Have you heard? The leader in voting and likely winner for the American League MVP is, ugh.... well… we should know in about 2 weeks, right? Wrong.
Major League Baseball seems to feel the announcement of this award along with Rookie of the Year, Cy Young and all other awards are best revealed during the late winter of this year.
I mean you would think that at the height of its network exposure, when the nation is watching the Wild card playoffs, LCS and World Series that MLB would make sure they have announced the winners so that the media and broadcast teams can further expound about this "in-game, made for TV" setup of that years' Cy Young winner (John Smoltz?) facing that years' MVP (Barry Bonds?). But no.
This possible award winner match up will be an afterthought sometime later this year, when the NBA and NHL is in full swing, when Paul Tagliabue has 17 teams vying for the playoffs and everyone in the media will be discussing the bazillion NFL playoff scenarios. This will, in MLB estimation, be the ideal time to announce its award winners. Brilliant. The perfect time for fans to reflect back and say, "gee, remember when Smoltz faced Bonds, uh two months ago, hey that was the eventual Cy Young winner versus the MVP...how about that, oh well." Do you think MLB can get the vote out at the end of the season and capitalize on the exposure of October baseball and announce the award winners? Do you think it may lend just a bit interest to fans who won't need to wait 8 weeks for the results...how anti-climatic.
Oh, and just for giggles, how about, beginning say August 15, MLB publishes an "award tracking" poll (gee, you mean like the NCAA, yes) which would list the top 5 players for each award and the total votes. How about they do this for 6 weeks, once a week, straight through the end of the season. Basically, some body of sportswriters votes on these awards and we, as fans have no idea who the frontrunner for the awards are and more importantly what criteria is being used to select the player. Is it measured by overall stats, is it stats but with the added value to his team, is it number of wins, number of saves.... wouldn't be great to have this leader poll made public thereby creating loads of additional discussion and debate about the awards, how its leaders are being selected, and overall more importantly, keep Baseball the hot topic.
Also by Frank Santorelli
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Posted September 23, 2003.
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