Former All-Star power hitter Richie Sexson has won the AL Least Valuable Player award, an honor given to the player deemed to have had the worst possible season. This player usually comes from a last place team, and many times, the player has helped his team sink to their position. This year was no different.
Sexson being greeted at home plate by Adrian Beltre after striking out for a sixth consecutive time.
Sexson, the tallest position player in the history of the game, hovered just above the Mendoza Line for most of the season, finishing at .221 and striking out an impressive 86 times in 280 at bats. Before being released halfway through the season, he led the Seattle Mariners to last place in the AL West. He was picked up by the New York Yankees in August, and arrived just in time to help them not get into the playoffs. He was thanked and released after 28 at bats with the Yanks.
A distant second in the race was the Cleveland Indians’ Asdrubal Cabrera, followed by Jason Varitek of the Boston Red Sox. Cabrera led the league in Expectation Failure, and Varitek finished with the most swing-and-misses-to-end-a-game since Roger “Strikeout to End the Game” Billaby in 1922.
But it was Sexson, playing an instrumental part in dashing the playoff hopes of two teams, who came away from the 2008 season with some hardware. The Chinstrap congratulates him and wishes him luck with finding a team to play with next year.
