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Give the man what he deserves

Six of the eight postseason baseball awards are in, with the following remaining honors being announced today and tomorrow.

After what was a fabulous baseball season once again, with milestones being reached by Tony Gwynn, Wade Boggs and Mark McGwire, the Yankees repeating after their manager battled back from cancer, the National League Wildcard coming down to one-game playoff and Sosa and McGwire proving that 1998 was no fluke, baseball has failed to disappoint. The winners of the postseason awards have all been worthy, but with the American League MVP being announced tomorrow, baseball may fail for the first time by not announcing the man who deserves the honor. It most likely will be Manny Ramirez of the Cleveland Indians, leaving Pedro Martinez out of the loop.

Martinez, the right-handed hurler for the Boston Red Sox may very well be the best pitcher of our time, but there is no question that he is the best pitcher entering the new millennium. He already has the AL Cy Young Award in his pocket, but he needs some new brass this week - the highest honor in the AL.

Good arguments can be made for Ramirez (.333 avg., 44 HR and 165 RBI) and Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees (.349, 24, 102), but Pe-Dro, as the Boston faithful scream, is the best. He meant the most to his team, and there is no question about it.

After opening the first half of the season with a record of 15-2, Martinez stepped on the hill in his home stadium of Fenway Park and struck out Barry Larkin, Larry Walker, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire and Jeff Bagwell for five of his six outs in the All-Star game.

He finished the year at 23-4, leading the American League in strikeouts with 313, earned run average with a clip of 2.07 and wins. Do the math folks - that's the Triple Crown in pitching - wins, ERA and strikeouts.

Now, tell me that he isn't the MVP.

To further the argument, Ramirez was on a team that would have went to the playoffs without him as Cleveland boasted Roberto Alomar, Jim Thome, Kenny Lofton, Omar Vizquel, Travis Fryman, David Justice and Richie Sexson. Now that is a potent offense!

The Yankees may not have won the World Series without Jeter, but they most likely would have been good enough to make the playoffs with a lineup that consisted of Bernie Williams, Paul O'Neill, Tino Martinez, Scott Brosius, Chuck Knoblauch and a pitching staff of David Cone, Roger Clemens, Orlando Hernandez and Mariano Rivera.

Who did Pedro have to back him up? Well, not the guys mentioned above, that's for sure. Besides the great shortstop, Nomar Garciaparra, Martinez had a rookie in Brian Daubach, plus Jose Offerman, Jason Varitek, John Valentin, Troy O'Leary, Otis Nixon, Darren Lewis and Mike Stanley.

Not a bad lineup by any means, but there is no doubt that, without Pedro, the Red Sox are golfing in October and the Oakland Athletics are the team losing to the Yankees.

So therefore, with the amazing statistics and his team making the playoffs, Pedro Martinez is the AL MVP. If an offensive player would have won the Triple Crown, there would be no question of him being the MVP, so why not a pitcher?

Pray that the Baseball Writer's Association of America does not screw this one up and gives Pedro what he deserves, the highest honor for an American League player.