The Cubs have had their share of Rookies of the Year, including the reigning NL winner with Kris Bryant. They also aren't afraid of picking up other teams' good rookies if given the opportunity. Most notable would be guys I've shown off before in Andre Dawson and just last week, Rick Sutcliffe. They even currently have former winner Chris Coghlan (2009, Marlins) back for a second go with the Cubs.
In 1998, Kerry Wood pitched his way to the award with a 13-6 record and an very impressive 233 strikeouts. Some of you may be familiar with his 20 strikeout performance over the 102-win Houston Astros. You know, the game regarded as the best game ever pitched if you go by Game Score.
His American League counterpart that year was a young outfielder in Oakland. Ben Grieve came from a baseball family, his dad having played, GM'ed and broadcast for the Rangers. Tom Grieve was the Rangers GM involved in the the Rafael Palmeiro/Jamie Moyer for Mitch Williams trade between the Cubs and Rangers in 1988. Tom and Ben were the first father-son combo to both be first round draft picks. Tom was 6th overall by the Senators in 1966 and Ben was 2nd overall the A's in 1994.
Ben had some success early on in Oakland. After winning the ROY award, his numbers kept improving. Oakland managed to trade him at his peak to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays prior to the 2001 season when he was coming off a career year. He spent two and a half seasons in Tampa before signing as a free agent with the Brewers. The Cubs traded for him in late August 2004 and Grieve played in 15 September games. The Cubs re-signed him to a minor league deal for the 2005 season but couldn't find room in the Major Legaue outfield playing in just 23 more MLB games that season.
That 2005 Cubs team had 5 players that at some point were Rookie of the Year winners and I have ATCRCS cards from at least one other that I'll show off next time I do an ATCRCS post.
I thought I was the only one who remembered his brief Cubs tenure, including the catch where he crashed into the wall and cut himself with his sunglasses. Squeamish me will never forget the blood dripping from just under his eye.
ReplyDeleteMy roster name recognition is pretty good thanks to this project. Now if I can get around to actually making the cards instead of just compiling the lists....
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