DET NEWS SPORTSMAN OF THE YEAR - Maggs!

Friday, December 28, 2007

DETROIT NEWS SPORTSMAN OF THE YEAR

Hitman: Pitchers had little chance stopping Magglio Ordonez in 2007


Lynn Henning / The Detroit News

Watching big league pitchers when Magglio Ordonez stepped to the plate during the 2007 season was invariably entertaining and, sometimes, amusing.

Men accustomed to dispatching a hitter 70 percent of the time, and more, began to adjust to new math introduced by a Detroit Tigers right fielder. It seemed Ordonez was no longer following standard baseball practices or observing long-established limitations.

If a pitcher tried to paint the outside corner with a fastball, Ordonez slapped a hard single to right field. If that same pitcher decided during Ordonez's next at-bat to burn a pitch past Ordonez's knees, on the inside corner, Ordonez would uncoil an inside-out, right-hand swing and lace the ball to the opposite field.

If the pitcher made a mistake down the middle, and high in the strike zone, Ordonez's batted ball would explode on a line past the pitcher's head and into center field. Or, it might set sail for the left-center field bleachers, or on a line up the left-center or right-center gap. The result, so many times at these moments, was either a home run -- one of 28 he hit in 2007 -- or a double, of which Ordonez had 54 for the Tigers.

All of this happened during an awe-inducing season of hitting expertise that was both historical in its raw numbers and mesmerizing in its execution. Tigers manager Jim Leyland had roughly the same reaction. It is why, following the Tigers' last game of the season, Sept. 30 at Chicago, Leyland inscribed these words on a baseball presented to Ordonez: "The best single-season performance I've ever seen."

Ordonez had just won the American League batting championship, the first Tigers player to do so since Norm Cash in 1961. He had batted a stunning .363, the highest average by a Tigers regular since the majestic Charlie Gehringer hit .371 in 1937.

He had put together a season of unswerving excellence. So consistent was Ordonez that he never went more than two games without a hit. Three or four hits in a single game became just another head-shaking performance by a 33-year-old Venezuelan whose exploits were epic by any measure, whether considered in the context of Detroit's 100-years-plus baseball history, or in the annals of Major League Baseball.

He did it every day, with skill, and with grace. In the process, he never let the pressure he was bound to be feeling beneath the surface diminish his smile or affect his commitment to a greater objective: helping his teammates compete for a playoff spot that ultimately eluded Leyland's club. He was the portrait of baseball elegance. And because that image was etched so deeply and because it remains so enduring, Ordonez is an overwhelming choice as Detroit News Sportsman of the Year for 2007.

A fitting celebration

That final game at U.S. Cellular Field said much about Ordonez in 2007. He doubled in his first at bat, then singled twice in his remaining three trips to the plate. He wiped out his closest rival for the championship, Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki, who ended up batting .351. And with his three hits Ordonez managed to put a flourish on his masterpiece, which played out in front of his wife and family, who had flown in from Venezuela, which viewed Ordonez's title as reason for a national celebration.

It explained why, a half-hour after the game, a champagne-sopped Ordonez was pleased to answer a particular long-distance phone call: congratulatory greetings from Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, whose nation had followed Ordonez's quest that day on Venezuelan television and radio. Only once before, when Andres Galarraga did it for Colorado in 1993, had a player from Venezuela won a league batting title.

Ordonez responded in familiar fashion as the celebration carried on. He broke into a wide, neon-sign-sized grin, just as he had done after hitting a titanic home run that put the Tigers into the World Series a year earlier. His long black curls dripped champagne as he spoke in a gentle voice, in English tinged with an accent forged in his homeland.

"To tell you the truth, I don't know how I did it, but I did it," he said in the Tigers clubhouse as he and his teammates prepared to head home for the offseason. "I can't explain it to you. I stayed focused and tried to get a hit every at-bat."

It sometimes seemed as if that's precisely what he was doing. Not only was Ordonez racking up hits by the bushel as the season unfolded, he was ripping extra-base hits and driving home runs. He finished the season with 139 RBIs, the most by any Tiger since Rocky Colavito had 141 RBIs in 1961. Ordonez became only the third major-leaguer since the 1930s -- joining Joe Torre of the 1971 St. Louis Cardinals and Todd Helton of the 2000 Colorado Rockies -- to hit .360 or better with at least 135 RBIs and 350 total bases.

Healthy and hard to stop

"Anybody who wins a batting title is impressive," said Leyland, noting that, unlike Suzuki, Ordonez was not benefiting from "leg hits" where speed on the basepaths could result in scads of infield hits. "But when you knock in 140 runs or so and basically hit .350 the entire year, it's pretty impressive. Anybody who thinks that this isn't a well-deserved total batting champion is foolish. Period."

Ordonez, perhaps, had been building for a crescendo season with the Tigers. He was a four-time All-Star with the Chicago White Sox, with whom he played from 1997-2004. He came to the Tigers as one of baseball's elite hitters when Detroit signed him in February of 2005 to a potential seven-year, $105 million contract.

Then came the setbacks: a sports hernia that wiped out the first half of his 2005 season; and a stubborn knee condition that never completely cleared up until 2007.

What followed was perhaps predictable. The magic returned to Ordonez's bat. The old aura he generated in Chicago accompanied him to the plate in Detroit.

He won a batting championship. He would also have won a Most Valuable Player award had it not been for the even more extraordinary numbers rolled up by a player named Alex Rodriguez.

And through it all, he was a gentleman. He was a classy, amiable, baseball professional whose skill combined with personal character to make 2007 a treasure of a season for a Detroit baseball community that, quite accurately, will never forget him.

The inaugural Detroit News Sportsman of the Year in 2006 was Tigers manager Jim Leyland.

HOORAY!

MVP 2008!!!!! MVP!!!!! MVP!!!!

(and, he's HOT!!!!)

Yay for Maggs!!!!!!

Rules

I'm watching Opening Day 2007. GO MAGGS!! BE GREAT in'08!!!

Oh Yeah!

It's so funny listening to Rod and Mario make predictions for '07. They're talking about Sean Casey signing on a 3 to 4-year contract after '07, also something similar for Monroe.
If we knew then what we know now....

Yeah!

Magglio.....MY Tiger!!

laprimamirala wrote:

AWESOME SHIRT!! CHRISTMAS PRESENT??

Nope...great eBay download!

But I do have a dark blue "got Magglio?" T-shirt won on eBay...

Our man Maggs, always the gentle-spoken consummate professional. Congrats on yet another well-deserved honor. (oh yeah, and did anyone mention he's HOT????)))

:king:

EL SUPREMO!!

His BAT sure is hot!!

amonst other things!

Everybody :love:S

He is always cool, never upset at anything on the field....

Magglio!

for President or at least Governor of Michigan

He has diplomacy down to a fine art!

Quote :

All of this happened during an awe-inducing
season of hitting expertise that was both historical in its raw numbers
and mesmerizing in its execution. Tigers manager Jim Leyland had
roughly the same reaction. It is why, following the Tigers' last game
of the season, Sept. 30 at Chicago, Leyland inscribed these words on a
baseball presented to Ordonez: "The best single-season performance I've
ever seen."

I think Leland is definately a Maggs fan!!!!

It's hard NOT to be one!

Thats the best article Henning ever wrote. (I dislike his work)

Lets hope next years is a tie with all the World Champion Tigers!

Go World Champion Tigers!

Can't wait for it to happen in 2008