He could get some old-timer to be bench coach and focus on the in-game decisions. Alternatively, they could give him a minority stake in the team. Can that be done in baseball?

Some piker named Joe Dimaggio is No. 1. Another goon named Jimmie Fox is listed. And then there's this clown Frank Robinson...

I see the point, it's whether attendance is up in Philadelphia that counts.

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20061120&content_id=1743728&vkey=news_mlb &fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

Sorry. That's probably a bit much, but honestly people... The voters don't usually break down the stats like we do here. What did you expect?

It's just another confirmation that all of the things sportswriters claim to care about only matter when they can be used as part of a story.

It's an article by Rob Neyer ripping Stephen A. Smith and other people who supported Howard over Pujols.

He's obviously trying to make his hometown player look better than he really is. We do the same thing all the time with Carpenter and Pujols. We can come up with a hundred arguments why Carp is better than Webb, Oswalt, or frickin' Hoffman, and only grudgingly point out his comparative faults. As for Pujols ... well, my hometown bias is superceded by the FACT that there are only a few advantages for Howard: HR, RBI, & AP already has an MVP. That's about it.

I'm sure that there are a few people in Philly annoyed with the glowing prose being written by StL sportswriters, confident that Ryan is actually the better player this year. Their biased opinion is no different than ours.

As for that A. Stephen Smith [sic] talking or not talking out of his dirt star, I'll leave that for you to decide. I'll just say that facts shouldn't get in the way of an impassioned idiot.

With regards to his defense (and what leads me to bring this up again), David Pinto released his PMR data for 2006 left fielders and Bonds faired pretty well.  Concerns about his knee and bad defense may have been exaggerated...

http://www.baseballmusings.com/archives/cat_probabilistic_model_of_range.php

Albert has now come in 2nd in MVP voting for the 3rd time - more than any other players in history except Stan Musial (4 times), Ted Williams (4 times) and Mickey Mantle (3 times).

But I think Bonds is another matter. Wherever he signs, for the whole season he will be bigger than the team, bigger than the sport. And not in a good way. I don't buy that McGwire's HR chase was a distraction for the Cards. But that's because McGwire didn't have the steroid scandal hanging over him (we didn't find out about him until later). People have thrown needles at Bonds in the OF. Reporters will be all over him as he chases down Aaron. And God forbid George Mitchell actually finds anything or his jailbird medical staff decides it's better to talk and be free than be loyal in a cell. I recognize Bonds is still a .450+ OBP/.900 OPS guy, but it's not worth all of that to have him on the team.

well the simple answer is: not even close

pujols has finshed in order:4,2,2,3,1,2

the closest i found was the man who is also pujols' number one comparable: joe dimaggio

dimaggio finished 8,2,6,1,3,1

while doing the research, i did find two guys who had a better 6 year run than pujols

ted williams with 2 1st, 3 2nd, and 1 3rd
yogi berra with 3 1st, 2 2nd, and 1 4th

also while doing the research, i noticed how many times guys had been involved in the voting during their career

the following are the top ten:

1. Aaron-19
   
2. Williams-18
   
2. Musial-18
   
4. Bonds-15
   
4. Berra-15
   
4. Mays-15
   
4. F. Robinson-15
   
4. Rose-15
   
9. Mantle-15
   
9. Yaz-15

1. The Cards horrible last couple of weeks of the regular season. Remember.. when the writers voted for MVP this was really fresh in their minds. These were the same writers that predicted the Cards to lose to the Padres in 4 games.  In my opinion this was the MAJOR reason many decided to vote for Howard.

If the Cards would have finished the season a lot better and won the division a week before the playoffs I think Pujols would be MVP right now.

2. He was on the DL for a couple of weeks while Howard played the full season.  If Albert didn't get hurt and played those other 10-15 games, I bet he would have been alot closer to Ryan in HR & RBI's.

when chet Stedman(Busey)asked by reporters about making the series he said "hey anything can happen we're the cubs"  i laughed thought it was a great cheap shot at the "loveable losers"

Oh and Mr Wood...pitchers got a big butt...

i just had too..unless they lock down a few arms..im not too worried about them..

that makes me like the edmonds deal more

And why aren't they using some $$$ to stabalize their flippin rotation???

this is yet another case of blatant east coast bias on the writers part. and don't even get me started that this is a "old&tired" argument. it may be for some, but its completly revelant here. how else could they pick howard? his numbers do not support him winning. the only thing he did better than Albert was hit home runs and drive him more rbi's. if Albert played in that band box, with the kind of protection howard his this year, he too would have off the charts crazy home run and rbi totals. howard is black, so there is no raciest element here. as much as steven A smith would like to make one, there isnt. his argument is about as revelant as if richard justice would say that fat elvis should win the mvp because most baseball fans are fat white guys. so their mvp should look like them. something he would never do of course. but what steven did is just as bad. back to howard, his team didn't make the playoffs. isn't that the "tie breaker" in deciding who is mvp? sure was in 98. isn't it the same reason many pointed out why andrew jones didn't win last season? in fact the phillies fell off the table completly. so did howards play as many of you pointed out. Albert kept his great season going, all the while it was our pitching that let us down. Albert isn't bugs bunny. he can't play the field and pitch at the same time. it can't be steroids. but then if it was, why has Barry Bonds won 7 mvp's if the suspicion of using steroids keeps you from winning any kind of awards? nope. no double standard there.

so why did howard win? what I have to tell myself so that I can finally get some sleep tonight is that its all ESPN fault. they played howard up all the way till the end of the season. even when his numbers were not even close in some aspects to Alberts. if it does not happen on the east coast, chicago, houston, or LA, ESPN ignores it. always has. and always will. and the BWWAA are full of lazy morons who's revelancy will soon be no more if they keep following ESPN lead.

if you can't tell. I am really pissed off. and I would like it if someone from the Cardinals would show some anger too. but, unlike me, they don't really care about personal year end awards. good thing too. awards like this are more for the fans and agents and selfish players that only want big money anyway. not guys like Albert, or any other Cardials player. and thats one of the things that makes them the best franchise in baseball. all they care about is winning rings. and guess what? we got one this year. so no, Albert won't say he is mad that once again he got over looked for a much deserved award. if he is even asked about it, he will be very gracious and say howard was the best this past season, and he deserved. he and the rest of the Cardinals are far more gracious that I will ever be in this respect.

besides, when it's all said and done. when Albert is giving his speach at his hall of fame induction,going in as the greatest player to ever walk onto a diamond. no one will even remember who ryan howard was.