fyi, podsednik will get a $25k bonus this year and $75k next year for making the all-star team. i'd say that's worth a little ballot box stuffing. this is chicago after all.

First, how dare you consider this former roid-popper to the greatest living ball player.

Second, Schmidt shed a tear while announcing his retirment after 17 years with the same team in which he won a WS, 3 MVP's, 9 Gold Gloves and 8 Home Run crowns. Boone cried like a little girl when he got cut by his 4th team because the steroids were no longer around to make him a power hitting second baseman.

You trying to get a rise out of me!?!?!?

Can't stand Brett Boone. Glad he cried like a bitch. That guy went from a 10 honer guy to being 35 homer guy who flips his bat, expecting to hit a homer with every swing. he is a guilty as anyone in the whole steroid mess. later

I forgot Boone played on four teams, including the 1999 Braves, whom the Yankees swept in the World Series — he did hit .538. — and the 2001 Mariners, whom the Yankees beat in the ALCS — he did hit .316.

coming from the perspective of an m's fan, boone was always fun to watch, so it's pretty sad to watch him go (i'm not sure about CRYING sad...).

but even when he was putting up MVP numbers (he probably should have won it over ichiro in '01... come on, bonds has 19, there's enough asterisks to go around), he was never a worthy replacement for the greatest second baseman of his era.

perhaps you remember JOEY CORA running circles around "the greatest living ballplayer" at first base during the yankees' original playoff collapse. man i miss those 360-foot all out sprints around the bases on the rare occasions when he'd hit a home run. much better than the bat flip.

This guy says that Boone -- along with at least four other players, including another Mariner -- should have been MVP over Ichiro in 2001.

http://www.geocities.com/cyrilmorong@sbcglobal.net/SuzukiMVP.htm

Ichiro hit .350 that year, but Jason Giambi hit .342 and kicked his ass in so many stat categories.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/awards_2001.shtml#ALmvp

Giambi's 2000-01 seasons were sick, man. He was the left-handed Manny Ramirez, maybe even better.

I'm rarely one to argue with numbers, and like I said I think Boone had as much of a right to win the award, but I can understand why Ichiro won the voters over that year:

Being the catalyst on a team that set the all-time wins record didn't hurt.

Add in the fact that the team accomplished it in his first year there (also Boone's), and he gets the nod over Edgar as the alleged difference maker on the Mariners.

Toss in the fact that it happened the year after A-Rod left, and that hurt Alex's claim to the "valuable" portion of the award's title.

Toss in the fact that the M's left Giambi's A's in the dust two months into the season, and it becomes a little harder to put the check mark next to Giambi's name. I think if you just look at the team wins (the A's were a great wild card team) and individual numbers at the end of the season, you'd be more inclined to vote Giambi in. But watching one team smoke another all season long can sway your opinion a bit.

I honestly thought the three M's would split the vote and Giambi would come out on top. Luckily that wasn't the case.

As you probably know, I could spent a week on baseball-reference.com.

They have team leaders for all kinds of stats at the bottom of the 2001 A's page. Giambi led a 102-win team in just about everything.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/OAK/2001.shtml

Edgar finished 16th that year in the voting. The M's had only two of the top 16, though Nos. 1 and 3. Yanks had four of the top 12, though none higher than 8.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/awards_2001.shtml#ALmvp