Overtired
Longtime Dave's World reader Steve Sears was chiding me over instant message at one point Tuesday night for the lack of a post. So this is all for you, pal. I just got done with 14 hours of editing and I can barely see straight, so I make no claims about the coherence of the following items:
*The notion that a designated hitter can't be MVP is ridiculous. Last I checked, the criteria is simply that the winner is the player deemed most valuable to his team -- the precise rules that enabled Alex Rodriguez to win the award as the clear-cut most important member the last-place Texas Rangers a few years back.
How can anyone make the claim that anyone has been more valuable to their team in the American League than David Ortiz this year? If you take A-Rod out of the Yankees lineup, they still have a murderer's row. Which they also did before he came to town, you know, back in the days when they actually went to the World Series. They have a killer lineup with him and would without him.
What happens if you subtract David Ortiz from the Red Sox lineup? Manny Ramirez isn't anywhere near as effective without Ortiz in front of him in the most potent left-right combo in baseball, and aside from the Ramirez and Ortiz, the rest of the lineup are complementary pieces who won't give the team a boost on their own. How many game-winning hits does Ortiz have this year? How bad would the Red Sox' September be without him to this point?
This is no contest. Ortiz should win hands down.
As for the whole playing-the-field thing, well, if the glove is a factor, go back to the top of the ninth in the third game of the season between the Sox and Yanks in the Bronx in April. A-Rod muffed an routine Ramirez grounder that should have been a game-winning double play, then stared at the ball, frozen, as though Jason Varitek was coming at him again. That play opened the floodgates and turned what should have been a Yankees win into a Red Sox laugher. That's a two-game swing in the standings, and if Boston wins the division by one game, a distinct possibility, there's your answer right there about A-Rod's contributions in the field.
Either way, this is all moot, because Hellen Keller can see the upcoming result: Some jackass with a vote in New York will leave Ortiz off the ballot entirely and A-Rod will win by about two points.
*The playoff contenders in the AL better be hoping that the Chicago White Sox hold off the Cleveland Indians, because if the Indians get in, they're going to be trouble. The White Sox, their win Tuesday night notwithstanding, have looked like dead men walking in recent weeks and if they do somehow get in, they'll likely have the same meek little exit they've made in each of their sporadic playoff appearances they've made over the past couple decades.
*An open letter to Youppi!, who I am pretty sure is sitting at his computer reading this. From someone who still dearly misses the Expos, this needs to be said: Youppi!, you soulless traitor. You big orange lout. You were a happy face no matter how sad the franchise became, and the last time I saw a game at Stade Olympique, that night a mere 17 months ago in which the Expos beat the Cardinals, I watched you personally entertain all 18 little kids in attendance at various points in the game. You were noble and pure. You could have rode off into the sunset on your white horse, or at least spent your retirement frittering away your time and money at various gentlemen's establishments on Ste. Catherine's. But now you've committed an act so disgusting and vile I can barely bring myself to type these words: Youppi! now wears the bleu, blanc et rouge of the Montreal Canadiens. That hurts, Youppi!. From now on, I shall call you Benedict Youppi, and you don't even get the exclamation point at the end of your name anymore.
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