Alex Rodriguez will win the American League Most Valuable Player Award, but more important, he's more deserving than Magglio Ordonez.
Calm down, everybody. Take two aspirin and shoot them down with a glass of perspective.
The MVP balloting is a political expression. Isn't that true with every voting exercise?
It's also a popularity contest. Isn't that true with every voting exercise?
Ordonez has enjoyed a gilded season. It's been a competitive rebirth. His surgically altered knee finally provides the proper launching pad for the power to all fields that made him one of the game's most dangerous offensive forces during an extended stretch during his days in Chicago.
But A-Rod best defines the deliberately vague definition of "most valuable."
Ordonez thrived when all was right around him in the Tigers' batting order. Rodriguez prospered even when his protection in the third and fifth spots in the lineup disappeared either through injury or ineffectiveness.
Is Ordonez up to that challenge now that the Tigers must settle on Sean Casey in the No. 3 hole on most nights because of Gary Sheffield's indefinite inactivity because of an ailing shoulder?
When Friday night's game began after a four-hour rain delay, he smacked a line drive over the leftfield wall off Roger Clemens in the first inning for his 25th home run.
If the season ended today, neither the Tigers nor the Yankees would qualify for the playoffs. Usually, the MVP hails from a playoff team because what's more valuable than an important contribution that results in a divisional championship or a wild card?