I'm not sure what the smear on the card is. It's ink of some sort because it's not raised above the finish of the card and wouldn't come off with a bit of wiping.
An 11-11 record in 1987 was good enough to put him sixth in voting for the Rookie of the Year. Aside from posting an 11-8 record in '86 (
He pitched reasonably well in the 1987 postseason.
Greg Mathews' career statistics
There's something interesting going on here. Mathews shouldn't have been considered a rookie in 1987 because the qualifications for rookie status are (from Baseball Reference's Bullpen Wiki):
Currently a player is considered to be a rookie, and thus eligible for the award, if the player has accumulated in prior major league seasons:
Fewer than 130 at bats or
Fewer than 50 innings pitched
Fewer than 45 days on the active roster, excluding time on the disabled list, in military service, or time when the rosters are expanded (currently after September 1)
BloggerDK from 1987 Topps provided these two links to stories about Mathews and the Rookie of the Year voting. Thanks to him for that.
So what's happening here? A mistake by, presumably, one voter? He only got .01% of the voting share and no first place votes, so if a voter wrote him in on the ballot that could explain all of this. But it doesn't explain why that vote was allowed to stand for a player whose rookie status had long expired.
Strange all the way around.
8 comments:
Wow, apparently making 23 starts and throwing 145 innings doesn't qualify you as a rookie.
That can't be right. 145 innings had to be more than enough to qualify for the award in '86 and end his rookie status for '87.
Currently a player is considered to be a rookie, and thus eligible for the award, if the player has accumulated in prior major league seasons:
Fewer than 130 at bats or
Fewer than 50 innings pitched
Fewer than 45 days on the active roster, excluding time on the disabled list, in military service, or time when the rosters are expanded (currently after September 1)
I don't know what the hell's going on here.
Funny, this site mentions him winning the team's ROY award in '86, and this site talks about the weirdness of him getting NL ROY votes in '87.
I don't get this.
Funny, I googled Greg under google images to find an old picture of him playing for his summer training camps and found your blog. He is my boyfriend and has never said anything about this? How could such a serious mistake remain a mystery to this day?
Interesting. What is Greg doing these days?
He runs a training business for young athletes called Stl Pitching. He's an awesome trainer and is bringing more attention to the sports science aspect of baseball.
That's great! I always like to see former players using their talents to teach others.
Ever since I first posted this card, I've been doing some research on the Rookie of the Year issue but still haven't come up with anything more.
I asked Greg about this and he said his rookie status was in 86 and in 87 he almost led the team in wins so this posting is inaccurate.
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