Can a Yankee win rookie of the year? Can a Japanese Yankee?

While pondering whether or not Sheffield would actually win the AL MVP, my mind started digging up a long-buried controversy regarding last year's AL rookie of the year.

The George might sound a bit defensive and go a bit overboard when he claims that two "misguided writers" had perpetrated "a great injustice," but I also remembered something that the clown named Jim Souhan of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune had to say during his Fifteen Minutes:

"When Mr. Steinbrenner spends multiple millions to lure an MVP-caliber player from a major professional league, he should be embarrassed that such a high-profile player is vying for the rookie of the year award, and not the American League MVP award."

I wonder if The George should still be embarrassed now?

.303, 24 hr, 85 rbis, 83 runs, .396 ob%, .531 slugging%, pretty good left fielder.

Not the AL MVP, I'm sure, but top ten in the MVP vote sounds reasonable. That is nothing to be embarrassed about. Almost makes Hideki Matsui look like a bargain, compared to tons of other outfielders.


If you doubt the possibility of anti-Yankee voting by the sportswriters, you only need to review recent AL rookie of the year votes:

2000 was Sasaki.

2001 was Ichiro almost unanimously.

By 2003, the representatives of the Major League Baseball Writer's Association of America have somehow concluded that their "regard for Japanese baseball is too high ... to consider Matsui a rookie ... it's an injustice to the other players who are rookies."


I also concede that I'm presenting the information a little bit unfairly. One clown from Cleveland refused to vote for Ichiro in 2001, instead picking hometown favorite C.C. Sabathia. Even though he picked Ichiro for MVP. So Ichiro was the best player in the AL, but not the best rookie in the AL.

So this controversy didn't suddenly appear with Hideki Matsui and there are probably some other inconsistencies which are not attributable to Yankee-Hatin'.

Plus, the same voters don't vote every year, so there's going to be variations just because of that.

On balance, I think the anti-Yankee bias is quite evident in this particular case ... especially when certain sportswriters use their vote as a vehicle for calling out Steinbrenner in the press.