Joyner Stunned as Canseco Gets Rookie Award

Wally Joyner has recovered nicely from the shoulder injury that reduced his effectiveness during the final two months of the regular season.

He has rebounded from the blood infection that forced him to miss the final four games of the American League playoff series with the Boston Red Sox.

Tuesday, however, he was hurting in another way.

He found it hard to accept the vote by a 28-member committee of the Baseball Writers Assn. of America that made Jose Canseco, the Oakland A’s left fielder, American League rookie of the year.

Said Joyner, the Angel first baseman: “In a nutshell, I’m a little disappointed. I don’t think anyone can ever tell me that he had a better year. We both deserved it, but I felt I had the edge. I felt I helped my team out more than he did. Day in and day out, I played a more important role than Jose Canseco did.”

In a stunning year for American League rookies, only Canseco and Joyner were named on all 28 ballots. Canseco got 16 first-place votes, 9 for second and 3 for third, totaling 110 points (based on five points for each first-place vote, three for second and one for third). Joyner got 12 votes for first, 11 for second and 5 for third, totaling 98 points.

Toronto relief pitcher Mark Eichorn was third with 23 points, followed by Cleveland’s versatile Cory Snyder with 16, Seattle second baseman and soon to be right fielder Danny Tartabull with 4 and Texas outfielder Ruben Sierra with 1.

How tough was the competition? Texas right fielder Pete Incaviglia, who hit 30 home runs and drove in 88 runs, failed to get even one vote.

Canseco, a defensive liability who batted .240 and struck out 175 times as the A’s tied for third place in the Western Division, obviously swayed the electorate by hitting 33 homers, fourth-highest in the league, and driving in 117 runs, second only to the 121 by Cleveland’s Joe Carter.

“I thought I had the edge because I had so many more home runs and runs batted in (than Joyner),” Canseco told Oakland reporters.

Joyner, a stylish fielder, batted .290, hit 22 homers and drove in 100 runs. He had a significant impact in the first half when the Angels opened a lead. He hit .313 with 20 homers and 72 RBIs before the All-Star break, then, bothered by the sore shoulder, hit only .257 with 2 homers and 28 RBIs the rest of the way.

“It’s kind of hard to swallow, knowing the reason for my slow second half and knowing it probably (cost the award),” Joyner said. “I think my first half was almost forgotten, after his great finish and the terrible finish I had.”

Joyner, visiting his in-laws in Kensington, Md., was confused by his having finished far ahead of Canseco in voting for Most Valuable Player. Joyner was eighth with 74 votes, Canseco 20th with only 3.

“I thought we were close enough (statistically) that the voters would have looked for something else, but all that a rookie of the year has to do, I guess, is put some numbers on the board,” Joyner said. “I don’t think my impact on the team was considered at all. “He beat me in home runs and RBIs and had a small edge in runs (85-82). I beat him in batting average and on-base average (.348 to .318) and we tied in slugging percentage (.457). There was a big difference in strikeouts, of course (Joyner had only 58).

“Offensively, I thought it was even, a toss-up. Defensively, there was no comparison. I played the infield, he played the outfield. I made 15 errors, he made 14. That’s quite a lot for an outfielder. I helped my team win; his team finished last (the only statistic Joyner had wrong). He didn’t contribute to that, but you also can’t say he helped the A’s that much either.”