IBWAA ANNOUNCES 2009 ROOKIE OF THE YEAR AND MANAGER OF THE YEAR AWARDS

IBWAA ANNOUNCES 2009 ROOKIE OF THE YEAR AND MANAGER OF THE YEAR AWARDS

Los Angeles - The Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA) announces its first set of postseason votes, naming the 2009 Rookie of the Year (ROY) and Manager of the Year (MOR) award winners.

The AL ROY was won by Elvis Andrus, of the Texas Rangers, with the NL ROY going to Tommy Hanson, of the Atlanta Braves. AL MOR and NL MOR winners were Ron Gardenhire, of the Minnesota Twins, and Jim Tracy, of the Colorado Rockies, respectively.

Results are as follows:

IBWAA American League Rookie of the Year:

Winner: Elvis Andrus (Texas Rangers)
Second Place: Andrew Bailey (Oakland Athletics)
Third Place: Jeff Niemann (Tampa Bay Rays)

IBWAA National League Rookie of the Year:

Winner: Tommy Hanson (Atlanta Braves)
Second Place: Chris Coghlan (Florida Marlins)
Third Place: J.A. Happ (Philadelphia Phillies)

IBWAA American League Manager of the Year:

Winner: Ron Gardenhire (Minnesota Twins)
Second Place: Mike Scioscia (Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim)
Third Place: Joe Girardi (New York Yankees)

IBWAA National League Manager of the Year:

Winner: Jim Tracy (Colorado Rockies)
Second Place: Joe Torre (Los Angeles Dodgers)
Third Pl Tie: Bruce Bochy (San Francisco Giants)
Third Pl Tie: Fredi Gonzalez (Florida Marlins)

Voting took place between September 15 and October 4, the final day of the regular season.

IBWAA Comeback of the Year and Executive of the Year awards will be announced Tuesday, November 10, 2009, with the announcement of the association's Cy Young and Most Valuable Player awards coming Wednesday, November 11.

The IBWAA was created in July 4, 2009 by Howard Cole, editor of BaseballSavvy.com, to organize and promote the growing online baseball media, and to serve as an alternative voice to the Base Ball Writers Association of America (BBWAA).

IBWAA members include Kevin Braun, freelance writer and former copy editor at Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Tim Brown, YahooSports, Peter Golenbock, baseball author; Tom Hoffarth, Media/General Columnist, Los Angeles Daily News; Tony Jackson, former Dodgers reporter, Los Angeles Daily News; David Pinto, owner/author, BaseballMusings.com; and Gary Warner, Travel Editor, Orange County Register.

Association memberships are open to any and all Internet baseball writers, with a yearly fee of $20. Discounts for groups and scholarships are available.

For more information on the IBWAA, please visit the temporary webpage here, http://www.baseballsavvy.com/internetbaseballwriters.html. In the coming months, the IBWAA can be found at www.InternetBaseballWriters.com.

Contact:

Howard Cole
Acting Director, IBWAA
baseballsavvy@aol.com