Award Tour: Looking at the White Sox Award Drought

The World Series has started. Awards season will soon be upon us. Sure we can expect the White Sox to garner some minor accolades in the forms of a Gold Glove for the incumbent Mark Buehrle and perhaps a long overdue one for Alexei Ramirez, but that's probably all we're going to see. It's fairly safe to say that yet another season has gone by on the south side without a member of the Pale Hose winning one of the big three: MVP, Cy Young, and Rookie of the Year. The last time a White Sox to win these awards were Frank Thomas in 1994, Jack McDowell in 1993, and Ozzie Guillen in 1985. That's right, the White Sox have not had a player win Rookie of the Year in my life time. The last time they had a player win either of the other two major awards I was just starting to lose my baby teeth.

This depressing fact made me wonder where our current cold streak stacked up with the other 29 teams in the league. Using B-R, I compiled a list of the last candidate to win each award for their team. A few facts and interesting tidbits before delving into the lists and charts. The MVP award has been around since 1911. The Cy Young began as one award for both leagues in 1956, eventually becoming an award in both in 1967. The Rookie of the Year began in 1947. Somewhat unsurprisingly, the Diamondbacks, Marlins, and Rays have never had a player win MVP. Surprisingly, the Mets and the Nationals (obviously I am including their years as the Expos) are in that same club. The Reds, the Rockies, the Marlins, the Rays, and the Rangers have never earned a Cy Young. And my personal favorite never-had: the Diamondbacks are the only team in Major League Baseball to have never had a Rookie of the Year.

Fifteen teams have waited less than us. The Astros' drought is just as long as ours. The average span of years since a team's last claim to the throne? 16.9 years, fitting in quite nicely with our 17 year stretch. Hooray! We're slightly above average! Also, how awesome is it that there is actually a team that has gone longer without winning this award than our very own Winning Ugly has been alive? Very awesome. The answer I was looking for is very awesome. WU, bask in the glow. You've earned it.

Cy Young

19 shorter droughts, 18 other teams winning the award. Ouch. The average drought is a clean and even 15 years, once again putting us above the average in a bad way. And you can probably just move the Tigers to the top of the list next week. If Justin Verlander somehow doesn't win the Cy Young this year, my head will explode.

Rookie of the Year

Well that last one was certainly depressing. Two teams. We are higher up on the list than two freaking teams and their rookies were much better than ours. The average waiting period is 11.9 years. We're over double that. Sigh.

So what does all of this tell us? Honestly, nothing really. Alexei Ramirez finished second to Evan Longoria for RotY in 2008. Esteban Loazia trailed only Roy Halladay in votes for the Cy Young in 2003. Frank Thomas narrowly lost to human science fair project Jason Giambi in 2000. Eventually you have to figure we'll catch a break. I guess we just take pride in Gold Gloves and Silver Sluggers til then.