ESPN Magazine's NEXT | Will Joba Rule? at Schema : more than ethnic

ESPN Magazine's NEXT | Will Joba Rule?

According to Baseball Almanac, New York Yankees' rookie phenom JOBA CHAMBERLAIN is one of two active Native American players in Major League Baseball (Jacoby Ellsbury of the Boston Red Sox is the other). He's also one of the 5 up-and-coming athletes vying for ESPN Magazine's NEXT title. Other finalists? Portland guard Brandon Roy, WVU running back Noel Devine, 49ers linebacker Patrick Willis and champion sprinter Tyson Gay. Now, that's a tough competition.

Chamberlain joined the Yankees this past August and quickly became a fan favorite with his 100mph fastball and endearing backstory about how his polio-stricken father taught him to pitch. Of course, the fact that he retired the first 60 batters he faced in the majors didn't hurt either. He would go on to finish the season with a 2-0 record and a sparkling 0.38 ERA, allowing only one earned run in 24 innings while striking out 34. (If you are not familiar with baseball, you only need to know that's really, really good. Like, bordering on ridiculous.)

Voting closes on Nov 25th and the winner will be revealed in the Dec 5th issue of the ESPN Magazine.

More: Joba Chamberlain: Rocket Redux @ ESPN.com | Joba Chamberlain bio HERE | Past NEXT Winners @ ESPN.com

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