The Sandspur

Issue date: 10/7/05 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Ed Suba JR./KRT Campus PLAYOFFS HERE WE COME: Grady Sizemore of the Cleveland Indians walks off the field as Chicago White Sox players celebrate their 3-1 victory over the Indians.

Looking back at the 2005 season, it's hard to pinpoint what the biggest headline was. Drama was all over the place, but it collected at the end of the season when teams battled for the top spot to get into the playoffs.

The New York Yankees clinched the American League Eastern Division title on Saturday against the Boston Red Sox while the Sox settled for the wild-card after beating the Yankees on Sunday.

Jimmy Rollins of the Philadelphia Phillies had a 36 game hitting streak before the team lost the wild card to the Houston Astros. All the while the Atlanta Braves won their 14 straight division title.

The San Francisco Giants finished third in their division behind the division leader Sand Diego Padres, who sported a mediocre 80-82 record although Barry Bonds of the Giants upped his number of career home runs to 708, six behind Babe Ruth, after missing 148 games.

The Chicago White Sox beat the Cleveland Indians on Sept. 30th and kept the Indians out of the wild card spot by beating them in three more games.

Now that the regular season is over, it is time for the awards, of which I will pick with my educated opinion.

Although there is much debate over who should win the American League MVP, Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees should take home the award, although David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox is hard to snub, but the Yankees did win the American League East.

Manny Ramirez of the Boston Red Sox, Travis Hafner of the Cleveland Indians and Vladimir Guerrero of the L.A. Angels are also noteworthy but will not beat out Rodriguez.

For the American League CY Young Award, Bartolo Colon of the L.A. Angels is the deserving party. He is the only 20 game winner in the AL this season. His pennant race performance is second to none, and is ERA (3.51) is among the top in the AL. He also pitched 218 innings, and revived an otherwise mediocre pitching staff to a playoff berth.

Others who deserve consideration are Mariano Rivera of the New York Yankees, Jon Garland of the Chicago White Sox and Johan Santana of the Minnesota Twins.

Andruw Jones of the Atlanta Braves deserves the National League MVP. He sports a 51 HR and 128 RBI, leading the National League. He's everything an MVP should be: a leader, clutch and an amazing centerfield, for which he is likely to win the Gold Glove in Centerfield as well.

Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals, Derrek Lee of the Chicago Cubs and Miguel Cabrera of the Florida Marlins all deserve recognition as well.

Roger Clemens of the Houston Astros deserves the National League Cy Young Award. Sure he only has 12 wins, but it's the stats and team circumstances that matter. He leads the majors in ERA with 1.89, while his opponents' batting average is .197 He also sports a second in winning percentage with 82%.

If Clemens wasn't there, the Astros almost certainly would not have clinched a wild card berth. Clemens could have had seven more wins to his credit as well if the Astros didn't get shutout all those time he was pitching.

Sure, Chris Carpenter has 21 wins and played for a team that has won 100 games, but I think his team is good enough that they could make it without him. This is why I give Clemens his eighth CY Young award at age 42.

As for the playoffs, here are my predictions:

American League:

Yankees over Angels in 4

Red Sox over White Sox in 4

Red Sox over Yankees in 7

National League:

Cardinals over Padres in 4

Astros over Braves in 5

Cardinals over Astros in 6

Finals:

Red Sox over Cardinals in 6. The Red Sox will repeat as champions for the first time since 1915-1916.

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