M-V-P The continued controversy in collegiate sports. The drugs, steroids, violence. The money. The egotistical dimwits that we all think get paid too much to do too little for society.
How it's all gotten out of hand, or so we think.
One thing we shouldn't hate is Josh Hamilton. He was named the 2010 American League Most Valuable Player today.
Chances are, you know or knew someone like Hamilton: Struggled daily with some kind of addiction, where everyday you feel like you're on a precipice with some unseen force keeping you from plummeting to your death.
Hamilton is any number of any of us. He didn't win the MVP award for being a guy that's overcome drug and alcohol abuse. He won it because he is more important to the Texas Rangers than any one player on any other team in the American League.
Hamilton is the Rangers' sixth MVP, and probably the most deserving. Considering at least four of the other five came from suggest or confirmed steroid users and the other came from Jeff Burroughs amidst a cornucopia of bad teams, none was more important than Hamilton.
His season took the Rangers to a place that seem astronomically preposterous to us. The World Series, of course. Hell, the ALDS was enough. The ALCS was too much and the World Series was mind blowing. Hamilton helped do the one thing that Juan Gonzalez, Ivan Rodriguez, Alex Rodriguez or Burroughs couldn't do. He won.
Hamilton's MVP as a little in doubt. He lead the AL in just average, slugging and, consequently, on-base plus slugging. Missing the final month killed him stat-wise because it dragged him down in RBI, homers and hits.
The award, however, is about value and just a little about stats. Hamilton hit an American League-leading .369 with runners in scoring position.
He hit .379 with runners in scoring position and two outs. He played killer outfield, battled injuries and lead a hapless, bankrupt franchise from the cellar to the World Series.
The definition of value.
