A-Rod is AL MVP; Seriously, He Is

The Baseball Writers’ Association of America voted Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees the American League’s Most Valuable Player for the 2005 season. A-Rod hit .133 against the California [or Anaheim, or Los Angeles] Angels in the division series, and spent the World Series watching TV (or playing poker in illegal clubs). Did the writers lose their minds, or develop an insane sense of humor? No, they merely voted before the playoffs, back when Mr. Rodriguez looked good, on paper.

Back before the season ended, A-Rod was a hot rod. He hit roughly 20 home runs in the last two months of the season, totaling 48 for the year. That was the league’s best, and incidentally, it was 2 better than the Yankees' previous top score for a right-handed batter – a guy named Joe DiMaggio hit 46 in a season back when the world was young. Those homers contributed to a season total 130 RBIs, and a .321 batting average with 21 stolen bases round out his season. A pretty good run of things.

But when the deal went down, the Yankees didn’t make it to the World Series, didn’t even make it to the League Championship Series. They lost in the first round, and they looked pretty second-rate doing it. That isn’t what owner George Steinbrenner expects when he has the highest payroll in the game (or in any sport). Moreover, he’s paying Mr. Rodriguez $252 million. As most grandfathers would say, “for that money, he should drive the team bus, too.”

Mr. Rodriguez is probably harder on himself than anyone. Right after losing the deciding game to the Angels, he said, “`I played great baseball all year, and I played like a dog the last five days . . . . I've got to take a long look in the mirror because I didn't do my part. I mean, you win and lose as a team, but I didn't show up.'”

Reggie Jackson (who was better in Oakland than he ever was in New York) is still known to Yankees fans and other followers of Satan as “Mr. October.” A-Rod may well be known as “Mr. Regular Season.” He doesn’t get it done in the playoffs. Mike Lupica, of New York’s Daily News, observed, “In the last nine postseason games Rodriguez has played as a Yankee, he is 4-for-32, a .125 batting average, one home run, two RBI. He was 1-for-12 over the last three games against the Red Sox in '04 and 2-for-15 against the Angels. No RBI for those eight games.” Mr. Rodriguez has never won a World Series Championship despite his reputation as a franchise player.

Of course, the other players in the league also have something to do with which is the “most valuable.” Other contenders like Boston’s David Ortiz and the Angels’ Vladimir Guerrero didn’t really outshine Mr. Rodriguez. For next year, the baseball writers should consider two improvements to their voting system. First, don’t cast any ballots until the World Series is over. And second, put “none of the above” on the ballot paper.


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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