Considering the recent landscape of major league baseball, you’d think a player’s only chance to win an MVP Award would be to be a ripped-up muscled specimen–half ballplayer, half bodybuilder.
Red Sox second baseman, and former ASU Sun Devil Dustin Pedroia, all 5 foot 9 of him, dispelled that myth.
Pedroia easily won his first American League MVP Award on Tuesday, beating out Minnesota first baseman Justin Morneau and his Boston teammate Kevin Youkilis. Pedroia received 16 of 28 first place votes and finished no lower than 4th on any one voter’s ballot, although interestingly, Pedroia was absent completely from one ballot.
Pedroia also joins some pretty lofty company in becoming the third former Sun Devil to win the award, joining all-time home run champion Barry Bonds, who won 7 National League MVPs, and Reggie Jackson, who won the AL MVP while with Oakland in 1973. That duo combined to hit 1,325 home runs in the majors.
Pedroia batted .384 with 14 homers and 146 runs batted in in 185 career games for the Sun Devils from 2002-2004, before becoming a 2nd round pick of the Red Sox in 2004.
Here’s what others are saying about Pedroia winning the AL MVP…
- Pedroia named AL MVP [MLB.com]
- Dustin Pedroia wins AL MVP [Boston Herald]
- Most Valuable : Pedroia [Boston Globe]
- Pedroia beats out Morneau to win AL MVP [ESPN/AP]
