Twin-VP

November 21, 2006


MVP! MVP!I never expected this.

The MVP this year was supposed to be between Derek Jeter of the Yankees and David Ortiz of the Red Sox.

The two Minnesota Twins candidates – Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau – were supposed to split the votes, causing both to lose out.

East Coast Bias®™ was supposed to render a small-market American League player hopeless, constantly overlooked by reporters and slotted as lower in talent than New York and Boston stars.

I guess that’s why they vote, isn’t it?

Congratulations to Justin Morneau – the man that led the Minnesota Twins to an improbable regular season comeback; who hit .321, had 34 homers and 130 RBI; and who made only $385,000 last season. Yeah. $385 thousand gets you an MVP these days. In the National League, where MVP Ryan Howard’s salary is $355 thousand, you’d even have 30K left to spend on concessions.

Some people call it a bad choice. Well, you know what? The votes are all that mattered. Derek Jeter probably deserved to win the MVP this year. In fact, I’m almost certain he did. I’d have voted for Joe Mauer, myself. I don’t even think Morneau is the best player on his TEAM.

But, you see, sometimes the votes fall in favor of a guy with more emotion behind him – the guy who can get his team to play better and can charge up a clubhouse like no other – instead of the player with better stats, more marketability, and sheer popularity.

Ask Steve Nash. It happened to him twice. And there’s no denying it. The baseball writers of the nation have spoken. The sports writers around the world have spoken. This year, at least, they’ve voted en masse for Canadians – Nash, NHL MVP Joe Thornton, and now Morneau. Which is pretty sweet, actually.

But it’s even sweeter that a Minnesota Twin is the Most Valuable Player of the American League for the first time since Rod Carew won it in 1977.

The Minnesota Twins had the best pitcher (Cy Young winner Johan Santana, which wasn’t a surprise and therefore didn’t make it to BMOWP’s front page) and the best hitter. And they still lost in the first round. Is this what it’s like to be a Twins fan?

If so; God help me.

Tags: Baseball, Minnesota Twins, Sports |

10 Comments

Comments

10 Responses to “Twin-VP”

  1. eric on November 22nd, 2006 812 am

    morneau definitely deserved the award and jeter defintely did not. without jeter the yankees would have still made the playoffs and lost. without morneau, the twins would have been awful and mauer would never have gotten the batting title. when the twins started to make their miraculous comeback, it was morneau that sparked them to many of those victories. when he turned it around, so did the twins.
    jeter is a butt

  2. eric on November 22nd, 2006 829 am

    ps, i’m really mad about this. he deserved the damn thing and my ’33 for mvp’ shirt is proof enough for me.
    most valuable player on his team. and the damn league.

  3. Corey Vilhauer on November 22nd, 2006 1124 am

    Morneau is the Nash of the MLB. A vote for one is a vote for the other. :)

  4. eric on November 22nd, 2006 1202 pm

    i’m not starting that again dude. but here is a copy of the email i attempted to send to keith law, who writes for espn.com. his column was entitled ‘morneau laughable choice for mvp’ grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. well, here’s what i tried to send:

    keith, YOU are a laughable choice for my butt.
    it looks like you cut your hair with your feet.
    you smell like wet poop.
    taste like it too.
    quit leaving your fingernail clippings all over the bed!
    WE ARE ALL STARTING TO REALLY HATE IT!
    you suck
    eric.
    ps- you suck

    yeah, pretty sweet, but klaw@espn.com is unfortunately not his email address. someone help me! if someone out there can get me this address i solemnly swear to write him an email similar to this one every weekday until the beginning of the baseball season (pitchers and catchers report february 15th, so at least until then). i really will.
    eric

  5. Corey Vilhauer on November 22nd, 2006 1208 pm

    “i’m not starting that again dude.”

    Kerrie thanks you, I’m sure.

    Tell him that he keeps leaving floaters in the toilet.

  6. eric on November 22nd, 2006 1223 pm

    i will, tomorrow.
    i decided to send it to the general espn.com email address. i will continue to do this until februay 15th (at least)

  7. eric on November 22nd, 2006 111 pm

    guess what? well, look at this

    http://letterstokeithlaw.blogspot.com

  8. Corey Vilhauer on November 22nd, 2006 114 pm

    Awesome. That’s just awesome.

  9. eric on November 22nd, 2006 206 pm

    i promise it will get even better

  10. Will on November 27th, 2006 316 pm

    “keith, YOU are a laughable choice for my butt.”

    That made me literally lol.

Leave a Reply