Rob E Dangerously Posted November 11, 2003 Report Posted November 11, 2003 http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/nyy/news/nyy...t=.jsp&c_id=nya Statement by George M. Steinbrenner "While I have great respect for the Baseball Writers' Association of America and all of its contributions to our national game throughout the years, I firmly believe that a great injustice has been done to Hideki Matsui. Two misguided writers -- Bill Ballou from the Worcester (Mass.) Telegram & Gazette and Jim Souhan of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune -- in voting for American League Rookie of the Year, clearly made up their own rules to determine who was and was not eligible for the award and disqualified an eligible candidate who could have won. One of the writers in question, Mr. Ballou, actually said, 'While he [Matsui] is technically a rookie by the rules of Major League Baseball, he is not a rookie in the spirit of the award.' Spirit of the award? The award was renamed by the Baseball Writers' Association to honor Jackie Robinson, its first recipient. Jackie Robinson came to the Major Leagues after playing in the Negro Leagues, a league whose high level of play is unquestioned. This year's voting farce, where the appropriate qualifications for the award were blatantly ignored, clearly demonstrates unfairness to first-year players from Japan. And that must be stopped." what about the two writers who didn't vote for Berroa? Fucking nimrod..
Art Sandusky Posted November 11, 2003 Report Posted November 11, 2003 They do have a point. When I think "rookie," I think a true first year in any major league player.
treble Posted November 11, 2003 Report Posted November 11, 2003 MLB should have a maximum age (say around 25 or 26) that you can be to be eligible for the Rookie of the Year award, it would help avoid situations like this. I know the NHL has one, I'm not so sure about other leagues.
kkktookmybabyaway Posted November 11, 2003 Report Posted November 11, 2003 Don't think a player in his late 20s-30s should win a rookie of the year award. If one does, I'll find a way to go on living...
Slayer Posted November 11, 2003 Report Posted November 11, 2003 "This year's voting farce...clearly demonstrates unfairness to first-year players from Japan. And that must be stopped." I don't remember the BWAA being unfair to Sasaki or Ichinutz when they won their ROTY awards. None of these cases were right though, IMO. And the Jackie Robinson argument doesn't work here. Nothing is purposely keeping Japanese (and other countries) players from coming over here (unlike the Negro League days).
Vern Gagne Posted November 11, 2003 Report Posted November 11, 2003 One of the writers is from Massachusetts. It shouldn't suprise anyone he didn't vote for a Yankee.
Bored Posted November 11, 2003 Report Posted November 11, 2003 I've already said my opinion on this but something is really annoying me about all of this. When you really look hard at the statistics which a very similar overall and this assumption by pro-Matsui people is that he some how if it weren't for the whole "is he a rookie or not" thing he'd be the automatic winner is total bullshit. Matsui had a good year but he wasn't Mark McGwire in '87 or Mike Piazza in '93 or Nomar Garciaparra in '97 or Ichiro Suzuki in 2001. Straight up either could have won and it was closest vote in 23 years so get the fuck over it.
Gert T Posted November 11, 2003 Report Posted November 11, 2003 I agree with Steinbrenner in the theory that it was bad those two writers decided Matsui wasn't a rookie, but Berroa did have a deserving year.
EVIL~! alkeiper Posted November 12, 2003 Report Posted November 12, 2003 Even you you don't agree with the rules, you have to abide by them in voting for the award. If the writers can't abide by the guidelines in voting, then their ballots should be given to writers who will follow the guidelines.
Bored Posted November 12, 2003 Report Posted November 12, 2003 So what about the two writers who didn't vote for Berroa on their ballot? I'd say they cancelled out the two who didn't vote for Matsui. Checkmate...dead issue...Berroa is the ROY...nothing to see here.
EVIL~! alkeiper Posted November 12, 2003 Report Posted November 12, 2003 Well, they apparently didn't think Berroa was good enough. They're wrong, IMO, but at least they followed the rules. You can make a case that Berroa wasn't in the top three.
Guest Anglesault Posted November 12, 2003 Report Posted November 12, 2003 "This year's voting farce...clearly demonstrates unfairness to first-year players from Japan. And that must be stopped." I don't remember the BWAA being unfair to Sasaki or Ichinutz when they won their ROTY awards. Exactly. If it's anything, it's anti-Yankee bias.
Rob E Dangerously Posted November 12, 2003 Author Report Posted November 12, 2003 Granted.. I'd say Ichiro had a much much better year than Matsui. (And even Ichiro had somebody vote for somebody else to deny him all 28 first place votes) Lets compare the two.. Hits Ichiro- 242 Matsui- 179 Doubles Ichiro- 34 Matsui- 42 Homers- Ichiro- 8 Matsui- 16 Total bases- Ichiro- 316 Matsui- 271 Averages- Ichiro- .350/.381/.457 Matsui- .287/.353/.435 Fielding- Ichiro- 1 error in RF Matsui- 8 errors in Left and Center Field The facts are that Ichiro had a great rookie season and Matsui didn't. Matsui's BA was 63 points lower than Ichiro's. While Matsui probably had some CLUTCH~! RBIs and all.. his rookie year wasn't good enough. The odds are that Matsui's peak season was in 2002 in Japan. Damned aging and math.. they're biased against the Yankees!
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