Morneau wins MVP, Jeter second

Wow. What a shocker. Twins' first baseman Justin Morneau took home the AL MVP yesterday surprising most people who had expected Yankee legend Derek Jeter to claim what was basically the one missing piece of hardware from his trophy case.

Morneau received 230 pts and 15 first place votes while Jeter received 306 pts and 12 first place votes. One voter even had Jeter at sixth place on his ballot. Now, maybe I'm horribly biased as a Yankee fan but to put Jeter down that far on a ballot is just crazy. For most of the season, he was seen as the strong favorite for MVP. I have no problem with Morneau - in fact, I rooted for him as he made his way to the majors. With my hometown Rochester Red Wings serving as the Triple-A franchise for the Minnesota Twins, we've been lucky enough to see a lot of guys play in Minnesota that made their way though Rochester.

Anyways, Morneau is nice and all but when you look at his own team, can you really even say he was better than Joe Mauer? Mauer, the first catcher to win the AL batting title, would be the guy I would give the MVP to if I was looking to award it to a Twin.

But I wasn't looking to award it to a Twin.

A Yankee should've won this year. Maybe this is retribution for A-Rod winning it last year. Maybe the voters didn't like the idea of giving it to a New York guy two years in a row. New York hasn't had consecutive MVPs since the dominant period of the 40s, 50s, and 60s. For anyone who knows my thought on A-Rod now, I'd trade his 2005 MVP for a MVP for Jeter. I hate to sound like Jeter's on the downside of his career now but at 32, he's been in the game for ten years. In that single decade, Jeter's won a Rookie of the Year, Gold Gloves, an All-Star MVP, a World Series MVP and of course, four World Series rings.

I know that the MVP isn't supposed to be a lifetime achievement award but with everything Jeter's accomplished and with the season he had, maybe it would've been appropriate to name him the MVP. Hey, the Academy gave Peter Jackson just about every award it could think of at the 2005 Oscars for Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. Maybe baseball writers need to take a note from the Hollywood elite . . . or maybe that wouldn't be the best thing to happen.

This could've all been solved by just naming the right guy the MVP: Derek Jeter.