Freshman Class

FALSE STARTS Baseball's award season begins when the World Series
ends. The Rookie of the Year award, while coveted, has never been
a reliable indicator of who'll have the best career. For example,
who among the following was the 1954 NL winner, beating out
future Hall of Famers Hank Aaron and Ernie Banks?

a. Gene Conley c. Wally Moon
b. Jim Gilliam d. Bill Virdon

RISING SONS After hitting .287 with 16 homers and 106 RBIs,
Yankees outfielder Hideki Matsui is favored for AL Rookie of the
Year. Even if he doesn't win, he'll be the fifth former Japanese
leagues player to get Rookie of the Year votes. Three of them,
the Dodgers' Hideo Nomo and the Mariners' Kazuhiro Sasaki and
Ichiro Suzuki, won. Who's the only Japanese player to get votes
but not the award?

WHO AM I? I won Rookie of the Year in 1969 at age 26, five years
after my big league debut and as a member of the Royals, my third
team. I never won a batting title, but I placed in the top 10
four times. I made it to the World Series five times, four as a
player and once as a manager, and I'm still in the game today.

CALL TO ORDER Put the teams in order of their most recent Rookie
of the Year.

a. Giants c. Rangers
b. Mets d. White Sox

ANSWERS

FALSE STARTS: c. Cardinals outfielder Wally Moon batted .304 with
12 HRs and 76 RBIs to beat out Aaron (.322, 13, 69) and Banks
(.275, 19, 79). Moon went on to hit .289 with 142 homers in 12
seasons.

RISING SONS: In 2002 Dodgers lefthander Kazuhisa Ishii, formerly
of the Yakult Swallows, finished fourth in the NL rookie voting
behind Austin Kearns, Brad Wilkerson and the winner, Rockies
pitcher Jason Jennings.

WHO AM I? I am Devil Rays manager Lou Piniella.

CALL TO ORDER: d. (Ozzie Guillen in 1985); b. (Dwight Gooden,
'84); a. (John Montefusco, '75); c. (Mike Hargrove, '74)