"During the past 10 years, the Most Valuable Player award has gone to two admitted steroid users (Ken Caminiti and Jason Giambi), two strongly suspected (wink, wink) steroid users (Sammy Sosa and some guy in San Francisco) and one guy, Pudge Rodriguez, who has shrunk more drastically in the past two years than Lindsay Lohan.
If you can give baseball's most prestigious honor to Barry Bonds six times and to Alex Rodriguez twice, don't you think it's about time the academy showed some love for Derek Jeter?"
What the hell is this guy's problem with Alex Rodriguez?
Why is he lumping Alex Rodriguez in with steroid users and cheaters?
That's truly disgusting and offensive.
"I know, the MVP is not supposed to be a lifetime achievement award, but it's not supposed to be a stats competition, either."
Of course it's a stats competition.
"Unfortunately, as baseball fell deeper and deeper into its drug-fueled love affair with the long ball, so too have the MVP voters."
Do we have to go through this again?
Pick a decade, pick any decade. Peruse the history of MVP winners. It's very easy to find on the Interweb. Even Hal Bodley could probably find it.
While homeruns are not the only statistic that matters, they're historically pretty damned important in MVP voting. It's just incredibly ignorant to suggest that the nation's love affair with the homerun is some sort of recent phenomenon.
"You can say what you want about Jeter, that he's too smug, that he's protected in a great lineup, that he's a bad teammate for not cradling poor widdle A-Rod to his bosom -- it's all hogwash, by the way -- but even the most fervent Jeter-haters out there would have to concede that not only does he play hard and play well every time out, he also plays clean."
Okay, fine. Derek Jeter plays clean.
David Ortiz doesn't play clean? Joe Mauer doesn't play clean? Justin Morneau doesn't play clean? Travis Hafner doesn't play clean? Johan Santana doesn't play clean? Poor widdle Alex Rodriguez doesn't play clean?
"Plus, more than any of his teammates, he sets the tone for what opponents have come to expect from the Yankees."
A first-round exit in the playoffs?
"The perception that the Yankees never quit, that the Yankees play smart baseball, that the Yankees will find any way to beat you, all come from Derek Jeter. He doesn't represent the Yankees so much as the Yankees represent him."
Ladies and Gentlemen, I present, for your consideration, Wallace Matthews: A New York City sportswriter who missed the entire 2006 American League Divisional Series.
"Granted, those are tickets to Cooperstown, not the MVP award, but if we are going to reward numbers, artificially enhanced or not, then for once, why not reward 'intangibles,' the qualities that can't be juiced?"
Even if I was convinced that "intangibles" should be rewarded (why is "intangibles" in quotation marks? "Intangibles" is regular ol' English word, is it not?), I'd still have to be convinced that Jeter provided more intangibles than his AL MVP competitors.
"This season, it was those qualities in Jeter that kept the Yankees ahead of the AL East when they had every excuse to pack it in early."
You know, the injury-riddled Yankees still had Jeter, Damon, ARod, Posada, Rivera, Wang, Abreu and well over $100 million on the field every night ... in other words, they had absolutely no excuse to pack it in early.
"Despite what A-Rod told Esquire, I have yet to hear anyone in baseball say, 'We better not let Joe Mauer beat us.' I have heard plenty say it about Jeter."
Matthews never heard anyone in baseball say, "We better not let Joe Mauer beat us."
Wow.
Maybe that's why Joe Mauer beat so many people in baseball.
Or maybe Wallace Matthews doesn't know too many people in baseball.
Or maybe people in baseball are just really, really, really, really stupid.
If I was a baseball person? I'd be aware of the catcher who batted .347 with a good eye and decent power.
Then, right before I played the Twins, I'd say, "We better not Joe Mauer beat us."
7 comments:
You're a strange, angry dude. Is it because you wish you were a sportswriter and you can't get a job?
Wow, now I really hope Mauer wins...well, no I don't, but anyway. What the hell is it with these sport writers and their hard on for AROD? How is AROD concerened with whether or not Jeter wins the title over the guy he lost the batting battle to or Ortiz?
Jeter will win because there were three Twins players who will all receive votes. If people can't decide whether Santana, Mauer or Morneau were the most valuable on their own team, how can they win for the whole league?
Name another MVP candidate on the Yankees. Exactly. Jeter should win.
Well...seeing as the MVP title is not based on a Yankee or bust, I do not see the reasoning behind that argument.
To Anonymous 1,
Wallace Matthews is a strange, angry dude. I could never be as angry as Wallace Matthews is. He uses a public forum to describe Alex Rodriguez as "poor widdle ARod" and also imply that ARod is a cheater and steroid abuser. He hates ARod so much that he can't understand why ARod would win MVP awards in baseball.
I'm not nearly as angry as you seem to think. I think it's funny that Matthews et al actually write this crud and get paid to do it. I can guarantee that a typical Yankee fan who watches the games knows a lot more about baseball than Wallace Matthews.
As for being a sportswriter, many people ask me that question. I'm baffled by this question. Writing about sports seems okay, I guess. I like to vent on my blog and my friends get a kick out of it.
But a beat reporter seems like one of the lamest jobs I can think of. Taking a joy like baseball and turning it into drudgery. Interviewing pro athletes in a locker room after a game: "It was a good game. Both teams played hard." Yawn.
Anonymous 3,
I think Jeter will win. In my personal vote, Jeter was second. Whatever.
Jeter is a shortstop with speed and power who hit .350. I don't know why Wallace Matthews would make an MVP argument for Jeter and not once -- not once! -- use a baseball statistic.
I think Jeter's intangibles are a flimsy argument. He's valuable because of his tangibles.
Why would anybody assume that Jeter has better leadership than Johan Santana? Because Wallace Matthews says so?
No, it doesn't have to go to a Yankee... but look at the top contenders from the playoff teams ... Jeter, Morneau, Mauer, Santana, Thomas and no one from the Tigers. Dye? Ortiz? Teams didn't make the playoffs despite being more talented than those who did. No way they should win.
Jeter wins because he deserves it.
Post a Comment