MVP Race As Close As Pennant Race

Boston v. New York. Yankees v. Red Sox. It is the biggest rivalry in sports. All of the history, all of the bitterness, all of the time. And two more chapters are about to be written in this Athens v. Sparta drama. The American League East Division champion, as well as the A.L. MVP, will come from either the Red Sox or Yankees. The Sox currently lead the Yankees by a .5-game in the division and the two leading candidates for MVP are Boston's David Ortiz and New York's Alex Rodriguez. And I think that just like last year, the Red Sox will barely overcome their rival in both categories. Like I said yesterday, I see the Red Sox holding on in the East. It won't be pretty, Boston will be filled with anxiety until the Yanks are officially eliminated, but in the end the Red Sox are the better team. Curt Schilling is finding his groove (throwing 95 m.p.h. strikes last night) and the bats finally awoke last night in Tampa Bay. The deciding factor will be that the Yankees have to come to Fenway for the last three games of the season. As for the MVP race, Big Papi will win out over A-Rod. No disrespect to Rodriguez but if the bias that exists against Designated Hitters was not in place than we probably would not be having this discussion right now. Not that the Yankee third baseman isn't having a great season -- .320 BA, 45 HR, 120 RBI, 1.028 OPS -- but statistics do not tell the whole story. Rodriguez is a great player but he is not indispensable to the Yankees. And indispensable is just the word to describe what David Ortiz is to the Red Sox. Without his bat in the lineup, the Red Sox would already be making vacation plans for the winter. But because they have Mr. Clutch on their side, the Sox have a legitimate shot at winning back-to-back World Series'. And 'Tizzle's stats do more than stand up against A-Rod's -- they mostly overshadow them. A .302 batting average. 46 home runs. 140 RBI. An OPS (combined slugging and on-base percentage) of 1.018. And enough clutch hits to make most New Englander's over 45 temporarily forget about Yaz. So, after 86 years of losing time after time to the Yankees, the Red Sox will now have two more victories to add to their historic 2004 ALCS comeback.