Derek Jeter didn’t win the MVP award yesterday. That isn’t a huge surprise because there was another worthy candidate, David Ortiz. The problem is, he didn’t win it either, Justin Morneau did and once again the baseball writers have messed up.
They do this a lot. Pedro Martinez didn’t get the MVP award once because some writers didn’t include him on their ballots since they felt pitchers shouldn’t be able to win the MVP. Same thing happened to Hideki Matsui when he lost the Rookie of the Year award because some voters decided he wasn’t really a rookie. In both instances, they didn’t like the rules so they just ignored them.
Yesterday, Joe Cowley, a writer who had been suspended from MVP voting once already, listed Jeter as the sixth-best player in the AL behind Morneau, Jermaine Dye, Johan Santana, Frank Thomas and David Ortiz. Not only is Jeter’s spot on the ballot a joke, but how can you vote for two players from the same team ahead of him?
They have to fix this for the good of the game. Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle were left off of ballots when they were eligible for the Hall of Fame. Too many of these writers have agendas and it ruins the integrity of the voting process. Cut their voting power, get some players and managers involved, but fix this before we have to endure more controversy.
