Yesterday, I was unable to post because of the varsity basketball game I went to to support my school. I hoped in my last entry that my school would dominate the game and that it would go by fast, so that I could get home in time to post. They did win, but it was not as much domination as I had hoped. It was a one-sided game, and my school won by more than 20 points. However, there were more fouls in this game than in any high school basketball game I've ever seen. Therefore, I didn't arrive home until late. It was a fun time though, and I'm glad I went.

Yesterday, there was again no real baseball news, aside from the minor signing of Gary Matthews Jr. and resigning of Shane Victorino. The most interesting news of yesterday involved a young prospect who has been quickly moving up the ranks in the Oakland Athletics' farm system: Grant Desme. Desme had a phenomenal season in Class A ball, hitting 31 homeruns and stealing 40 bases. He also received the MVP award in the Arizona Fall League, and was awaiting his expected invite to spring training with the A's. However, unknown to the public or the A's organization, Desme had been considering a higher calling for some time. Yesterday, he announced that he would be leaving baseball to become a priest. Desme had always been a very religious person, and thanks God for his success in baseball this past year. When he contacted A's GM Billy Beane, he expected Beane to be shocked and disappointed. Surprisingly, Beane's reaction was, "great" and he was very understanding of the decision, according to Desme. Desme also said:

"I thought, I'm doing well in baseball, but I really had to get down to the bottom of things -- what was good in my life, what I wanted to do with my life. And I felt that while baseball is a good thing and I love playing, I thought it was selfish of me to be doing that when I really felt that God was calling me more, which took me awhile in my life to really trust and open up to it and aim full steam toward Him."

While I am not a very religious person, I can see the motivation for Desme's decision. Imagine that you are very religious and have strong faith in God from a young age. You are slowed by injuries many times in your career, and finally you have a breakout season. During the season, you struggle to dismiss feelings of wanting to pursue something more religious, to thank God for this great blessing. This is Desme's story, and it's an interesting one. One interesting fact is that Desme viewed the many injuries of his career as a message from God to pursue something "more important" than baseball. He says of this:

"My injuries, I would say, would be the biggest blessing God's ever given me," he said. "For my entire life, baseball's been my life. I define myself as a baseball player, and when it was taken away from me, it was an eye-opener. It was a real shock that it could end. I realized that even if I played in the big leagues, it was still going to end, or it could end anytime you step on the field with an injury. I really started doing some soul searching of who I was and who I wanted to be, and this is where that's led me."  

There have been mixed responses about Desme's decision, including some that I found in the comment section on this article on MLB.com:

-"He should give his signing bonus or a large chunk of it back. That would be the Christian thing to do."

-"I really need to tip my hat to this young man. I guess I am too selfish in my thinking, but if my beliefs were as strong as his I would play the game for a few years and the money I earned I would donate to the poor. The priesthood will always be there when he is done and age isn't part of the equation. Baseball on the other hand has such a small window of opportunity."

-If he wanted to do good things with his life, staying in baseball and being a role model would have been the smartest thing. The priesthood?? Organized religion is more corrupt than baseball. He threw away a change to REALLY make a difference in the world. Nice job.

I don't have a very strong opinion on this news, but I do think that Desme is admirable for pursuing something that he finds important, and leaving another one of his great passions in order to do this. He has decided to follow his real dream, and that is something we are taught to respect from a young age. I can see why people would be annoyed by this, because he is a young man leaving baseball by choice, a game that so many of us would be overjoyed to be given the chance to play professionally. I do respect Desme's decision, and I wish him the best in his new life.

Thanks for reading.

It seems to be time for another "D" themed entry, as two more "D" topics have alerted my attention today. The first of these involves the Seattle Mariners. The Mariners improved a great deal last year, and have had a great offseason so far, acquiring both Chone Figgins and Cliff Lee. Cliff Lee appears to be stronger than ever after a fantastic postseason performance for the Phillies, and the possible combo of him and 2009 AL Cy Young runner-up Felix Hernandez was seen by many people as one of the best (if not the best) duos in baseball. The only thing left for Seattle to do to make this dynamic duo a reality was resign Hernandez, who filed for arbitration this year. Today, they accomplished this, signing Hernandez for $78 million and 5 years.

Despite the large price tag, this is truly a fantastic deal. Locking this ace up for 5 years means that even if something doesn't work out with Lee in the next few years, Hernandez is still there to anchor the rotation. Most baseball experts agree that good pitching is just about the most important factor in being a successful baseball team. Hitting and defense are instrumental for sure, but an ace pitcher is probably the most valuable type of player on the field (an all-around star like Pujols would be an exception, but players like that are so rare). Therefore, Seattle has done a great job this offseason by strengthening a good pitching staff, with the Hernandez and Lee deals and the resigning of closer David Aardsma. The Angels, who are expected to wage war with the M's over the AL West crown in '10, lost their ace John Lackey, and did a little bit to add to their pitching. Certainly, they didn't do as much as Seattle, and I believe that this will hurt them this season.

Not only is a good pitching staff a must, but a good duo is always something to be reckoned with, and Seattle could have the best in the MLB. Cain and Lincecum are a fantastic duo for the Giants, both having chances at the NL Cy Young last year (with Lincecum taking the award home); Halladay and Hamels should be very strong together for Philly; Beckett and Lackey (with the added bonus of Lester) will hopefully play above expectations and should make the case for being one of the better duos in the league; Sabathia and Burnett is another great one, both playing very well last year and helping the Yankees enormously; and several others are very formidable. Not only can a dynamic duo strike fear into the hearts of opposing lineups, but it can just about guarantee 2 games out of a 3 game series when both pitchers are at their best. Hitting duos are also a great luxury, but I think pitching ones are the most imposing.

Here in Boston, we certainly had trouble with this pair last year.

Seattle's duo will help them in many ways, and I wish luck to them in 2010. Truly a job well done in the offseason as well!

The second piece of "D" news was that of the retirement rumors surrounding Johnny Damon. Having still not come anywhere near agreement with any MLB teams as far as we know, Damon seems to either have some kind of plan, or absolutely no idea what he's doing. Honestly, I think it's the latter. I highly doubt that Damon will really retire (although I've been surprised before by this guy, *hint, hint*), but I also think that he is still a long way from agreeing on a deal with anyone as long as he keeps asking for $13 million a year. I've never been in a situation like the one that every baseball player faces when they become a free agent: I've never had to put a price tag on myself. However, I think that Damon may be asking for too much. He's still a very good player, but the Yankees need him less than they did last year (even though he would be a great asset). The Yankees are the team that is most interested in him at this point, and they are not yet close to working out a deal with Damon. It appears that he may be forced to lower his demands, or he may find himself without a club come April. I feel bad for any ballplayer that doesn't have a game to go to each night when Spring rolls around, and I think Johnny will see this coming and may work out a deal with someone. I can't say I wish him luck, but he's not such a bad guy. I'll be interested to see how this whole thing works out.

As for any Red Sox news, there has been a shortage of it in the recent days. I hope for more this weekend. I'll try to post tomorrow night, but I may be unable due to the varsity basketball game I'll be attending to support my school. Let's hope they dominate and I'm able to get home early to blog!

Thanks for reading.

It has been a hectic week for me, to say the least. School is still getting back into swing after winter break, and I'm currently facing the first round of tests in the new term. Luckily, during this chaotic week nothing affecting me at all has happened in baseball. Or maybe un-luckily, as the offseason stretches on and on. Where are the hot stove news, the signings and the blockbuster trades?! Maybe it's just me, but this has seemed to be a particularly uneventful offseason and it is really starting to hit me. At least pitchers and catchers are just around the corner.

Or maybe at the end of a long hallway. That's a little more realistic for the way most baseball fans are feeling.

Due to the lack of baseball in my life, I've turned my attention to other sports, as well as other things. The NFL playoffs have also been relatively uneventful, with the only surprise so far being the New York Jets' upset of the San Diego Chargers. Now that a New York team is once again on a quest for playoff domination, Boston fans can only stand and watch, since our Pats were dethroned in the first round by the Ravens. It's a lot like last October, when we watched the Yankees defeat the Angels as we stood helplessly on the side. Now we're here again, with no means to stop New York, helplessly on the side yet again.

While we still have basketball on our side, New York has calmly seized control of both the NFL and the MLB. Some may say that the Giants and the Jets still aren't safely in consideration as the top teams year in and year out, but I would argue that they certainly are powerhouses. The Jets may be returning to their glory of earlier years, with a squad of young stars, and the Giants need work, but can certainly come back strong after a good offseason.

The Yankees are never not  in consideration as one of the top 5 teams in baseball, literally every year. The growing truth is that New York is on its way to surpassing nearly any city as the premiere American sports town, a title that many would agree Boston has held in the last decade. Unfortunately, New York has almost reached that state of total sports domination.  

While we Boston fans can do little to entirely stop NYC, we can certainly surpass them, and as the NFL season is over for us, we must turn our view to the upcoming MLB season. What better stage on which to overtake New York? After all, a little competition never hurt anybody!

We play 15 games vs. the Yankees in 2010, and we will have that many chances to show the world what we can do against them. I would say that a reasonable goal to set would be to win at least 10 of those games. Last year we started off unbelievably strong against the Yanks, but we fell apart when we really needed to beat them. We only added to the Yankees' fantastic late season run as they pulled the lead in the AL East farther and farther from us. I don't think we would have beaten them even if we had in fact beaten the Angels; they truly were unstoppable.

The Yankees are still one of the most talented all around teams in baseball. They have improved a great deal over this offseason, but so have we. If we can keep our cool and win the big games against the Yankees, I think the rest will work itself out. I have faith in my Sox.

However, I'm not a Yankee hater by any means. I consider myself a good sport and I try not to be a sore loser. I'll leave it at "may the best team win." We will see, New York, we will see.

Earlier today, on the recommendation of a friend, I decided to try out the new "anti-energy" drink, "Drank".

Drank is a unique drink because, unlike energy drinks, it is designed to help you relax, or "slow your roll," as the company puts it. While I'm not sure exactly how they pull this off (and I probably don't want to know), it's an interesting idea and the beverage has become very popular, despite only one flavor having been released so far. Just like anyone, I've been taught and urged not to drink energy drinks, and I know that they are bad for you and result in some of the worst crashes you can get. I am always wary of health issues and I'm proud to say that I had only had one energy drink in my life so far (a green apple "Monster", which was pretty awful).

However, I have had a very long week and I really felt the need for a little relaxation. After my disappointing effort in the first half of the year (grades-wise), I have stepped up my focus and I'm working harder. So, really, I don't blame myself for needing to relax a little. The thing is, I probably could have done that without Drank. Anyways, back to my interesting afternoon.

I opened the can and tried my first sip of Drank. I had hoped for it to be good, and it was. The sugary grape taste was delicious, almost making you forget the immense amount of sugar you're really consuming. I finished it over the course of about 45 minutes, and lay back to take a quick nap, or something along those lines. About 25 minutes after that, I began to feel my eyes drooping and I felt nice and relaxed. Unfortunately that's really all it amounted to. The rest of this "experience" was one long yawn-fest and then a terrible stomach ache that I still have. My high hopes for Drank had crashed and burned, and I was left with a sour and disappointed feeling.

   Therefore, I would not recommend this so-called "anti-energy" drink to anyone, unless you really need the sleep or something. But why am I writing this on a baseball blog?, you may wonder. Honestly, I didn't really have much baseball-related stuff to write about, and I wanted to share my Drank adventure with you. But have no fear, for after much thought I have found a lame way to connect Drank and baseball.

I thought about the characteristics of Drank: it is something I had high hopes for, appeared to be good at first, and then failed miserably, along with much pain. Well, to me that sounds a little like Daisuke Matsuzaka's 2009 season.

As Julia reminded me, I have forgotten to comment on the recent news about Dice-K and what we all thought was an injury developed early in the '09 season and in the World Baseball Classic that kept Matsuzaka from returning to the form of his '07 and '08 seasons. Apparently it has recently been discovered that in fact that the injury happened before the WBC and that Dice-K neglected to clarify this with anyone in the Red Sox organization. Maybe this is one of those moments where you don't really know what the guy was thinking, but it does annoy me a little that I had thought all along that this injury really couldn't have been prevented, and in fact Matsuzaka has now said that he may have "stressed it too much." I love the guy, but that's pretty bad. I have high hopes once more for Matsuzaka's 2010 season, in which he will hopefully rebound from '09 and become one of our aces again.

Before I regret ever posting this ridiculous attempt on my part at connecting bad energy drinks and Daisuke Matsuzaka, I should go ahead and post it. I'm not sure how much time I'll have to blog during the weekend, but I'll try to get at least one post done.

Thanks for reading.

All of you have heard about the earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12, no doubt. The images and news we have heard or seen on numerous websites and on the news each night are hard to bear. Seeing pictures of the wreckage and chaos the people of Haiti are living in really makes one stop and pause for a moment. When reading my favorite blogs yesterday, I saw that Jane Heller (Confessions of a She-Fan) had written an entry on the earthquake and was taking "a time-out for Haiti." I thought this was a very admirable thing to do and I decided to write a Haiti-related post today (I hope you don't mind me copying you, Jane).

This terrible news related to me especially because my younger brother is adopted from Haiti. Although my family is no longer in contact with his birth parents, there is the possibility that his grand-parents or relatives were seriously injured or worse in the earthquake (thankfully, the last we heard from his parents, they were living in Florida). My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and all the Hatian-Americans who don't know the fate of their relatives, but most especially to the residents of Haiti.

Despite the many troubles Haiti has encountered over the years, the country has produced some excellent athletes that have succeeded in several major sports in the United States. I feel that paying tribute to a few of my favorite Haitian athletes is a fitting sports-related gesture to the country in this difficult time.

Samuel Dalembert

Samuel Dalembert is a Hatian born professional basketball player. He currently plays center for the Philadelphia 76ers, and has put up respectable numbers during each of his 7 years in the NBA. He is most renowned for his excellent shot-blocking skills, averaging about 2 blocks per game. He is one of the top shot blockers in the game today, and is a force to be reckoned with when driving the lane. For the sake of space, I'll provide you with links to two youtube clips showcasing Dalembert blocking two of the most powerful players in the NBA:

-Dalembert blocks Shaquille O'Neal twice

-Dalembert blocks Yao Ming twice

Dalembert is a player who has always been very well respected by his teammates and other players in the NBA. So far, the news from Haiti has been good for Dalembert, as he found out recently that his father survived the earthquake and is well. He is yet to hear from any other relatives. Best wishes to Dalembert, and good luck to him with the rest of his season.

Pierre Garcon

Pierre Garcon was born in New York, but has many relatives in Haiti. He is currently a wide-receiver for the Indianapolis Colts . Although Garcon served as a backup in his rookie year last season, he had hopes of getting more playing time coming in to the current NFL season. Due to an early season injury to second-string WR Anthony Gonzalez this year, Garcon was given the starting job as the #2 WR in Peyton Manning's unstoppable passing attack. Garcon proved to be the perfect target for Manning, racking up great stats and helping the Colts earn the #1 AFC seed in the playoffs. The Colts play on Saturday in their first playoff game this year, and Garcon is listed as probable for that game, due to a thumb injury that has sidelined him for the past 2 weeks. Apparently Garcon has also received good news about his relatives so far, and now that my Patriots are out of the picture, I have no problem rooting for this young wide reciever to put on a show come Sunday. I hope you tune in to check him out as well, he is a phenomenal young player.

Reginal Simon

There are currently no Haitian players in the MLB, but there are several up and coming prospects that hail from Haiti throughout the Minor Leagues. Although I was previously not familiar with any of these prospects (a list can be found here), Simon is described as "the most advanced" of the group by the MLB.com article I linked. He is a pitcher for the Williamsport Crosscutters, a class A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies. Simon boasted a 4-4 record this past season, but went 5-0 with a 1.11 ER in the 2007 season. While I do not know of any news surrounding Simon's relatives and his family, I hope that they are all well and that his career continues to be a succesful one. Maybe we'll see him someday on the mound at Citizens Bank Park.

It's too bad that there aren't more Haitian baseball players, but at least there are a good deal of minor leaguers. The important thing to focus on, however, is the current news from Haiti. I ask you to keep the people of Haiti in your thoughts.

Thanks for reading.

I was prompted to write this entry because of something overwhelming I noticed today. As I was walking through the halls, and going about my business, I couldn't help but notice that just about every third kid was wearing some kind of sports jersey or shirt. Although this is not true of every day, it is undeniable that the jersey of your favorite player has become as integral to their sport as the jersey itself. With sports items becoming more and more popular, I thought it would be a cool idea for a blog entry to talk about why I love jerseys and why I think other people do.

Possibly the best part of jerseys is the team support and spirit they allow one to showcase to the world. Wearing the jersey of your team is a sign that you are a true fan, and that you really love your team. It is a matter of pride for many serious fans (and even players).

Wearing a jersey can also bring a sense of comradery and common loyalty to complete strangers. Imagine that you're at a party with many people you don't know, and you notice that some guy is wearing the same jersey as you. That's a great conversation starter, and you may have found yourself a new friend, or at least someone to relate to. I've been high-fived by random people on the street on Red Sox gamedays in the Fenway area, just because I'm wearing a Sox jersey. I think one of the best aspects of wearing a jersey is this feeling of friendship and common support of one team that it brings. It is good to know that hundreds of other people are living and dying with the team just like you, and are wearing the same jersey as you.

Jerseys can also show humor and some are very funny. Some popular Red Sox favorites include:

The "BIG PAPI" shirt

Not exactly a jersey, but still an awesome shirt, it stands for Dice-K

One of my favorites, this is what Sox fans always cheer when Youkilis comes up to bat (little quote from "Moneyball" on this one too)

And whether it's an official replica jersey or not, it doesn't really matter, because the spirit and support is what counts. But why not discuss comfort, the essential factor in buying any clothing. Although some may not agree, I find jerseys to be some of the comfiest things to wear. There's always the feeling of pride when wearing a jersey, but they are additionally comfortable to wear. Some of the comfiest items include:

Red Sox slippers

Or how about a Red Sox snuggy?

But now I've strayed a little from jerseys, so to get back on track and finish up this post, I thought I could share one of my favorite "jersey stories."

As a little kid, I became a huge Red Sox fan sometime during the 2002-03 season. Throughout my first year of loyalty to the Sox, I longed for a jersey to show my support and make me what I considered an "official member of Red Sox Nation". It didn't matter what player it was, I just wanted that Red Sox jersey. Finally, on my birthday (during the offseason, unfortunately), I was counting on receiving the jersey as a present. Trying to not get too excited so that I wouldn't be disappointed if I didn't get it, I came to the last present, without having found the jersey in one of those boxes yet. I opened it carefully, trying to hold back my excitement, and when I saw the flash of red and white, I burst into joy and jumped around cheering and holding my new Nomar Garciaparra jersey (it was a good choice on my mom's part). Who would have ever thought that a simple cloth shirt could bring a smile to a kid's face.

Wow. It has certainly been a long time since I was on MLBlogs and I have missed it a good deal. For some reason, I wanted to take a short break from blogging months ago, and it turned into a prolonged absence that I am only returning from now. According to the auto-saved entry that I was in the middle of writing before I stopped blogging, the last time I was on here was August 24, 2009. That says something about MLBlogs; my entry from nearly 6 months ago is still auto-saved. That's not too shabby.

Because of school and activities and life in general, I forgot to get back on all this time, and every time I wanted to I put it off for another time (it kind of sounds like I'm talking about some kind of blogging depression). Nevertheless, I'm back now and I'm dedicated to get this blog back onto its feet. Back in August I had quite a few people reading my blog each day and I was always thrilled to see your comments and suggestions. I hope that some of you will read my blog again, I will definitely read yours. Thanks to everyone who has supported me in this blogging adventure, I'm happy to be back!

If I were to ever find myself in a position of teaching baseball offense to someone, I think I would use last night's Yankees-Red Sox game as a model for my class.

Baseball is a game where scoring is pretty unpredictable. It's very hard to know when there's going to be a shutout,  or when, like last night, a team is going to score 20 runs. Offense can sometimes be misinterpreted due to this. Just because a team loses 2-1, it doesn't mean that their offense wasn't working. They clearly weren't at their best, but who's saying they didn't leave the bases loaded in every inning? They failed to produce, but I think that loading the bases still counts for some sort of offense.

Because games like that (stranding the bases loaded so much) are rare, I would probably choose a clear offensive game for any example in my "class".

Last night, was an unbelieveably clear, offensive game. Our starter, Brad Penny, left the game after 4 innings, already having allowed 8 runs. There is an ongoing problem with Penny that was clearly shown here. I'll let you take a guess as to what this problem is with the help of this stat- He threw 89 pitches through 4 innings last night.

Yeah, Mr. Penny throws far too many pitches and therefore wears himself out ridiculously soon in the game. Sorry, but this is not the guy we want starting off a series like this.

Our relievers didn't fare much better against the torrent of hits the Yankees were bringing upon us. Michael Bowden came in and let up 7 runs in 2 innings, even worse (if you can believe it) than Penny had done.

Surprisingly, Takashi Saito, one of our relievers that has really struggled this season, produced one of the few really good innings in the game, allowing no hits and no runs while striking out one.

The lead just kept building, even as our offense began to FINALLY produce. We scored 10 runs in the last 5 innings of the game, but the Yankees, already leading 6-1 before this point, scored 14 runs to match that. While 14-10 might have been a decent game for us, because of those early innings, the score was actually 20-11. Yes, 20 runs. The most the Yankees have ever scored against us.

As much as I hate to admit it, the Yankees have one of the best offenses I've ever seen live. And as much as I wish it wasn't true, they are (right now) just about the best possible example on how to run a baseball offense. They can hit (23 hits in the game), they hustle (8 doubles and a triple), they score (20 runs), and they wear a pitcher down (see "Brad Penny").

Now before I get carried away, I'm going to have to stop getting so enthralled by the Yankee offense. And what can do this for me? A little Red Sox offense, please...

The Red Sox offense wasn't so bad. Against most other teams, 11 runs wins a game. Lowell went 3-5, Pedroia went 2-5, and Ortiz went 2-4. Our offense was not nonexistent. It was just dwarfed by the superior offense of the Bronx Bombers. That pretty much spells out what we need to do tonight. We have to turn up the bats, crank off some hits, and outhit, outrun, and outscore the Yankees. I'm pretty sure that'll lead to a win.

All this is not to say that the game didn't have it's bright points. Jerry Remy was back in the booth after an ongoing struggle with depression and lung cancer. Remy is my favorite broadcaster of all time, without a doubt, and I can't even say how happy I am to see the man doing well and back doing what he is so good at.

Needless to say, I wasn't the only one overjoyed to see the RemDawg back in business.

The pictures go on...

It is great to see so much love and happiness in the stands for Remy. He deserves it!

Also, in the 1st inning, Jacoby Ellsbury stole 2nd base to tie Tommy Harper's Red Sox record of stolen bases in a season, at 54.

Jacoby is an ABSOLUTE speedster!

We know what we have to do. We can't let this lead keep growing bigger and bigger. Now is the time to win! I still believe that we are as good as the Yankees, let's prove it! So tonight, let's duplicate the Yankees' success and lead an offensive outburst of our own! GO SOX!! 

An article today in the New York Times said, referring to the Yankees, "The team that the Red Sox outclassed in recent years is now surging. The Red Sox are not."

I would agree with this statement about a week ago. But now, as the Red Sox are fresh off a sweep over the Toronto Blue Jays, I have to say that I beg to differ. If anything at all, the Red Sox are surging. And what better time to be surging than heading into a series with the Yankees.

Let's review the Toronto series. We came into it with the mindset that taking 2/3 games in this series would be a success. While our current Wild-Card rivals, the Rangers, were over in Minnesota fighting in a slightly more difficult series, we could expect to take at least one game against Toronto, a pretty weak team at this stage in the season. However, while we could have played this series with the mindset that we are pretty much ensured at least one game and that we didn't need to play hard, our boys still played like they meant it.

Our offense was on fire, outscoring the Jays 24-11 in the series, and our pitching was very good as well, holding the Jays to 1 run in each of the last 2 games.

As well as our excellent play, we even saw a little bit of fun in the dugout. Forget the depressed faces of the past few series, we were happy to be winning again. Even some of our more quiet stars shone, and everyone was happy to see this.

I have to say that I am very happy and very proud with the way we played this past series, it seems that we have regained our offensive prowess and are ready to beat our rivals.

In other baseball news, a dead body was found yesterday on the Texas ranch owned by Chipper Jones' family. Jones' father says that "the man had entered the country from Mexico illegally and that the extreme heat and drought would have made it difficult for him to survive without food or water." I found this a kind of wierd story and thought I should mention it...

We enjoyed the luxury of bringing out our own brooms against Toronto, but we have the most crucial series of the year thus far coming up. Let's get out there and win!!

I figure I should make this another relatively quick entry, just because I am on vacation and I want to enjoy the outdoors a little. So here we go...

This morning, due to my struggling to figure out what to blog about, I decided to check out espn.com for some inspiration. I was hardly inspired by the centerpiece article on Brett Favre's signing with the Minnesota Vikings, but that is a long story that many others have complained about already, so I will leave it untouched upon in this blog.

I did, however, notice a link at the bottom of the page, titled "Joe Mauer vs. Mark Teixeira." It also happened to be a poll. As some of you may have discovered by now, I like polls. I enjoy voting on them as well as seeing the results of other peoples' votes. So you can imagine my joy when I noticed this poll about one of my favorite baseball topics: the MVP race.

As my main rooting interest (the Red Sox) lies in the American League, I would say that I have a little more expertice on the goings on in the AL than in the NL. Therefore, I was even more thrilled that the poll concerned the AL MVP race. At this point in the season, the MVP race is usually narrowed down to 2-4 players that really deserve it and have a chance at winning. In the AL this year, the race is roughly down to 2 players: Mark Teixeira and Joe Mauer. While others are certainly close to them, these two are the front runners and it will most likely stay that way.

As with all awards races, there is constant debate over who of the two deserves the award more, who is better, etc. I like these discussions, because they really get me thinking and they allow me to apply a lot of baseball knowledge (as well as learn new things) in the process.

When I got to the poll, it was as simple as can be: "Who gets your American League MVP vote?"- Mauer, Teixeira, other.

I paused for a minute after reading this, carefully thinking over my answer. For this I had to rethink the criteria of an MVP. According to wikipedia.org, the MVP award was originally created to "honor the baseball player who is of greatest all-round service to his club and credit to the sport during each season; to recognize and reward uncommon skill and ability when exercised by a player for the best interests of his team, and to perpetuate his memory."

Of course, the main idea of this quote is the part about being the greatest all-round service to your club. The player who is of most service to his club is, therefore, the "most valuable" player in the league.

When you run both Teixeira and Mauer through these criteria, both match that main idea. Teixeira has led his team to the best record in the MLB, and Mauer has carried his team to still be relatively in the running for the Wild-Card. However, a common accusation of both of these players (particularly Mauer, I think) is that each may not even be the most valuable player on his own team. Mauer's teammate Justin Morneau won the MVP award in 2006, and has remained among the leagues top players since then. Teixeira is on one of the most star-studded lineups in baseball, including 2 time MVP Alex Rodriguez, and likely the best hitting shortstop of all time, Derek Jeter.

However, I believe that this season, both Mauer and Teixeira have been more valuable to their teams than any of their teammates, so those accusations can be forgotten in this argument.

The next criteria- "uncommon skill and ability." Of course both of these players have uncommon skill and ability, as they are both even in the MVP race. This one isn't even worth contemplating for very long.

And finally, these skills are "exercised for the best interests of his team." I think that both of these players have used their skills to help their team. Both teams are in the hunt for the playoffs, and both have respectable records. While the Yankees have a very good all around team, Teixeira has been the main reason for their passing of my Red Sox in early August. Mauer has been playing as good as ever, and although his team has been great at times, he is largely the reason they are still in the chase.

After contemplating all of this (and remarkably, I didn't really bring stats into all that much of it), I decided to vote for who I felt deserved the award most, and that was Mark Teixeira. While Mauer is one heck of a player and could very well win the award, I think that Teixeira deserves it, because he has led his team to take the league (and the Red Sox) by storm. If the Yankees end up going far in the playoffs (let's pray they don't!), it should be even more enforced that Teixeira is the MVP.

After I voted, I found that nearly 70% of people had in fact voted for Mauer. I can see why they would do so. However, I'm standing by my decision. What do you think?

Thanks for reading.