Buster Posey wins NL Rookie of the Year Award

Posted on November 15, 2010

Buster Posey of the San Francisco Giants celebrates their 3-1 victory to win the World Series over the Texas Rangers in Game Five of the 2010 World Series at Rangers Ballpark on Monday, November 1, 2010 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Brad Mangin/MLB Photos)

 

A huge sigh of relief went out all over the San Francisco Bay Area this morning when fan-favorite rookie catcher Buster Posey was named the 2010 National League Rookie of the Year. Posey was picked first on 20 of 32 ballots in voting by members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. As Giants fans who watched with anticipation as the kid came up from Fresno to join the club in late May we are very biased on this subject. I had a feeling that the east coast bias might prevail in the voting (which was done before the post season began), resulting in Atlanta Braves phenom Jason Heyward winning. Heyward had a fine rookie season that was punctuated by his home run in his first at bat on Opening Day in front of a raucous crowd in Atlanta and a national television audience. Heyward played more games, but Posey had equal offensive numbers and handled the best pitching staff in baseball like a 10-year veteran.

The best part of today’s festivities celebrating Posey’s award is that my favorite Giant from my childhood, John “The Count” Montefusco is back in the news. Montefusco was the last Giants to win the award back in 1975 when he took the National League by storm by hitting a grand slam in his first game at Dodger Stadium, predicting wins, and striking out Johnny Bench. I was a HUGE Montefusco guy. As a kid pitching for the Orioles in Centerville American Little League I copied his delivery and tried to pitch like The Count. Every time my dad would take me to see the Giants play at Candlestick I would try to figure out their starting rotation days ahead to see if Montefusco would be pitching on that day. More often than not we would end up seeing journeyman right hander Jim Barr. Nothing against the Sacramento resident Barr, but as a 12-year-old kid he was not nearly as exciting as The Count.

I hope Posey being named the top rookie in the National League today puts an exclamation point on a dream season for the kid, the Giants, and their fans. In his viral video about the Giants post-season run that has been viewed almost two million times, local fan Ashkon calls Posey “Hands down Rookie of the Year.” Thankfully he was right. I also hope that many writers call Montefusco today and track him down wherever he is living in New Jersey so they can get some quotes from the last member of the orange and black to win the award. Montefusco loves to talk, so this should be a great day for him.