When I initially heard that Gardenhire beat out Washington, I was less than outraged but as time goes on I feel more and more like Wash was snubbed. Before the season even started there was talk about him losing his job after admitting to using cocaine. As we know, Wash wasn't fired and instead lead the Rangers to their first ever World Series after missing the playoffs in each of the previous 10 seasons. His team won their first division title since 1999 and won 90 games.
I understand that the voting for this award is done before the postseason begins but I fail to see where Gardenhire was better than Wash as a manager this season. Not to take away from anything the Twins, under Gardenhire, did this year but what the Rangers and Wash did and how they changed the perception of baseball in Texas is far more deserving of this award than winning a sixth division title in nine years.
On another note, tonight I went to the 5th Annual Shirley Povich Symposium. The event featured a panel of Christine Brennan, Tony Kornheiser, Kevin Blackistone, Dan Snyder and Scott Van Pelt and the topic was How Much is Too Much?
That is neither here nor there. The point is, Scott Van Pelt is the man. He was willing to stick around and shmooze with us until 2 hours after the event ended. How often is it that A) there is an opportunity to attend an event like this and B) that one of these media members is willing to stay and hang out with students. I have been around my share of professional sports writers and honestly, those who are willing to do what Scott did are VERY few and far between. It is refreshing to meet someone like this and to be seen and treated as an equal.
Ari Wiener and I asked him if he would be willing to join us on our radio show at some point in the near future and not only did he say yes, he did it with enthusiasm. I was just so encouraged by the way he treated other people.
So for all of you who are reading and have listened to our radio show, What Say Us (visit us on facebook) look forward to Scott Van Pelt joining us. Not only that, we were able to get verbal commitments from Mr. Kevin Blackistone and Mr. Tim Kirkjian. For those of you keeping score at home, that is a total of THREE ESPN personalities scheduled to come on our show and talk sports with us in the near future.
Get excited, God knows I know I am.
I can say, without abandon, that listening to Kornheiser - even for two minutes - it too much.
ReplyDeleteI was not outraged that Wash was not awarded the MOY. Frankly, based on what I was reading the last several weeks, it appeared the voters were making up for the previous years omission of not awarding it to Gardenhire. From my perspective, Francona should have won based on what he meant to the team. Washington, had a great year and I suspect if the Rangers are very competitive next year, the voters will make up for their omission at that time. Now if we are voting for GM of the year. Josh Daniels must be the overwhelming choice.
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