History Of The Award
In 1940, the Chicago chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) began presenting an informal award to the best rookie in the major leagues. The BBWAA took over the award in 1947, and in 1949, they split the award, giving one to a rookie from both the National and the American Leagues.
The National League Rookie of the Year Award has been somewhat better than its American League counterpart at picking out future stars: 8 Hall of Famers have won this award (with Jeff Bagwell, Rick Sutcliffe, and others all waiting in the wings - plus the legendary Pete Rose, whose exclusion from the Hall has little to do with his on the field excellence). Like the American League, there has been only one tie for the award, in 1976, between Butch Metzger of the Padres and Pat Zachry of the Reds.
One interesting note is that the Los Angeles Dodgers produced 4 consecutive Rookies of the Year from 1979-1982, only to top this feat with 5 consecutive Rookies of the Year from 1992-1996. They also hold the team record for most Rookies of the Year with 16 (4 as the Brooklyn Dodgers.)
Winners
Here are the winners of the National League Rookie of the Year Award, in reverse chronological order:
Coincidentally, the first two winners of the Rookie Of The Year award (before the award was split into both leagues) were both National League players. They are:
Bold denotes Hall of Famer.
Source: Major League Baseball - http://www.mlb.com/
See Also:
American League Awards:
National League Awards: