A rookie is a person new to an occupation, profession, or hobby. In sports, a ''rookie'' is a professional athlete in their first season (or year).
In contrast with a
veteran
A veteran () is a person who has significant experience (and is usually adept and esteemed) and expertise in a particular occupation or field. A military veteran is a person who is no longer serving in a military.
A military veteran that has ...
who has experience and expertise, a rookie is usually inexperienced and prone to making mistakes.
Throughout sports
In some sports there are
traditions
A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or ...
in which rookies must do things, or tricks are played on them. Examples in baseball include players having to dress up in very strange costumes, or getting hit in the face with a cream pie; a traditional rookie's "
hazing
Hazing (American English), initiation, beasting (British English), bastardisation (Australian English), ragging (South Asian English) or deposition refers to any activity expected of someone in joining or participating in a group that humiliates, ...
" procedure in
American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...
involves taping players to a
goalpost and dousing them with ice water, Gatorade, and other substances.
In Major League Baseball, the MLB has cracked down on hazing by enacting an Anti-Hazing and Anti-Bullying Policy which prohibits players from dressing up as the opposite sex, or wearing offensive costumes based on race, sex, nationality, age, sexual orientation, and gender identify.
American football
In the
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...
a rookie is any player who is in their first season in the NFL, having never signed a contract with an NFL team before. The NFL awards the best rookie with the
Associated Press NFL Rookie of the Year Award
The Associated Press NFL Rookie of the Year Award is an annual award given to the top offensive and defensive first-year players in the National Football League (NFL) as adjudged by the Associated Press (AP). Winners are selected by a nationwide p ...
, as voted upon the
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
. In the NFL, rookies have special contract rules which limit how much a team can pay them as well as limiting the length of the contract, as per stipulations laid out in the
NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Auto racing
![Cole Whitt Rookie Stripes](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Cole_Whitt_Rookie_Stripes.jpg)
NASCAR and INDYCAR rookies are denoted by a yellow stripe on sections of the car as prescribed in the respective rule books. In NASCAR, the rookie stripe is located on the tail panel of the race car.
NASCAR
The following rules are for rookie status in a national series:
* Must have run no more than five (prior to 2001 in Cup and Xfinity, and in the Truck Series for age-eligible drivers), seven (2001–10, Cup and Xfinity), and have been declared to race for driver points in that series (2011–present), races in any previous season.
**In the Camping World Truck Series, a driver that is 17 at the start of the season and does not make ten starts overall is eligible in his first full season after turning 18. Truck Series drivers who are 16 and 17 may only participate in nine races during the season based on circuits.
* Drivers who compete in more than five races in a higher NASCAR-sanctioned series are not eligible for the award in a lower series if they have not declared for the higher series.
* If a driver does not start eight races before the end of Race 20 on the schedule, they will immediately become ineligible to earn rookie points for the rest of that season and starting in 2011, remained declared for that series. Drivers may change series declaration in order to avoid this.
* A driver may not receive rookie points if they start a race for a team that they did not qualify with. However, they are still eligible for championship points in that race.
INDYCAR
The following rules are for rookie status in the NTT IndyCar Series:
* Must not have participated in more than three NTT IndyCar Series races in a season.
* A veteran driver in the Indianapolis 500 may still be a Series Rookie if he has not competed in more than three series races overall.
* A driver who has never raced in the Indianapolis 500 but has made a legal season of NTT IndyCar Series races is still an Indianapolis 500 rookie in his first start.
Baseball
To qualify as a rookie in
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
(MLB), a player must not have exceeded 130
at bat
In baseball, an at bat (AB) or time at bat is a batter's turn batting against a pitcher. An at bat is different from a plate appearance. A batter is credited with a plate appearance regardless of what happens during their turn at bat, but a batt ...
s or fifty
innings pitched
In baseball, innings pitched (IP) are the number of innings a pitcher has completed, measured by the number of batters and baserunners that are put out while the pitcher is on the pitching mound in a game. Three outs made is equal to one innin ...
in the majors, and also fewer than 45 days on the active rosters of major league clubs (excluding time on the disabled list or any time after rosters are expanded on September 1) in their previous seasons. Major League Baseball awards the best rookie with the
Major League Baseball Rookie of the Year Award, as voted upon by the
Baseball Writers' Association of America and first bestowed in 1947. Since 2001, MLB also issues the
Major League Baseball Rookie of the Month Award.
Basketball
In the
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...
, a rookie is any player who has never played a game in the NBA until that year and the past 1 years. The NBA awards the best rookie with the
NBA Rookie of the Year Award
The National Basketball Association's Rookie of the Year Award is an annual National Basketball Association (NBA) award given to the top rookie(s) of the regular season. Initiated following the 1952–53 NBA season, it confers the Eddie Gottl ...
, as voted upon by a selected panel of United States and Canadian sportswriters and broadcasters. In the NBA, rookies have special contract rules which limit how much a team can pay them as well as limiting the length of the contract.
Ice hockey
To qualify as a rookie in the
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...
, To be considered a rookie, a player must not have played in more than 25 NHL games in any preceding seasons, nor in six or more NHL games in each of any two preceding seasons. Any player at least 26 years of age (by September 15 of that season) is not considered a rookie.
Soccer
In
Major League Soccer
Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...
, a rookie is a player who has had no prior professional experience. MLS awards the best rookie with the
MLS Rookie of the Year Award The MLS Young Player of the Year Award (known as the Rookie of the Year Award from 1996 to 2019) is an annual award given to the top player in Major League Soccer under the age of 22.
The award was initially awarded to a rookie, or a player who no ...
.
Etymology
The
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...
states that the origins are uncertain, but that perhaps it is a corruption of the word ''recruit''. The earliest example in the OED is from
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work.
...
's ''Barrack-Room Ballads'' (published 1892): "''So 'ark an' 'eed, you rookies, which is always grumblin' sore''", referring to rookies in the sense of raw recruits to the British Army.
[John Simpson and Edmund Weiner (editors): '']Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...
, second edition'', Clarendon Press, 1989, . At least during the beginning of the 20th century, in the British Army the term "rookie" was typically used in place of "recruit" as exemplified in ''Trenching at Gallipoli'' by John Gallishaw (New York Century Co.: 1916) and in ''The Amateur Army'' by Patrick MacGill (London, Herbert Jenkins: 1915). Perhaps the expression is derived from "rook", whereby a "rookie" would be someone who is cheated or defrauded.
See also
*
Rookie of the Year (award) – an award given to an athlete following the first year of full competition, for more impressive performance and/or better results than all other rookies that season.
*
Freshman
A freshman, fresher, first year, or frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions.
Ara ...
*
Novice
A novice is a person who has entered a religious order and is under probation, before taking vows. A ''novice'' can also refer to a person (or animal e.g. racehorse) who is entering a profession
A profession is a field of work that has ...
References
{{reflist
Beginners and newcomers
Sports competitors