In a season where every rational A's fan was left surprised with jaws wide open, Tuesday brought one more such no way moment: Bob Melvin beat out Buck Showalter for American League Manger of the Year honors. No, Melvin was anything but undeserving. In fact, in a different year -you know, when the Yankees or Red Sox or Rangers or Angels or money-is-no-object club overcomes some major injury or gets on a late-season run- he would have gone all Mike Trout on one of these awards and made the contest seem rather anti-climactic. (Even the most stubborn Oakland fan would admit Trout was far more deserving for the award than A's runner-up Yoenis Cespedes.)
Melvin and Baltimore's Showalter, who also led his team from modest if not bleak spring training prognostications into a playoff berth, were going to be the only realistic choices for this award (apologies to the third finalist Robin Ventura). The votes were in prior to the A's and O's getting to a Game 5 in their respective American League Division Series. So there was nothing either skipper could have done after Game 162, but perhaps that day when the A's finished off a remarkable comeback in the final week to dethrone the two-time reigning American League pennant-winning Rangers, made a lasting impression on the voters.
But it were those same voters I figured would give the nod to Showalter. He's a former member of the media when he worked as a talking head for ESPN, and it also never hurts to have an Eastern Time Zone working address. And let's face it: the Orioles have been a baseball sinkhole for years, and it wouldn't have been an outrage if Showalter had won the award. Only in the Athletics' family would much resistance popped up.
So Melvin's 16 first-place votes beat out Showalter's 12. Such an award, combined with combined with GM Billy Beane winning what appears to be a deserving if unspectacular Executive of the Year honor, and they give some credence to how deliciously unexpected 2012 was. But as the awards season begins to wind down with the last few awards -the A's won't get much play for AL Cy Young or MVP (Cespedes may get a couple of votes somewhere)- it'll be soon time to turn the page and see if this team can approach what it pulled off in 2013.
Melvin and Baltimore's Showalter, who also led his team from modest if not bleak spring training prognostications into a playoff berth, were going to be the only realistic choices for this award (apologies to the third finalist Robin Ventura). The votes were in prior to the A's and O's getting to a Game 5 in their respective American League Division Series. So there was nothing either skipper could have done after Game 162, but perhaps that day when the A's finished off a remarkable comeback in the final week to dethrone the two-time reigning American League pennant-winning Rangers, made a lasting impression on the voters.
But it were those same voters I figured would give the nod to Showalter. He's a former member of the media when he worked as a talking head for ESPN, and it also never hurts to have an Eastern Time Zone working address. And let's face it: the Orioles have been a baseball sinkhole for years, and it wouldn't have been an outrage if Showalter had won the award. Only in the Athletics' family would much resistance popped up.
So Melvin's 16 first-place votes beat out Showalter's 12. Such an award, combined with combined with GM Billy Beane winning what appears to be a deserving if unspectacular Executive of the Year honor, and they give some credence to how deliciously unexpected 2012 was. But as the awards season begins to wind down with the last few awards -the A's won't get much play for AL Cy Young or MVP (Cespedes may get a couple of votes somewhere)- it'll be soon time to turn the page and see if this team can approach what it pulled off in 2013.
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