Granderson earns Play of the Year

Granderson earns Play of the Year
Fans vote center fielder's over-the-fence catch top play for TYIB
By Jason Beck / MLB.com

Apparently this year in baseball was the year for Tigers defense.

A day after Placido Polanco received MLB.com's This Year in Baseball award as the Defensive Player of the Year for his errorless season, teammate Curtis Granderson was honored for a singular play. His over-the-fence catch to take back a Red Sox home run on July 8 earned the fans' vote for the TYIB Play of the Year.

Not a bad twin-killing for a team that annually ranked among the worst defensive teams in the Majors until two years ago.

While it was just one moment, the Play of the Year honor was arguably more impressive because of the competition. Unlike the other categories in the series, this one had 30 nominees -- one from each team -- for which readers could vote at MLB.com. It's one of the more glamorous of the awards thanks to the prevalence of highlight reels, and past honorees have included Derek Jeter for his leap into the stands for a catch a few years ago.

This year's competition included several home-run robberies, another Jeter play with his trademark leaping throw, an unassisted triple play by Troy Tulowitzski and a Grady Sizemore diving catch robbing Granderson. The latter, of course, is a play with which Tigers fans were all too familiar upon watching Cleveland take the AL Central title.

None of those, however, matched in readers' eyes the combination of speed and acrobatics Granderson displayed the day before the All-Star break. Sizemore robbed Granderson of the aforementioned hit and beat him out for a Gold Glove award last month, but this should provide a little bit of payback.

The play started when then-Bostonian Wily Mo Pena hit a deep drive toward the gap in left-center field in the fourth inning of a 5-2 game. Granderson, playing Pena in straightaway center field at spacious Comerica Park, immediately took off running back toward the fence. He was still running at nearly full speed when he took a flying leap to his right and into the fence, lifting his glove up and over to track down the ball. When he realized he had the ball upon twisting and falling to the ground, he hoisted his glove in the air to show it.

"If that's not one of the 'Web Gems,' I've never seen one," manager Jim Leyland said that day, "because that's as good as it gets."

Starting pitcher Nate Robertson showed his appreciation by raising his first in the air. The fans showed their opinion with the click of a mouse.

The win gives the Tigers two awards in a TYIB series that has so far been dominated by the Red Sox and Yankees. AL batting champion Magglio Ordonez lost by less than one percentage point to Alex Rodriguez for Hitter of the Year.

TYIB also announced the winner of the voting for Blooper of the Year.

On May 31, Manny Ramirez of the Red Sox hit a long foul ball at Fenway Park that smashed the lens of a television camera high above left field, stunning the cameraman. The blooper won in a virtual landslide with 25.5 percent of the vote, 9.3 percent more than the second-place finisher.

It was not the first time a moment outside the field of the play was honored in this category. In 2003, rock legend Ozzy Osbourne took home the Blooper hardware for his unique rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during a seventh-inning stretch at Wrigley Field.

go curtis!

Finally he wins something! Too bad it's the least prestigious award he could have won. The only thing worse would be like a Teen Choice Award or People's sexiest man alive.

Boston , NY
Granderson

That's awesome!!! GO GRANDY!!!!!

SOMEBODY had better recognize this guy....and QUICK!!

Yay for Granderson! That was such an awesome play!

YAY GRANDY!!

"Sexiest man of the Year?" I'd say the Tigers are the
"Sexiest Team of the Year" for 2008

Think about it.... Maggs, Grandy, Pudge, Miguel, Zoom, Poli, Carlos et al.....

YUM! And they look good too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GO :curtis:

YOU ROCK!

:curtis: :curtis: :curtis: !!

laprimamirala wrote:

:curtis: :curtis: :curtis: !!

My, you're up quite early! 5:00 AM Either that or you stay up REALLY late! I guess I should go to bed

I have the absolutely weirdest schedule. I'm 3rd shift, and my weekend is Thursday and Friday. Usually Friday I try to work a few hours. I overslept this morning...am working now...trying to get 4 hours in. I keep checking the forum intermittently!

This video shows all the competition for the catagory and announces (with video footage) of Grandy's catch!

http://mlb.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?video=200712202334170

GURTIS CRANDERSON!!!!!

CO GURTIS!!