This column originally ran in The Standard-Times on Sept. 16, 2005.

By Nick Tavares
Standard-Times Staff Writer

The definition of "most valuable" fluctuates from year to year. Usually, the Most Valuable Player Award is given to the hitter with the best stats that season, such as Alex Rodriguez's win in 2003 with the last-place Texas Rangers. Sometimes, it's not the stats that earn a player the MVP award, but rather what that player means to his team. Look back to Mo Vaughn and Barry Larkin in 1995 for perfect examples of that.

Since a pitcher hasn't been MVP since Dennis Eckersley won that and the Cy Young in 1992, and a starter hasn't taken home the honors since Roger Clemens in '86, we'll assume that voters are ignoring pitchers again. The argument against it is flawed -- that they only play every five days -- but that's the nature of the beast lately.

But there's another argument that designated hitters shouldn't be considered seriously in MVP voting because they don't help their teams in the field. That stance is the height of idiocy. No one says that the player has to be especially good with a glove, just playing the field is apparently enough. This explains wins by Jason Giambi, Frank Thomas, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds (his last three, anyway).

No, designated hitters should be just as eligible as any hitter. And David Ortiz is certainly the most valuable player in the American League this year. No one is even close. Not by a long shot.

Ortiz is in the midst of an almost mythical 2? year run, beginning with his July 4 weekend in New York in 2003. Big Papi is not just having his best offensive season yet -- 42 home runs and 130 RBIs entering last night with two weeks left in the season -- he's been as clutch as any player has ever been, which won him an award from Sox owner John Henry earlier this month.

Consider these gaudy figures Ortiz is hitting a very respectable .297. With runners on base, he's hitting .311. When they're in scoring position, he jumps to .343. And, should there also be two outs with runners on when he struts to the plate, he's hitting .370 and slugging a gaudy .741.

And now that the Sox are in the thick of a stretch run, in the 10 games before last night, he hit .344 with five homers and 11 RBIs. It's unreal.

There are several candidates with impressive numbers this season. The Yankees' Rodriguez has near-triple crown numbers with 41 homers, 112 RBIs and a .319 average.

But he's nowhere near Ortiz in the clutch. He's at his best with no one on and no one out at .371. With runners in scoring position, that drops drastically to .277.

The Angels' Vlad Guerrero is hitting .313 with 29 homers and 98 RBI for a first-place team. Even Mark Teixiera's 39 homers and 126 RBIs would warrant consideration if the Rangers were having a better season.

But they've got nothing on Ortiz. It won't be long before opposing teams are walking Ortiz to take their chances with Manny Ramirez, whose .282-35-122 numbers are just slightly less intimidating.

That wasn't the case Wednesday night. With the score tied, Ortiz sent a two-run bomb to deep center field yet another win off of Toronto's Josh Towers.

Towers had no trouble explaining why Ortiz didn't deserve MVP honors after the game, though.

"They don't go through the grind other guys go through defensively, diving after balls, chasing balls." Towers said. "You just hit. As good a hitter as he is, and he's one of the best, no question, I could never vote for a guy who doesn't play defense."

Well, Towers doesn't get to vote. But ironically, he happens to be just another pitcher who has helped Papi make his case.

He doesn't just hit, he wins games. There's nothing more valuable in this sport than that.

Nick Tavares is a columnist for The Standard-Times. E-mail him at ntavares@s-t.com

This story appeared on Page C1 of The Standard-Times on September 16, 2005.

Nick Tavares' column appears Sundays in The Standard-Times and at SouthCoastToday.com. He can be reached at nick@nicktavares.com