My fellow Yankee haters will hate me for this (perhaps going so far as to throw me out of the Yankee-hating fraternity), but Mark Teixeira deserves to be named the American League Most Valuable Player. (The winner will be announced Monday.) Tex put the Yankees over the top after eight years of futility. Yes, I know that C. C. Sabathia stabilized the pitching staff, but he's not an everyday player like Tex, who is both a clutch hitter and a sterling fielder. What troubles me is the possibility that the Yankees are starting a roll. They won the World Series in 1996, 1998, 1999, and 2000. Their World Series victory in 2009 could be the first of several in a row. Who's going to stop them? The Boston Rat Sox are on the way down. They haven't been the same since Manny Ramirez left. National League teams have not fared well in recent years, either in interleague play, in the All-Star game, or in the World Series. It's a terrible time to be a Yankee hater.
Addendum: Six of the past 10 and 13 of the past 20 World Series have been won by American League teams. The Junior Circuit is dominant.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 