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Yesterday's Manager of the Year Awards produced nary a single discouraging word and that is not surprising as the jobs done by Tony Pena of the Royals and Jack McKeon of the Marlins both fit the number one criteria for such an award: they surprised us. Surprise is the key element in a Manager of the Year Award. Taking a nowhere team and bringing it somewhere will put a skipper at the top of the heap every time.

No, the controversy this week continues to be stem from the American League Rookie of the Year Award which went to Angel Berroa over Hideki Matsui. Matsui lost some points when two writers failed to name him on their ballots owing to his vast experience in the Japanese major leagues. Naturally, this has caused no end of acrimony

What is interesting, though, is that at least one can argue that Berroa deserved the award. The real controversy in Rookie of the Year voting shouldn't be in the American League but in the National where Dontrelle Willis not only won but waltzed his way to the ROY prize. How can this possibly be?

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