letter to Joe Cowley of Chicago Sun-Times

With respect to the AL MVP voting, here's a letter I wrote to the guy who voted Jeter 6th on his ballot, costing him the MVP.

Dear Joe,

My name is Josh Normand. I moved to Chicago from New York a few years ago.
I have a different take on this MVP vote.

Imagine it's the year 2021 and the HOF vote is in. Derek Jeter retired in 2016 with a .310 BA and 3300 hits and 5 world titles and no MVP. How do you feel about his HOF candidacy? Is it weakened if he doesn't win an MVP? Does his WS MVP and All Star Game MVP make up for his lack of a regular season MVP?

For the record, in the last 12 years, only TWICE has a Yankee or Red Sox won the MVP, 1995 it was Mo Vaughn and last year it was Alex Rodriguez. So if the Yankees and Red Sox are dominating, it's not in MVP awards.

Nine other MVP's are from the AL West, Juan Gonzalez (96 & 98), Grifffey (97) Ivan Rodriguez (99) Jason Giambi (00) Ichiro Suzuki (01), Miguel Tejada (02), Alex Rodriguez (Texas, 03) and Vladimir Guererro (04).

Will the Hall of Fame be cheapened by controversial choices for ROY and MVP?

Thank you kindly.




Sincerely,

Joshua Normand