Everybody’s talking ’bout the new kid in town. Everybody’s walking’ like the new kid in town. There’s a new kid in town. -Eagles
Public Service Announcement: OK, here we go. It’s that time. Rookie of the Year time. Who’s got the, woh oh oh oh, woh oh oh oh, right stuff? Freddy Lynn had the right stuff. That marshmallow fluff. Sho’ nuff. The best rookie season evah. Evah!
Sherman, set the way back machine to 1975. Ahhh, 1975. Watergate. The fall of Saigon. Bobby Unser wins the Daytona 500. Big Papi is born. Moe Howard dies. KC & The Sunshine Band is on the jukebox. Andy Kaufman is lip-synching Mighty Mouse on SNL. But most importantly, 1975 is the year Freddy Lynn burst upon the scene.
Fenway Pahk. Rookie Fred Lynn in center. Rookie Big Jim Ed Rice in left. The Gold Dust Twins. But Jim Ed got hurt, and Freddy turned out to be goldener. Stay gold, Freddy. Stay gold.
How gold? Rookie of the Year gold. MVP gold. Gold Glove gold. First player ever to win both MVP and ROY in the same season gold. Freddy hit .331. Freddy hit twenty-one bombs. Freddy had 105 RBIs. He led the league in slugging percentage. He led the league in OPS. He led the league in doubles and runs scored. On one sunny afternoon in June, he smashed the Detroit Tigers. Smashed the Detroit Tigers to the tune of three HRs, ten RBIs and sixteen total bases. In one game! Yowza!
Freddy Lynn was clutch. How clutch? In the post season, he hit .306. He had one ding and eight RBIs. In Game Six against the Big Red Machine, Freddy slammed a crucial three-run jack in the first inning. Freddy slammed a crucial three-run jack in the first inning that setup the critical Bernie Carbo jack that set up the famous Carlton Fisk jack that sits on a branch that sits on a log that sits in a hole in the bottom of the sea. There’s a hole, there’s a hole, there’s a hole in the bottom of the sea. Stewie Griffen style.
He could flash that leather too. Chris Berman style. Making daily sprawling plays in centerfield. Spectacular plays. Graceful plays. Reckless plays. Think Aaron Rowand. Think Aaron Rowand crossed with Mikhail Baryshnikov. Yes, that good. Probably better.
Freddy had another monster year in 1979. Every kid in Boston wanted numbah nineteen. Lynn was a California boy at heart. And alas, in 1981 he was traded to the Angels. Outside the confines of friendly Fenway Pahk, he never hit over three hundred again. Pardon me, I’m a little vaklempt right now. Talk amongst yourselves. Ok, where were we? Oh ya. the rookies. Rookie, rookie. Who gets the cookie?
Evan Longoria AL: Longoria becomes just the sixth player to be selected for the All-Star Game, play in the World Series and win the Rookie of the Year award in the same season. The others: Don Newcombe, Tom Tresh, Fernando Valenzuela, Dontrelle Willis and, you guessed it, Fred Lynn.
Geovany Soto NL: Soto played 136 games at catcher in 2008, helping lead the Cubs to a 97-64 record. No other rookie in major-league history caught 125-or-more games for a team that won at least 95 games.
Peace out homies. Six Two and Even!
Need More? Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Evan Longoria, Fred Lynn, Geovany Soto, MLB, Tampa Bay Rays
.jpg){kind=small}
