Chalk up yet another instance in which the NFL has its act together much more than MLB when it comes to...well...just about everything regarding public relations, organization and procedure.
Yesterday, LaDainian Tomlinson was named the NFL's MVP by the Associated Press (which confers the defacto official MVP award) for 2006 in a landslide vote that was never in doubt. The key point here is that he was named the winner prior to the start of the post-season. Indeed, the voters found enough time to cast and tabulate their ballots between the final week of the regular season and the start of the playoffs.
MLB, on the other hand, has never figured out how to name it's league MVP's prior to the playoffs and World Series. Instead, the announcement comes more than a month after the last out has been recorded, and, thus, the entire process is inevitably embroiled in controversy as voters, pundits, players and fans alike point out that post-season play should have no bearing on the award and then, more often than not, conveniently fail to heed their own warnings.
3 comments:
I thought that they submit the ballots/votes before the playoffs, but the results are not revealed until after. In baseball, there is only 1 day between end of season and start of playoffs, and MLB likes unveiling the winners on separate days. NFL has a whole week (well, 6 days) between end of season and start of playoffs.
I think this is one of those cases where baseball doesn't really care about getting it right - they just care about getting people talking about baseball a month after the season ends. Any controversy is gravy - it adds to the marketing potential.
You both may be right but dragging it out serves little purpose in my mind.
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