Every year, on the night the Rookie of the Year awards are announced, Jack O’Connell looks forward to informing the winners of what really makes this trophy baseball’s most singular honor.
“I’ve said this to everyone who has won,” the longtime secretary-treasurer of the Baseball Writers Association of America says. “I say it’s an important trophy to win — because you can only win it once. And they all get a kick out of that — (Pete) Alonso, (Aaron) Judge, all of them. They say: ‘Hey, that’s cool.’”
Oh, it’s cool, all right. Except this year, Jack O’Connell may need to think up a new line — because unless the rules change, it’s possible that the guy who wins the Rookie of the Year award in 2020 could (wait for it) also be eligible to win it again in 2021. We are not making this up.
And that means it’s time to repeat a question that someone…
