Johnny Bench, who kept his freshman status by missing the final three games of the 1967 season due to a hand injury, is named the National League’s Rookie of the Year by the narrowest of margins. The 20 year-old Reds’ catcher edges Mets’ southpaw Jerry Koosman for the award when Chicago American veteran scribe Jim Enright splits his choice because he “couldn’t vote for one and ignore the other.”