Joe Mauer – 2009 AL MVP

Joe Mauer AL MVP American Leaguers — Want to hold a wiffleball for our site? So far, two players that have went on to win the American League Most Valuable Player Award.

Back in 2006, Justin Morneau held and autographed a wiffleball for us at spring training, and finished the year by winning the AL MVP Award. Earlier today, Joe Mauer, who also held and autographed a wiffleball for us was named the 2009 AL MVP.

Mauer was a near-unanimous choice, earning 27-of-28 first place votes (Detroit’s Miguel Cabrera got the other), and is only the second catcher in 33 years to win the AL MVP Award. Ivan Rodriguez won it in 1999.

Mauer missed the first month of the regular season due to a back injury, but returned strong, homering in his first at bat. He went on to help the Twins win the AL Central division, win the American League batting title, a Gold Glove Award, a Silver Slugger Award, and now the AL MVP Award. That’s a pretty good year.

The Major League Wiffleball Most Valuable Player Award is already named after his teammate Justin Morneau. However, now that Joe Mauer has received the same award, I may rename it the M-and-M MVP Award, or the MMMVP award.

Joe Mauer already has an MLW award named for him too — the Joe Mauer Batting Champion — which goes to the player with the highest batting average, in honor of Mauer’s 3 AL batting titles.

Either way, I’m going to need to find a way to show off my balls now — my autographed Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau wiffleballs, that is.

I think I like this for my office. It can hold many of my other autographed wiffleballs too.

Any suggestions? Does the MMMVP Award sound good? Are you an AL (or even NL) player that wants to pose for a wiffleball photo? Pitchers are encouraged too — it worked for Johan Santana. He won a Cy Young Award. Torii Hunter won 9 consecutive Gold Glove Awards (8 since posing). And Mike Scioscia won manager of the year after posing with me. Let us know.