11/22: The BBWAA Blows Up Their Own Award
Posted by: Jason
First, I knew something was afoot when Ryan Howard won the NL MVP over the deserving Pujols.
Also, don't expect me to start this with the pro forma "all due respect to Morneau" concession. As has been mentioned 37 times elsewhere, Morneau was not even the MVP of his own team. He did not deserve this award, period.
I'll review the extensive damage that the sacred BBWAA has done to the MVP award by drawing appropriate analogies:
1) The Heisman Trophy: In 1989, Raghib "Rocket" Ismail was without question the best player in college football. Notre Dame's coaching staff actually INVENTED a play for the Rocket, the flanker screen. Who wins the Heisman? Ty Detmer, of course, who threw for 200,000 yards in the defensively challenged (to be kind) Western Athletic Conference.
2) The Oscars, 1999: Steven Spielberg crafts one of the 15 greatest movies in 100 years of Hollywood, Saving Private Ryan. The film succeeds on so many levels that it almost defies description.
Best Picture? Shakespeare in Love.
Reflect on that for a moment. A movie memorable now to me only in the absurdity of Ben Affleck cast as an original Shakespearean actor.
Recall the 7th inning of the 2nd game of the doubleheader in the defining Boston series this year. Bases loaded. #2 clears the bases with an opposite field double. Yankees win en route to a sweep.
Morneau over Jeter. I am baffled...and like the oscars and the Heisman, I'll never look at the award the same way again.
Also, don't expect me to start this with the pro forma "all due respect to Morneau" concession. As has been mentioned 37 times elsewhere, Morneau was not even the MVP of his own team. He did not deserve this award, period.
I'll review the extensive damage that the sacred BBWAA has done to the MVP award by drawing appropriate analogies:
1) The Heisman Trophy: In 1989, Raghib "Rocket" Ismail was without question the best player in college football. Notre Dame's coaching staff actually INVENTED a play for the Rocket, the flanker screen. Who wins the Heisman? Ty Detmer, of course, who threw for 200,000 yards in the defensively challenged (to be kind) Western Athletic Conference.
2) The Oscars, 1999: Steven Spielberg crafts one of the 15 greatest movies in 100 years of Hollywood, Saving Private Ryan. The film succeeds on so many levels that it almost defies description.
Best Picture? Shakespeare in Love.
Reflect on that for a moment. A movie memorable now to me only in the absurdity of Ben Affleck cast as an original Shakespearean actor.
Recall the 7th inning of the 2nd game of the doubleheader in the defining Boston series this year. Bases loaded. #2 clears the bases with an opposite field double. Yankees win en route to a sweep.
Morneau over Jeter. I am baffled...and like the oscars and the Heisman, I'll never look at the award the same way again.
