Rookie of the Year

Later today, baseball's awards season kicks into high gear when the 2019 Rookies of the Year are announced.

Now named in honor of the ultimate game-changing rookie, Jackie Robinson, the award salutes the high achieving first-year player in each league from the just-concluded season.

While that mission is pretty clear, what the ROY hasn't always been able to do is project the future. Robinson, Willie Mays, Luis Aparcio, Willie McCovey, Rod Carew, Tom Seaver, Johnny Bench, Carlton Fisk and Cal Ripken are among those made it to Cooperstown. Derek Jeter (seen above at his Day in Yankee Stadium in 2014) will soon join them.

But the crystal ball aspect of the award is no sure thing: how else do you explain the baseball fate of Bob Hamelin, Butch Metzger and Don Schwall? Fame can be fleeting; excellence sometime evaporates.

The promise of youth, the mystery of the future, wrapped up in honor that can ask as many questions as it answers.




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