced came in second with 53 points (one first-place vote) to Jeff Bagwell (120 points). In 1987, the immortal Mike Dunne finished in second with 66 points to Benito Santiago unanimous selection (140 points). And way back in 1969 — when voters cast a single vote for the winner — Al Oliver tied for second place with Coco Laboy with three votes to winner Ted Sizemore’s 14.

And that’s it. Apart from Jason Kendall’s third-place finish behind Todd Hollandsworth and Edgar Renteria in 1996, all other Pirates rookies have been consigned to the Others Receiving Votes list. For a franchise that’s been around since the advent of the award and that can boast of such rookies as Oliver, Roberto Clemente (zero votes in 1955), Willie Stargell (zero votes in 1963), Dick Groat (one vote in 1952), Tim Wakefield (a third place finish well behind Eric Karros in 1995), and some guy named Bonds (sixth place in 1986), that’s nothing short of amazing.

Jim Caple's back, and I didn't catch a Hack Alert, but he's being an idiot regardless. Fans can vote at the HOF website for the winner of the Ford Frick Award- winner goes to Cooperstown. You may pick 3 names. And among such people as Joe Nuxhall, Duane Kuiper, Steve Stone, Richie Ashburn, Ralph Kiner, and Al Michaels (my votes go to Kiner, Nuxhall and Ashburn), Caple picks... Dave Niehaus of Seattle. Doesn't even name anybody else. The bio is impressive- missed only 66 broadcasts in Mariners history, got just about every honor the Pac Northwest can bestow. Still, I've got a guy who's spent 52 years with his organization in Nuxhall, a guy who's has the Mets broadcast booth named after him, he's been there so long (and he's still going) in Kiner (not to mention three Emmys), and a guy who spent almost 50 years with the Phillies right up until his death. Can't fit Niehaus in anywhere close to the top 3.

Hack alert! Caple has 2 columns today: a fake news story about the Expos being renamed the Hebrew Nationals, and a Fake Quote coulmn that I didn't read because I am not an idiot. It appears to contain some jokes about the Roseanne Barr National Anthem incident... 15 years ago... way to stay timely there Jim.

Mother of God...30 YEAR OLD JOKES. Couldn't bear to read it either.

I guess there's a Hack-O-Meter update in my future.

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