A-Rod and Bartolo: Definitely Valuable

Boston's hatred of Alex Rodriguez ends with the fans of their beloved team. On Monday, A-Rod was rightfully voted the Most Valuable Player in the American League by the baseball writers for the second time in three years.

This year's vote was not as close as was expected between Alex and David Ortiz, as A-Rod received 331 points on 16 first-place votes and 11 second-place votes, with one for third. Big Papi received only 11 first-place votes, but also got 17 second-place votes, for a total of 301 points.

The two were obviously head and shoulders above the rest of the competition, as third place belonged to the reigning MVP, Vladimir Guerrero, who received only 196 points. People have been arguing for weeks now that the numbers between A-Rod and Big Papi were so close that it just depended on how valuable the voters thought of a defensive role. It would seem that they value playing defense very much.

This vote is consistent with the AL Cy Young award, given out last week to Bartolo Colon over Mariano Rivera, where one of the deciding factors was possibly that Rivera only pitches an inning a game, maybe two every once in a while. The numbers between the two players were very similar, with A-Rod's being better in most of the major categories, but Ortiz was touted as being the ultimate clutch player of the year this season, which swayed some votes his way.

Since signing with the Yankees, A-Rod has become the new aim of Red Sox Nation's disdain, relieving Derek Jeter of that role. It seems, though, that the team doesn't necessarily share the same feelings as their fans. Curt Schilling was quoted as saying, "Congratulations to Alex. Either one of them could have won it. Both had MVP years," speaking of Ortiz as the other one that could have won it. The way the Red Sox are handling this shows the class of the organization, by simply congratulating A-Rod and further praising their support of their big star. I'm not sure the radio and TV stations in the Boston area will be reacting in the same manner.

A-Rod displayed the pinnacle of class and why he is a great ambassador for the game over and over during interviews once he won the award. He showed nothing but respect for his "opponent" in this race, saying "Ortiz is an unbelievable offensive player. I'm privileged to play against him, and when I do play against him, he motivates my game to go to new heights. He's a special player like Barry Bonds who can change a game around simply with a bat in his hands. I didn't know coming into today — I've been in a lot of these races and come in second and third place, so I thought David had as good a chance as I did."

He showed what an upstanding baseball player he is also, "I would certainly trade his World Series championship for this MVP trophy," since he has never won a World Series with the Yankees and he watched the Red Sox do it last year. He continued, "That's the only reason I play baseball. It's what I'm consumed to do right now." One can assume that that's not the only reason he plays baseball, $25,000,000 a year might have something to do with it, but the fact that he's not even necessarily looking at this as an acceptable end to this season further displays his phenomenal competitive attitude and his will to help his team.

David Ortiz had a great season, but like him or not, one of the classiest guys in the league won this year's MVP and A-Rod will now further be recognized as one of the greatest players in the league today.