Home Run Derby

Continuing Home Run Derby’s quest to find the most unique and creative personalized baseball Jerseys/shirts we can find … we’ll stay in Dodger Stadium for a second week with a slightly more disturbing Jersey of the Week.

Apparently … The Devil is a Dodgers fan.

Frankly, I’m a little surprised.  I totally had the Prince of Darkness pegged as a Yankee fan.  Maybe he’s a Joe Torre fan and followed him to LA.  Or maybe ol’ Satan got a little disenfranchised when the Tampa Bay Rays changed their name from “Devil Rays” and started winning baseball games.

I’m kinda even more surprised that MLB would allow “SATAN” as a name on a Customized Authentic (or Replica - I can’t tell) Jersey. 

But lo and behold, if you try to customize a Dodgers Jersey with “SATAN 66″ at MLB.com at MLB.com … it works.

Mind you, you can’t get “666” as a number through the MLB.com shop.  I guess you gotta know someone to be able to pull that off.  Or put it on.  Take your pick.

SATAN 66 Jersey Rating:

• Cleverness: 6
• Originality: 6
• Understandability: 6

The Jersey loses points because it’s missing the third 6.

This really shouldn’t shock anyone, seeing as how fundamentalist preachers have been telling us that Los Angeles is a pit of sin for years.  And Dodgers uber-fan Alyssa Milano once played a Vampire in a movie, didn’t she?

So the Tampa Bay Devil Rays dropped the Devil from their name and are now just the Tampa Bay Rays. 

That got me wondering if there have been any players named Ray to play for the (Devil) Rays in their ten forgettable years of existence (645 Wins, 972 Losses, nine last-place finishes) in the Major Leagues.

Short answer:  No.  Nobody named Ray has ever played for Tampa Bay. 

Part of that’s because there have been slim pickin’s for Rays in Major League Baseball for the past decade. 

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Twenty Years Ago (in 1987) Andre Dawson was named the Most Valuable Player of the National League.

Before the 1987 season, Dawson (a free agent) had made it clear that he wanted to play for the Cubs because they played day baseball and had natural grass at Wrigley Field.  The Cubs didn’t seem interested (because they had Brian Dayett slated to play RF) so Dawson basically forced the Cubs to sign him when he handed them a signed blank contract right before Spring Training which the Cubs filled in the numbers at a base of $500,000 with $250,000 in incentives.

A quick look at his stats from that season (.287 Avg, .568 Slg, 49 HR, 137 RBI) say that he was worthy of the honor. 

But the most fun fact about that MVP season is that Dawson was the first player in Major League Baseball history to win a league MVP award while playing for a last place team (the Cubs finished a staggering 18.5 games behind the Cardinals).  In 2003, Alex Rodriguez became the second man to accomplish this feat (with the Texas Rangers).

Ironically, the Cardinals had two MVP candidates in 1987 (Ozzie Smith and Jack Clark) Dawson’s great season (and his gesture to play for whatever the Cubs wanted to pay him) and the split of the St. Louis vote for NL MVP left Smith and Clark #2 and #3 in the MVP voting. 

So, in honor of that special season, Home Run Derby presents the Andre Dawson Awards - given to the Most “Valuable” Player on a last place team in each League.   Because these guys deserve an award for having fabulous seasons while their teammates couldn’t do anything to support them.

The 2007 AL and NL Andre’s go to ….

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The Mariner Moose still leads Clutch and Scoop in their matchup, even after angering Red Sox Nation on Sunday.

The Mascot Brackets continue with a return to the Furrie Division for a matchup between two …  uh … Furrie-looking things … 

#2 Raymond (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) vs #7 Southpaw (Chicago White Sox)

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