By all accounts, Mike Trout is having one heck of a season. His wins-above-replacement stat—9.2 games—is more than one-and-a-half times that of the next-highest ranked player in the bigs. His .335 batting average and 42 steals lead the AL, and his OPS of .979 is second only to Miguel Cabrera. Though Cabrera and Josh Hamilton may give him a run for his money, Mike Trout is very likely to win the AL MVP award this year.
And to top it all off, he’s just a rookie.
If Trout wins both the MVP and Rookie of the Year awards, he’ll be joining a very select group of athletes in any sport who’ve managed the feat. Who are the others, and what did they do?