Comeback Player of the Year Award

From BR Bullpen

The Comeback Player of the Year Award has been awarded by The Sporting News every season since 1965, with one award is given in each league every season. The award was created for a player who was once a star, but had to come back from either injury or ineffectiveness to reclaim his status. The criteria for the award are not well defined, and the choices have sometimes been criticized for either never having been star players in the first instance, or not having come back from a noticeable decline in their performance. An example of the first instance is Randy Jones, who won the award after his first good season in 1975, and who was never, by any stretch of the imagination, considered a star beforehand. In the second case, Richie Zisk won the award in 1981 for a performance that was not noticeably better than his previous seasons, especially when context is taken into account.

There is nothing that prevents a player form winning the award multiple times, and indeed this has been done by Norm Cash, Boog Powell, Bret Saberhagen, Andres Galarraga and Chris Carpenter. Rick Sutcliffe has won the award in both leagues.

In 2005, Major League Baseball started awarding its own Comeback Player of the Year Awards, which will likely eclipse those granted by The Sporting News in future years. The winners of the two sets of Comeback awards were the same that first season, Ken Griffey in the National League and Jason Giambi in the American League.

[edit] Award Winners

[edit] The Sporting News Comeback Player of the Year Award

Year	American League		National League
	Player	Team	Player	Team
1984	Dave Kingman	Oakland Athletics	Joaquín Andújar	St. Louis Cardinals
1985	Gorman Thomas	Seattle Mariners	Rick Reuschel	Pittsburgh Pirates
1986	John Candelaria	California Angels	Ray Knight	New York Mets
1987	Bret Saberhagen	Kansas City Royals	Rick Sutcliffe	Chicago Cubs
1988	Storm Davis	Oakland Athletics	Tim Leary	Los Angeles Dodgers
1989	Bert Blyleven	California Angels	Lonnie Smith	Atlanta Braves
1990	Dave Winfield	California Angels	John Tudor	St. Louis Cardinals
1991	José Guzmán	Texas Rangers	Terry Pendleton	Atlanta Braves
1992	Rick Sutcliffe	Baltimore Orioles	Gary Sheffield	San Diego Padres
1993	Bo Jackson	Chicago White Sox	Andrés Galarraga	Colorado Rockies
1994	José Canseco	Texas Rangers	Tim Wallach	Los Angeles Dodgers
1995	Tim Wakefield	Boston Red Sox	Ron Gant	Cincinnati Reds
1996	Kevin Elster	Texas Rangers	Eric Davis	Cincinnati Reds
1997	David Justice	Cleveland Indians	Darren Daulton	Philadelphia Phillies/Florida Marlins
1998	Bret Saberhagen	Boston Red Sox	Greg Vaughn	San Diego Padres
1999	John Jaha	Oakland Athletics	Rickey Henderson	New York Mets
2000	Frank Thomas	Chicago White Sox	Andrés Galarraga	Atlanta Braves
2001	Rubén Sierra	Texas Rangers	Matt Morris	St. Louis Cardinals
2002	Tim Salmon	Anaheim Angels	Mike Lieberthal	Philadelphia Phillies
2003	Gil Meche	Seattle Mariners	Javy López	Atlanta Braves
2004	Paul Konerko	Chicago White Sox	Chris Carpenter	St. Louis Cardinals
2005	Jason Giambi	New York Yankees	Ken Griffey Jr.	Cincinnati Reds
2006	Jim Thome	Chicago White Sox	Nomar Garciaparra	Los Angeles Dodgers

[edit] Major League Baseball Comeback Player of the Year Award

Year	American League		National League
	Player	Team	Player	Team
2005	Jason Giambi	New York Yankees	Ken Griffey Jr.	Cincinnati Reds
2006	Jim Thome	Chicago White Sox	Nomar Garciaparra	Los Angeles Dodgers
2007	Carlos Pena	Tampa Bay Devil Rays	Dmitri Young	Washington Nationals
2008	Cliff Lee	Cleveland Indians	Brad Lidge	Philadelphia Phillies
2009	Aaron Hill	Toronto Blue Jays	Chris Carpenter	St. Louis Cardinals