Rookie of the Year

 Baseball’s awards link the past season to all the others.  Cy Young, MVP, Rookie of the Year means both an honor and inclusion on a list for future reference.

Yesterday, Kris Bryant of the Cubs was named NL Rookie of the Year; he is the sixth Cub so honored, joining Billy Williams, Ken Hubbs, Jerome Walton, Kerry Wood and Geovany Soto.  One of those six, Williams made the Hall of Fame, and another, Hubbs, had his life cut short at the age of 22 in a plane crash.  Wood was bedeviled by pitching injuries; Walton was a one-year wonder; and Soto quickly became a journeyman catcher.  So, you never know.

But in that first year, it just feels right, for player and fan alike.  If Bryant hit 26 homers this year, why not double that next year?  Forget Joe Charboneau.  Ron Kittle of the White Sox won AL Rookie of the Year in 1983 after hitting 35 home runs, all of which seemed to go over the roof at Comiskey Park and driving in 100 runs.  You just knew he would go on hitting and hitting, but he didn’t.  Like the Cubs, the White Sox have had six Rookies of the Year: Kittle; Luis Aparicio; Gary Peters; Tommy Agee; Ozzie Guillen; and Jose Abreu; one of them, Aparicio, is in the Hall of Fame.  This year, Abreu became only the second player ever to start off his career with back-to-back seasons of 30-plus homers and 100-plus rbi’s.  Maybe that will transfer into a Hall-of-Fame career.  You never know.  Maybe it’s not one but two out of six Chicago Rookies of the Year who make Cooperstown.

After all, it’s November, when baseball hopes spring eternal.