SCOTT JACOBS

Yesterday it was Tim Lincecum.  Today it was Cliff Lee.

And you know what the two had in common?

Few even noticed.  Look, winning the CY Young is a great accomplishment, but two things take the luster off of their achievement.  First off, their teams stinked.  The Indians and Giants were blips on the relevence radar after about a month and a half into the season.  More importantly though, the award is given so late in the year, that it’s practically forgotten.

I will never understand why baseball hands out its post-season awards two weeks after the World Series.  As you saw this year the Fall Classic had minimal buzz, so why in the world would you hand out your most prestigious award (arguably) after most of the world has already tuned out?  So what to do?  Here’s my suggestions:

1. Hand out the freaking award during the playoffs.  The NBA may have an incredibly long playoff system in place, but they do have one thing right: they hand out their awards during the heat of the moment.  They crown their best during the best time of their season.  And that’s what baseball needs to do!  Announce the CY Young winners during the ALCS and NLCS.  Give away the MVP award before game one of the World Series or game two.  DO something, anything, but giving it away two weeks plys after the season has reached it’s conclusion.

2. If you’re going to hand out the awards after the season, do it one week after.  Allow it to be fresh in people’s minds.  Most sports fans have moved on to the NFL, College Football, and the NBA (Sorry hockey), and baseball for now is at the bottom of the totem-pole.  Why?  Because this is when the sports season heats up like no other time of the year.  So don’t wait for your sport to be forgotten.  Do it when it’s fresh!

I don’t think I’m asking that much here.  I really don’t.

But baseball has a funny way of doing things differently, so maybe it is fitting that they’d give out their awards long after everyone has moved on.