Alright, I know I’m over two weeks late on this, but this definitely is a topic of discussion. They gave Derek Jeter the Hank Aaron Award again. I won’t even get into the Gold Glove topic because that is a whole different story. Let’s take a step back here and examine this a bit closer.
What is the Hank Aaron Award?
The criteria for the award, as described by Major League Baseball, is “the best hitter in each league”. The process of selection for the award has varied from year-to-year. In 1999, a point system that awarded a set number of points dependent on RBI, HR, etc. determined the winner of the award. The very next year this idea was scrapped. It was decided that each team’s radio and broadcast crew would select three names in each league. Those with the most votes would win the award. By 2003, the process was similar but a minor change being that fans would also vote (70% radio/broadcast crew, 30% fans). Over time the selection process has gone from a reasonable point system and has slowly integrated fans until finally this year where fans were responsible for not only the voting, but the nominations as well.
Jeter Steals Award in 2006
To be perfectly honest, I think 2006 may have been even more of a shame than this year. In 2006, David Ortiz had a ridiculous 54 homeruns and 137 RBI for a 1.049 OPS. Jeter countered with one of the best years of his career when he put together a .900 OPS for the year (14 homeruns). This is a simple vote, right? Nope. Even with the support of Red Sox Nation, Jeter stole the award from Ortiz.
Jeter Undeserving Again
This is the part where we examine all the players who were better hitters than Jeter this season.
- Derek Jeter wasn’t even the best hitting shortstop this season, with Jason Bartlett and his .879 OPS trumping the Yankees’ captain. I won’t even get started on Jeter having the short porch in right field.
- Some prefer to use wOBA when comparing offensive players. When looking at that, Jeter was the 9th best hitter in the American League behind Mauer, Youkilis, Zobrist, A-Rod, Teixeira, Cabrera, Bay and Lind.
- In terms of OPS, he wasn’t even top 20.
- Four of Jeter’s teammates were better hitters in terms of OPS (Teixeira, A-Rod, Matsui and Cano respectively).
- Heart, courage, leadership, diving headfirst into the stands, etc. all do not count towards the Hank Aaron Award.
What should the MLB do?
We all know Major League Baseball loves to get the fans involved. However, until you rename awards such as this one to “Fans Choice Best Hitter”, or something to that effect, there should be better ways of determining the winner. I can only imagine how Hank Aaron must feel when an award named after him is continually given to players who don’t meet the criteria. I really try not to hate Jeter, I really do. The guy makes it damn near impossible not to. The last time I’ve been this bothered by something in Major League Baseball Curt Schilling was squeezing a couple packets of Heinz on his ankle during his pre-game bullpen session.
Derek Boucher is a native of Toronto, Canada. He covers all sports for Pete Prose.
E-mail him at derek@peteprose.com 
I can only imagine how Hank Aaron must feel when an award named after him is continually given to players who don’t meet the criteria.
“Derek Jeter is a one of a kind,” Aaron said. “He comes along once every 20 or 30 years. … He is not one-dimensional and he does everything there is to win a ballgame.”
In other words, Aaron is senile and doesn’t know who the other players in the league are.
Intangibles, dude.
I’d love to hear what Joe Morgan thinks about this.
Morgan thinks Jeter deserves it, but the award should be called the “Joe Morgan Award”.
Stop reading your comment after you used Morgan and ‘think’ together.
Jeter and Ortiz in the same post? This is like the Graveyard of the Overrated.
This wasn’t a sham. A real sham was 1997 Survivor Series WWF Championship bout.