Joe Cowley had the temerity to rank Derek Jeter a mere 6th on his AL MVP ballot, behind winner Justin Morneau, Jermaine Dye, Johan Santana, The Big Hurt and Big Papi. The Sun-Times scribe justified his tally to the New York Times’ Tyler Kepner thusly,
œI thought the guys in front of him were more important to their teams, Cowley said. œJeter is like a great lineman on a great offensive line. If the guard goes down, are they still going to be able to run the ball? Yes.
œAre they a playoff team without Jeter? Yes. I don™t think Derek Jeter single-handedly, with those numbers, carried them to where they finished. I think they still could have found a way.
For his trouble, Cowley suffered a very public chewing out, courtesy of WFAN’s Mike Francesca and Chris Russo (above). (link swiped from Repoz & Baseball Think Factory) File this one under “NSFWB”*.
The last time the duo piled on a phone-in guest so heavily, the guy flew an airplane into the side of a building.
* – “Not Safe For Working Brains”
That was my argument all year long. If Jeter were to have, say, an anal fissure that required surgery and 4 months’ rest, the Yankees would still go to the playoffs because they have plenty of firepower. Ortiz goes down, suddenly the Sox drop to 3rd place. It’s funny that a lot of the rationale I read today re: Ortiz was that he wasn’t going to win because a)he’s a DH and b)he missed all that time on the DL late in the year. It’s precisely the latter point that shows why he is so valuable to his lineup.
I’ve said it a million times: I hate personal achievement awards. They should just let Bill James’ computer pick the winners because I am really not amused every year when imbeciles like your buddies on WFAN waste air time being irrate over this trivial bullshit. Besides, Jeter is the epitome of a selfless, team-first player. Why would he even want the MVP award?
“I’ve said it a million times: I hate personal achievement awards.”
Even the Nobel Prize for excessive blog commentary?
Russo was particularly galled at Santana receiving consideration because “he’s already got his own award” and “Lirano was more important for the Twins”
All of a sudden, that Kruk Awards TV show is looking much, much better.
I’ve really curbed my blog commentary as of late. But if I’d been given an award for it, I’d probably decline it citing your poor treatment of Native Americans.