Fans To Pick The Comeback Kids
Nominees named for Comeback Player of the Year awards
By Mark Newman / MLB.com
August 07, 2006
In 1946, Ted Williams had one of the best "comeback" seasons ever. It was the year after he came back to the Red Sox from World War II, and the Splendid Splinter batted .342 with 38 home runs and 123 RBIs.
In 1953, the Milwaukee Braves played their first season after moving from Boston, and the great Warren Spahn rebounded from a highly uncharacteristic 19-loss season to go 23-7 with a career-best 2.10 ERA.
In 1985, George Brett bounced back from knee and hamstring issues to hit .335 with 30 homers and 112 RBIs, leading the Royals to their first and only world championship and winning a Gold Glove as well.
Those are classic comeback stories, and every Major League Baseball season is filled with them -- players whose extraordinary impact on their teams is even more special because of unforeseeable circumstances that had stood in the way. That is why MLB's Comeback Player of the Year Award presented by Viagra was instituted last season, and now it's time for fans again to decide who wins the awards that went to Jason Giambi of the Yankees and Ken Griffey Jr. of the Reds in 2005.
Voting is under way through Sept. 30, exclusively at MLB.com, and one of the truly fascinating things about this online balloting is that some lucky fan who participates is going to win a trip for two to a game at this year's World Series -- where he or she will throw out a ceremonial first pitch.
In the American League, the candidates are Magglio Ordonez of the Tigers, Frank Thomas of the A's, Jim Thome of the White Sox, Curt Schilling of the Red Sox, Corey Patterson of the Orioles and Rafael Soriano of the Mariners.
In the National League, the choices are Nomar Garciaparra of the Dodgers, Johnny Estrada of the Diamondbacks, Carlos Beltran of the Mets, Scott Rolen of the Cardinals, Joe Borowski of the Marlins and Edgar Renteria of the Braves.
Those candidates were chosen by representatives of Major League Baseball and the MLB.com editorial staff, and the winners will be announced during the playoffs. These driven dozen all share similar stories, and perhaps their sentiments are best expressed by Thomas, who said of his first year in Oakland after a long haul with the White Sox: "I still feel like I have a lot to give to this game. ... Everyone had counted me out at the start of the year, except for myself. I just knew I would be back."
They're back in 2006. Now you have the difficult decision of picking just one of them from each league. Here is a closer look at the choices:
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Ordonez: After three surgeries over a 12-month span, this has been the "Maggs" that Detroit was expecting when it signed him. He leads the team in RBIs by a wide margin and is on pace for the first 100-RBI season by a Detroit player since Bobby Higginson and Dean Palmer in 2000. He has been hitting around .300 and is especially clutch with men in scoring position. Said teammate Brandon Inge: "To do what he's done so far, he runs out balls, he's running down fly balls, he's tracking down everything."
Patterson: The Cubs shipped him to Baltimore because of his .215 batting average last season, and the change of scenery has done him well. Patterson is among the Majors' base-stealing leaders, and after breaking into the starting lineup in late April he has been a key player, hitting in the .280s and playing solid in the field. "The numbers will be there at the end," he said in Spring Training, and so far he's been right.
Schilling: Who knows about the subject of "comebacks" better than the guy who pitched with a bloody ankle to lead Boston to the 2004 ALCS comeback win against the Yankees? He's doing it on a macro scale this season, coming back from an 8-8 record in 2005 to be in the mix for a Cy Young Award with a 14-4 record this year. "I know where I belong here," he said.
Soriano: In 2003, he made 40 relief appearances and had a wicked 0.79 WHIP for the Mariners. But after six appearances the next season, it was time for Tommy John surgery. In 2006, after two lost years as a player, the live fastball and nasty slider are back, and Soriano has been an eighth-inning specialist with numbers not far away from his phenomenal '03 campaign. "After the surgery, I talked to a lot of people who told me I was young and if I work hard I could come back the same or better," Soriano said. "I know I was good before. I wanted to be better."
Thomas: Thomas received a warm and emotional greeting from White Sox fans when the A's made their first trip to Chicago this season, but there's still a chance he could be a significant roadblock for them this postseason. He played only 108 combined games over the previous two seasons for Chicago because of foot and ankle injuries, and had a slow start to this season. But he was leading the A's in with 24 homers, 67 RBIs and a .526 slugging percentage entering Monday's action.
Thome: After enduring the worst professional season of his career in 2005 -- hitting .207 with seven homers in 59 games for the Phillies -- Thome has battled back from injuries and a trade. Usually batting third as the designated hitter in the powerful White Sox lineup, he is hitting .301 with an AL second-best 33 home runs and 84 RBIs heading into Monday. "The main thing for me is to continue the work and stay focused," he said. "The main priority is to stay healthy and keep winning."
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Beltran: Coming off his monster postseason for the Astros in 2004, the center fielder faced high expectations as a Mets addition in 2005, and was undermined by a strained quad and the "try-do-do-too-much" syndrome. He is an NL MVP contender in a season punctuated by 12 RBIs in a three-game sweep of the Braves in the last month. "My confidence is high now like it was [in 2004]," Beltran said.
Borowski: By late June of last season, he had gone from being a late-inning reliever with the Cubs to being expendable when Kerry Wood was ready to come off the disabled list. Borowski finished the season with the Devil Rays, and no one knew how he would fare after signing last January with Florida. He has put any questions to rest, stepping up as a dependable closer for the equally surprising Marlins. "You always have high expectations; you try to make them realistic," he said.
Estrada: An All-Star with Atlanta in 2004, Estrada battled injury and offensive problems last year but has rebounded to be Arizona's most consistent offensive threat. Estrada has not hit below .300 in any month this season and is among the catching leaders in many Major League offensive categories. "I knew that if I could get healthy and stay healthy that I could [put] up a good All-Star-caliber season," he said. "And the Diamondbacks gave me the opportunity to come over here."
Garciaparra: Everyone knows Nomar's story, because he was sent to the All-Star Game by fans with the Monster All-Star Final Vote. After going to his hometown Dodgers and learning to play first base, Garciaparra has dispelled critics who doubted he would be able to overcome the injuries and struggles of recent years. He remains among the NL batting leaders and had a 22-game hitting streak earlier this season.
Renteria: David Ortiz said last month that Red Sox fans in 2005 "never let him develop into the player that he knows he is," booing the veteran shortstop as he committed a career-worst 30 errors and hit just .276 with eight homers. With Atlanta, he started this season with a 23-game hitting streak and has been the same force he had been in leading St. Louis and Florida to past World Series. "He's been our savior," Braves teammate Brian McCann said.
Rolen: Because of a collision at first base with Hee Seop Choi, then of the Dodgers, the Cardinals' star third baseman was lost for virtually the entire second half of 2005. His left shoulder repaired, Rolen came back in 2006 with a big first half in which he was hitting .331 at the All-Star break. His fielding percentage is second among NL third baseman who have played in at least 90 games. On the whole, this has been one player St. Louis knows it needed back to stay out front in the NL Central.
The main priority in voting is to reward the two most deserving among those players for the fortitude required to get back on top of their games.
Just think of Babe Ruth in 1926, when he came back to slug 47 longballs for the Yankees after a season in which he played only 98 games due to an ulcer that wiped out two months and a suspension stemming from a night out on the town. Or Jim Palmer in 1975, showing what a fluke a 7-12 season in 1974 had been by returning to form with a 23-11 record and 2.09 ERA for the Orioles.
It happens every year in Major League Baseball. And these days, fans have the honor of recognizing the two who have come back the best.
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