Jose Abreu and Jacob deGrom couldn't have come from more different upbringings and baseball backgrounds, but they ended up in the same historic place on Monday: the history books.Abreu, the Cuban slugging sensation with the Chicago White Sox, was a unanimous choice as American League Rookie of the Year, and deGrom, the unlikely first-year starting-pitching star for the New York Mets, ran away with the National League voting, taking 26 of 30 first-place votes, according to the Baseball Writers' Association of America ballots that were revealed on MLB Network. 
So none of the news from the first day of the BBWAA awards week honoring the best of the 2014 season was too surprising, but it didn't make it any less thrilling for the players or their supporters.Abreu was announced first, and it was mentioned that he was the ninth unanimous Rookie of the Year winner in history and that he beat out second-place finisher Matt Shoemaker of the Angels and Yankees reliever Dellin Betances, who finished third. Astros starter Collin McHugh was fourth.Right away, Abreu's team and Major League Baseball weighed in with celebratory tweets that captured the drama of the accomplishment for a 27-year-old wearing the No. 79 who was signed straight out of Cuba last fall and proceeded to destroy AL pitching all season long, batting .317 with 36 home runs, 107 RBIs, 35 doubles, a .581 slugging percentage that led the Major Leagues and a .383 on-base percentage.
Abreu, who was the first rookie in baseball history to rank among the top five in his league in each Triple Crown category, seemed stunned to be regarded in such rarefied light."I don't have any words to describe this moment," Abreu said from Chicago alongside his interpreter, White Sox Spanish broadcaster Hector Molina. "Even though I don't show happiness sometimes, inside me I'm trying to process this to see what's going to happen. I want to thank God, my family, the Chicago White Sox, all my teammates and all the fans that really gave me the courage and the power to do this. I'm very humbled."Like I said before, I do not consider myself -- every time I get an award, it doesn't process to me that I'm a great player. I'm just a guy who goes out there, does his job playing baseball and tries to be a teammate. But I'm very happy for this. I consider myself a good hitter, and I guess I proved it."And then there was deGrom. Not long after Abreu basked in the glow of baseball lore, the 26-year-old Mets starter, who began 2013 in Class A ball and was listed as the 19th-best prospect in the club's farm system prior to the 2014 campaign, was bestowed with the exalted honor of best first-year player in the entire National League, beating out second-place Billy Hamilton of the Reds and Kolten Wong, the Cardinals second baseman who finished third.That's kind of what happens when you rocket to the Majors and move from the bullpen to the starting rotation by May and put up numbers and feats of awesomeness like a 2.69 ERA in 22 starts, 144 strikeouts in 140 1/3 innings (9.2 strikeouts per nine innings) and only 43 walks. deGrom also went 3-0 with a 1.32 ERA in his last five starts, striking out 11 per nine innings in that stretch. During one September outing, he struck out the first eight batters he faced.Naturally, the Mets, MLB and the many fans of the team that plays in Queens took to Twitter to lavish love on their long-locked honoree, with the Mets tweeting: "Congratulations, @JdeGrom19! 2014 #NLROY #deGrom4ROY #deGrominant."Meanwhile, deGrom himself reacted like Abreu: with nervous smiles and some well-thought and perfectly appropriate words that show the character beyond the fastball and breaking stuff."It's a real honor," deGrom said, and when MLB Network host Greg Amsinger asked if he ever imagined he'd win this award, deGrom shook his head."Honestly, no," deGrom said. "Really, I didn't. Even coming into this year, I didn't really know what to expect. I came up in the bullpen, got the opportunity to start, and I just wanted to make the most of it and go out there and give it my best. It all worked out, so I'm just very thankful for that."And the world, which is made up of a nicely sized percentage of Mets fans, is thankful for him -- and the sterling straw that sits under the blue cap with the orange NY on the front. As Twitter personality Lana Berry noted, "ok but when does jacob degrom's hair win an award."Like Abreu, deGrom seemed very appreciative of the Rookie of the Year honor and very eager to put it in the trophy case and move on to more pressing matters: helping get his young and improving team to the postseason and beyond.deGrom has a chance to be part of a starting rotation that could be incredible in 2015, with Matt Harvey expected to come back healthy and reinvigorate a group that already includes Jon Niese, Zack Wheeler, Dillon Gee, Bartolo Colon and another exciting prospect, Noah Syndergaard, honing his stuff in the Minors a phone call away."I'm just looking forward to trying to help us win a World Series," deGrom said. "And hopefully be a part of this staff for a long time."
Doug Miller/MLB.com
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