Lou, you get my vote for leading your team to the greatest regular season win total in the last 95 years. Post season awards tell the story of the dramatic events that shape the baseball season. It’s the rookie who stood the baseball world on it’s ear, it’s the manager who defied the experts and brought his team to the playoffs or overcame adversity during the season, or the player who carried his team to victory over the course of the marathon season.

The criteria for the MVP award has never been clearly defined by the writers who vote for the most valuable player in the league. Does that award have to go to a player from a playoff team? This year in the National league, the winner may not be on a playoff team, but will have one of the most dominating seasons in NL history.

Sammy Sosa will hit close to 60 homers again, a feat that cannot ever be taken lightly. Sosa has carried the Cubs throughout the dog days of summer placing the Cubbies in a position to win the division or the wild card. Sosa has the numbers, over 135 RBI’s, over 50 homers, 120 runs scored, just phenomenal accomplishments yet are they enough to overshadow Barry Bonds and Luis Gonzalez?

The Giants have overachieved with a team lacking a quality third baseman, catcher, right fielder, and center fielder. Bonds will hit close to 70 homers and if you look closely at the Giants victories he has a hand in almost all of them. Whether it be a stolen base or intimidating the opposition from the dugout or from the on deck circle, Bonds has been the man all year long. No one wants to pitch to him. He has over 143 walks, (Sosa has 100 or so) yet he doesn’t miss his pitch when he gets it, even though it’s only one or two per game. His defense is practically flawless in left field, placing him close to Ted Williams as the greatest all around (offensive and defensive) left fielder who ever played the position.

Luis Gonzalez has chased Bonds and the home run record all year long. Yet through all the publicity around the home run race, Gonzalez has been more than a home run hitter, he has been the entire offensive machine for the Arizona Diamondbacks. With little protection in the battting order, Matt Williams has been hurt for part of the year and when he isn’t hurt he has struggled and Mark Grace is now in the 6th spot in the batting order for lack of big time protection for Gonzalez, Luis has not missed a beat. Only Reggie Sanders with his 30 homers has afforded Gonzalez any help in the clean up spot, and that’s just recently. Gonzalez is threatening the total base record for a single season (he has close to 370), he has over 50 homers, 124 RBI’s, 175 hits, and an on base % of .440. I can go on, but you get the idea. The Diamondbacks would be chasing the Padres, but for Luis Gonzalez.

So who gets it, I say Barry Bonds in the closest MVP race in National League history. In 1979, Willie Stargell and Keith Hernandez tied for the award. This year between Sosa, Gonzalez, and Bonds, baseball may see another deadlock. Don’t forget about Shawn Green of the Dodgers, Houston’s Jeff Bagwell ,or Colorado’s Todd Helton, all of these players have been more than instrumental in their teams success. Amazing.

The funny thing is the winner may not even be in the playoffs as the Giants can get knocked out by Arizona, or the Cubs can fall short of the division and the wild card or the Diamondbacks may fall apart down the stretch and miss everything. I’ve never seen a MVP race like this in baseball history.

The American league MVP award will be close, but not as dramatic as in the senior circuit. The Seattle Mariners have put together, perhaps when it is over, the greatest season in league history. They started early and have not let up all season long. Why? the leadoff hitter, Ichiro, has been phenomenal. Ichiro will win the batting title in his first major league season. He’s hitting close to .350 and threatening Hall Of Famer, George Sisler’s record of 257 hits in a single season. He has 211 with three weeks to play. He hits with men in scoring position at a mind boggling clip, he scores runs, and plays great defense.

Yet what makes him special is that he showed the Mariners he could succeed in the American league and that they could win with him leading off. He got on base early in the year, he completely dominated every pitcher he faced and the Mariners kept winning. He gave this team confidence when they saw he could deliver every single day no matter what the situation called for, a bunt, a steal, a hit or a throw.

He gave them the swagger to be champions. I personally think someday Ichiro will break Joe D’s 56 game consecutive hitting streak record. He is by far the most exciting player on the most dominating team in the league.

Ichiro’s competition will come from Jason Giambi, last year’s MVP.

Giambi carried the Oakland A’s through their dark days in April and early May. He never let them quit. I’ve never seen him give away an at bat all season long. He has hit with no protection behind him in the line up. Prior to the A’s stealing Jermaine Dye on July 25th, the A’s had the worst 4th place hitters in baseball. Jason Giambi still hit every day in the clutch. He is a leader on the field and in the clubhouse.

The A’s have played the best baseball in the majors since June. The team came back from 10 games under .500 and 10 games back in the Wild Card race. The reason..Jason Giambi. His on base % is .476, 1st in the league. He leads the league in walks. No one wants to pitch to him, but like Barry Bonds when he sees his pitch he nails it. His game winning home run off Yankee Mike Stanton to win a game Oakland in August is a memory the Yankees will not forget in the playoffs when they play the A’s. It may have been the biggest hit all seson long for the A’s because it gave them a second consecutive three game sweep of the champs as well as giving the young team even more confidence that no one would stop them again this year. Guess what? No one has and quite possiblty no team will in October, either. Giambi is the MVP of baseball’s second best team. And second to Ichiro in the voting, but not without a fight.

Seattle’s Bret Boone (101 RBI’s) and Cleveland’s Jim Thome and Juan Gonzalez deserve considerstion and will place third through fifth respectively. Don’t forget about Roger Clemens for this award as well, but we have another award ready for him anyway.

Marty Lurie