NEW YORK -- Back in June, Minnesota's Justin Morneau walked into manager Ron Gardenhire's office with a .236 batting average and was benched. Though he didn't realize it at the time, he walked out an MVP.
"It woke me up," Morneau said Tuesday after edging Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees to win the AL's Most Valuable Player award. "He lit a fire under me."
Morneau received 15 first-place votes, eight seconds, three thirds and two fourths for 320 points in voting by a panel of the Baseball Writers' Association of America. Jeter finished with 12 firsts, 14 seconds, one fourth and one sixth for 306 points.
It was the 16th-closest MVP race since the current format began in 1938, and the 10th-closest in the AL.
"I didn't really sleep that well last night. I kind of woke up. I don't usually get too nervous about this kind of thing," Morneau said. "You want to get it over with."
|
|
| Justin Morneau becomes the fourth Twin to win the MVP award. (US PRESSWIRE) |
After listening to his manager, Morneau batted .362 with 23 homers and 92 RBI.
"There wasn't too much said that was bad or anything," Morneau said. "It was just, 'Your focus needs to be on the field. You can do a lot of things in this game that people can't do.' ... Gardy helped me realize that I can be a lot better than I was."
Morneau finished with a .321 average, 34 homers and 130 RBI, helping the Twins win the AL Central for the fourth time in five years.
Three Twins finished among the top seven in MVP voting. AL batting champion Joe Mauer was sixth, followed by AL Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
"I love Minnesota. I'd love to play my whole career here. We have a great young team," the 25-year-old Morneau said. "We're all around the same age. We had a pretty decent year last year and we have a chance to do it again next year and for a lot of years to come, especially with that new stadium coming. This is a great place to play. I love the people here."
Jeter batted .344 with 14 homers and 97 RBI. In the batting race he finished three points behind Mauer, who became the first catcher to win an AL batting title.
"While I know that voting for these awards is primarily based on differing opinions and statistical debates, it's also part of what makes baseball such a great sport," Jeter said in a statement issued by the Yankees.
