The Yankee Clipper (Joe Dimaggio) vs. The Splendid Splinter (Ted Williams)
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Setting the table for debate...
When I heard about baseball phenom Albert Pujols arguing that he had a better overall year than Philadelphia Phillies superstar slugger Ryan Howard it got those wheels in my mind spinning…Pujols reasoned that he should have won the MVP award because his team, the St. Louis Cardinals, won baseball greatest team prize, the World Series title…Should the MVP award be given to the best player on the best team or should it be given to the best perceived player regardless of his team's win-loss record???Was Ernie Banks a.k.a. Mr. Cub, one of the greatest shortstops in the history of baseball not deserving of his two MVP awards because his Cubs never competed in or won a World Series let alone a single playoff game during his otherwise brilliant career??? What about A-Rod, arguably the greatest all around player of his generation was he not deserving of his two MVP awards because his teams, the Texas Rangers or Yankees (for now) haven't won it all during his tenures??? How can we forget Mr. Barry Lamar Bonds arguably the greatest baseball player ever who has earned a record seven MVP awards and as of yet has no rings but came so close back in 2002 (he put up amazing and historic numbers during that playoff run)…
Individual performance vs. team success...
Baseball (outside maybe golf, boxing and bowling) probably ranks among the world's most individual driven sports…Some of the most important numbers in baseball deal with individual not team accomplishments…For example, when one thinks of the numbers 56; 755; 4,256;.406; 511 one automatically thinks of the names Joe Dimaggio (hitting streak),Hank Aaron (all time homeruns), Pete Rose (all time hits), Ted Williams (last batting average above .400) and Cy Young (pitcher wins) a.k.a. great individual achievements by great individual players…Also Pujols' argument holds less substance when you consider that according to him the best player on the best team should win…Since voting is done before the eventual outcome of the baseball playoffs it should be noted by this standard that Pujols himself, whether justly or not, would be disqualified simply because his team did not have the best record in the National League…As a matter of fact the St. Louis Cardinals made history by being the team with the fewest wins (83-79 in the regular season) to ever win a World Series title…That would have meant that the MVP award should have went to Carlos Delgado or Carlos Beltran who both put up great numbers while playing for the NY Mets the team with the best regular season wins record in the National League…This also means that Derek Jeter should have won the American League MVP since the Yankees put up the best regular season wins record in the American League…
Adding up the stats...
To give credit where credit is due, Pujols, the 2005 NL MVP (by the way he did not win the World Series that year), did have an exceptional year in 2006 for anybody not named Albert Pujols, but a regular one for him, in terms of his astonishingly still young yet legendary career…He lead the National League in on base percentage and was among the leaders in every major offensive category (homeruns, runs,walks,rbi, batting average) and was responsible in many ways for keeping the Cardinals afloat when many of their key players such as Jim Edmonds and Scott Rolen went down with injuries late in the season…Pujols also set a record of game winning rbis or runs batted in with 20, eclipsing the great Willie Mays record that was set in 1962…However it could be said that Ryan Howard also had an exceptional year as well, leading the league in home runs (58), rbis,as well as batting over .300 thus keeping the Phillies in playoff contention until the last month of the season…
Putting the debate in historical terms...
The current Pujols and Howard debate reminds me of the Joe Dimaggio and Ted Williams MVP debate of 1941…You see Joe Dimaggio, the star center fielder for the NY Yankees, hit safely in an amazing 56 games and Ted Williams, the star left fielder for the Boston Red Sox, hit .406 for the season becoming so far the last player to do so...Both of these feats for that matter won't be equaled or surpassed for a long, long time if ever…The closest anybody ever got to 56 was Pete Rose with 44…The last person to truly challenge Ted Williams mark of .406 was Tony Gwynn in the strike shortened season of 1994…The 1941 MVP award eventually went to Joe Dimaggio whose team beat the Brooklyn Dodgers for the World Series title…This may support Pujols argument, but if Ted Williams (who also like Ryan Howard lead his league in homers that year) would have won it you could make a strong case for him as well…
Biggest winners are fans and baseball...
It could be reasoned that since both Joe Dimaggio and Ted Williams were both California natives, Martinez/San Francisco and San Diego respectively, that Major League Baseball, realized (in part motivated by these men's individual achievements) the untapped potential in fan base and talent in other parts of the country and decided to head west of the Mississippi during the expansion years of 1950s and 1960s seeking gold much like the old 49ers gold miners of the 1840s California Gold Rush…St. Louis one of America's greatest baseball cities, got a double whammy when their native team not only won this year's World Series title, but their native son (yes you guess it, Mr. Ryan Howard) won the MVP award…So in both cases regardless of who won the actual award, the fans and baseball were the biggest winners in the end...Mr. Pujols should not worry one bit because he's got plenty of hardware coming in his future and so does Mr. Howard…I am sure that Mr. Howard would love to trade his MVP trophy for a World Series ring…Too many great players like Barry Bonds (for now),Ernie Banks, and Ted Williams won multiple MVPs, but no ring…Mr. Pujols should realize how blessed he is to have already won an MVP award and World Series ring all at the tender age of 26 (even Derek Jeter the Yankees' superstar shortstop haven't won a MVP award and he got four World Series rings!!!)…I have no doubt that Pujols and Howard, if they keep their prodigious paces going for at least 10 years, will join their counterparts Dimaggio and Williams enshrined in Baseball's Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, New York…Until then Play Ball and Play to Win it All!!!
Check out another interesting article about Ryan Howard being compared to the great Josh Gibson.
1 comment:
Who of these two won the MVP award at the end?
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