For the two top awards, the official orders are to split up the two release dates, with the AL MVP being announced today, and the NL MVP on Tuesday. So today, you just get one award, and therefore have to wait 24 hours to see if Damian Easley had received his just desserts, and been given the Most Valuable Player awa... Sorry, where was I? I think I drifted off into an alternate universe there for a moment. Anyway, because up to ten names were nominated for these, the pic of the voting results became a bit illegible when squeezed down to width here [at least at 800x600 resolution - I always work towards compatibility with the lowest common denominator...because that's what I actually have...]. So rather than embedding them in the article, click on this link to see the results, which will pop up in a new window.
AL Most Valuable Player Results
For those of you too lazy to click, here's a quick summary of the results. Hooray! A victory for the forces of freedom against the dark and tyrannical Evil Empire! Derek Jeter did not win the MVP award! And that despite some twisted individual opting to leave Joe Mauer off their ballot entirely - I didn't realise Mrs. Jeter got to vote. No matter: the Twins catcher got almost three times as many first-place votes as Jeter, though they were spread over eight different players. I think I'd probably concur with those as the top two, had I been consulted, though would likely have gone for someone other than Ortiz at #3.
Interesting to see how many votes went to players whose teams didn't make the playoffs. As a result, the teams who fought out the ALCS, the A's and Tigers, can feel a bit snubbed. Oakland had one man in the top 18, while the American League pennant-winners in Detroit had nobody get mentioned higher than fifth on anyone's ballot. Meanwhile, Ortiz came third, despite the Red Sox being good for just 86 wins, only eighth best in the league. No denying his talents in an absolute sense - but just how "valuable" was Ortiz, truly? But he was the only player, outside of Jeter, to appear on every ballot cast, so I guess he must have something...
As noted, National League MVP will follow tomorrow, though I imagine the result of that one is probably not in doubt as far as most people are concerned.