UPDATE: Icing on the cake big time, though expected: Andrew McCutchen, the Pirates' center fielder, won the National League Most Valuable Player award, with an unusual 28 out of 30 first place votes. And one of Jim Leyland's players in Detroit, Miguel Cabrera won the American League award, for the second straight year. He achieved the Triple Crown last year (leading the league in homers, RBIs and average) and came pretty close to doing it again this year. Congrats to Cutch and Cabrera. Cutch's win is especially sweet because he's an old school player, loyal to his team and its city of Pittsburgh, intent on playing his entire career there.
Congratulations to Clint Hurdle, manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates who won the 2013 National League Manager of the Year award.
And a belated farewell to Jim Leyland, who retired from major league baseball after the 2013 season. He was manager of the Detroit Tigers for several impressive seasons, and managed the Florida Marlins to the world championship in 1997, but I'll remember him as manager of the last great Pirates team before this one. By all accounts he was a great guy, and a real Pittsburgher. Between jobs, he was often seen watching Pirates games in the stands with another former Pirates manager, Chuck Tanner, who took his 1979 team to a world championship. Leyland's late 80s/early 90s teams--with the Killer Bs-- Bonds and Bonilla--plus Andy Van Slyke--won 3 division titles but never quite got to the Series. I rooted for the Marlins in 97 just so he could get the championship he so much deserved. I read somewhere he's planning to retire in Pittsburgh.
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