Quick Note About Rookies
This is just a little note from a longer study that I just started. It is a study of rookies, and I am using a "Game Equivalents" score for playing time, game equivalents based on both games played and plate appearances. The surprise discovery was that, of the 25 highest playing times score ever for rookie players, an astonishing 12 of the 25 are from the years 1961 to 1966. Jake Wood, 1961, is number 1 (162 games, 731 plate appearances as a rookie). Chuck Schilling, 1961 is number 3, Tony Oliva, 1964 is number 6, Rich Rollins, 1962 is number 7, Dick Allen, 1964 is number 8, Ken Hubbs, 1962 is number 9, Dick Howser, 1961 is number 12. Others are Tom Tresh, 1962, Joe Morgan, 1965, George Scott, 1966, Tommie Agee, 1966, and Pete Rose, 1963. (The standard is whether we would consider the player a rookie NOW and by the playing time standard only, not whether they were considered a rookie THEN and by the days-on-the-roster standard. I think Rollins in ’62 was not considered a rookie at the time.)
Obviously expansion and the lengthened schedule influenced this, but we have been playing the lengthened schedule since 1961. Dominant attitudes about playing rookies every day apparently changed about 1967.