Only 27 athletes have won the Rookie of the Year honors in a Cubs, White Sox, Bears, Bulls or Blackhawks uniform, and actually that's not true. I'm factoring in the immortal Terry Dischinger, who was the 1962-63 ROY for the NBA's Chicago Zephyrs.
But over the last 12 months, three players -- Patrick Kane, Geovany Soto and Derrick Rose -- won the award. That's unprecedented in these parts, but if form holds at least one of them will be a bust. And I think Cubs fans fear who it's going to be.
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10. Ken Hubbs
Beyond Ken Hubbs, the rest of this list consists of players who had disappointing careers by virtue of how their careers in Chicago played out. With Hubbs, who died in a 1964 plane crash after his sophomore season, it's disappointment over what he and all of baseball missed out on.
9. Geovany Soto
Too soon? Not if you're a Cubs fan and you're wondering if we've got another Rick Wilkins on our hands. One homer and a .216 average in June after a season hitting .285 with 23 homers and 86 RBIs is plenty to be nervous about.
8. Tommie Agee
Had a very nice career after hitting 22 homers and 86 RBIs for the White Sox in 1966...yet none of it with the White Sox. His numbers dropped from .273, 22 homers and 86 RBIs to .234, 14 and 52 his second year, after which he was traded to the Mets. Two years later, he hit 26 homers for the Amazin' Mets.
7. Anthony Thomas
Nice enough player who won the award in what must have been a very down year in the NFL.
Thomas gained 1,183 yards on 278 carries and scored seven touchdowns, which all proved to be career-highs. He last played in the NFL in 2007 with Buffalo.The 1973 AP Defensive Rookie of the Year had some good years after winning the award, just not enough. He was off to Tampa Bay by 1978 and out of football a year later.
Yes, I know Smith wasn't the 1989 NL Rookie of the Year. But I couldn't find ten legitimate disappointments and Smith should have been ROY ahead of Jerome Walton. Smith hit for a better average, had more homers, RBIs, fewer strikeouts and more WALKS than Walton (more on him later).
But after that stellar rookie year he never became a starter in the Major Leagues, and despite rebounding to hit. 300 in 1993, he was nothing more than a bit player on some crappy Cubs teams.Honestly, I don't have the energy to relive this. Wood was great in 1998, then he was never close to being great again, though he was sometimes very good. And now he's gone.
He went to the Pro Bowl two years in a row after winning the 1990 Defensive ROY award but that was a classic case of getting by on reputation. He led the NFL with 10 interceptions in 1990 but over the next six seasons he totaled 10 picks despite missing only a handful of games and he never came close to the 122 tackles his rookie year.
You say teams wouldn't throw his way? Bull. Great players find a way to make great plays and Carrier, though he was a leader on the field, never lived up to his great rookie year.Sure, Kittle hit 32 homers in his second year but he never came close to the 100 RBIs he hit during his 1983 rookie year, plus his average dropped to .215, .230 and .218 in the three years following it.
Kittle's bummer of a career is even sadder when you consider what a legend he could have become with his blue-collar background and winning personality.
What happened? Walton won the 1989 NL ROY and hit .364 in the NL playoffs but then saw his steals drop from 24 to 14 to 7 to 1. His average dropped from .293 to .263 to .219 to a mind-blowing .127 in 1992, his last year with the Cubs.
So what happened? The Cubs happened.
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