Post Season MVPs versus their past or future teams – Another insane Sully Baseball list

For those of you who read my blog regularly, you know that every once in a while an idle thought would enter my cranium and it would evolve into me doing an elaborate list writing entry here.

My entire 800 page Home Grown vs Acquired Series started from the simple question “I wonder if the Red Sox had better luck acquiring players from other teams or developing their own talent.”

I chronicled how my ideas can germinate into a blog post with my “Making of a Blog Post” entry. Well it happened again.

While on the treadmill watching coverage of the Yankees and Rangers courtship of Cliff Lee, I thought “The Yankees are trying to bring in a guy who consistently beat them in October. I wonder how many players have joined a team they beat in the playoffs.”

Later I got more specific. “I wonder how many times a playoff MVP joined the team that he beat.”

Then I thought “I wonder how many playoff MVPs won their award against a team they USED to play for.”

And finally the question “How many players won a playoff MVP and then later played in the post season AGAINST the team that he won the award for?”

This is how my mind works, people.

And I can’t just leave these thoughts hanging.
I have to list them.

And I did.

Post Season MVPs who joined the team they beat

FRANK ROBINSON
1966 World Series MVP for the Baltimore Orioles against the
Los Angeles Dodgers.
Joined the Dodgers in 1972

KIRK GIBSON
1984 ALCS MVP for the Detroit Tigers against the
Kansas City Royals
Joined the Royals in 1991

DENNIS ECKERSLEY
1988 ALCS MVP for the Oakland Athletics against the
Boston Red Sox
Joined the Red Sox in 1998

OREL HERSHISER
1988 NLCS MVP for the Los Angeles Dodgers against the
New York Mets
Joined the Mets in 1999.

RICKEY HENDERSON
1989 ALCS MVP for the Oakland Athletics against the
Toronto Blue Jays
Joined the Blue Jays in 1993

RANDY JOHNSON
2001 World Series Co-MVP for the Arizona Diamondbacks against the New York Yankees
Joined the Yankees in 2005.

Post Season MVPs who beat
a team they used to play for

LEW BURDETTE
1957 World Series MVP for the Milwaukee Braves against the
New York Yankees.
Played for the Yankees in 1950.

MIKE SCOTT
1986 NLCS MVP for the Houston Astros against the
New York Mets.
Played for the Mets from 1979-1982

DENNIS ECKERSLEY
1988 ALCS MVP for the Oakland Athletics against the
Boston Red Sox
Played for the Red Sox from 1978-1984

JOSE RIJO
1990 World Series MVP for the Cincinnati Reds against the Oakland Athletics
Played for the Athletics from 1985-1987

Post Season MVPs who later played against their team in the Post Season

DON LARSEN
1956 World Series MVP for the
New York Yankees
Pitched in the 1962 World Series for the San Francisco Giants against the Yankees

REGGIE JACKSON
1973 World Series MVP for the
Oakland A’s
Played in the 1981 ALCS for the New York Yankees against the A’s

I find it interesting that Dennis Eckersley appeared on the list twice.
I am guessing you did too.

Wait, Paul Konerko has 10 homers already?

Seriously… he’s in double digits already.

I didn’t know that.

Granted he just reached double digits a few hours ago. But still, I didn’t know he was so close to 10 that a pair of homers this afternoon in Arlington would do the trick.

Maybe I didn’t know because the White Sox haven’t exactly been hitting the cover off the ball… they have the lowest team batting average in all of baseball and have the second lowest team on base percentage in the American League.

Maybe their 8-13 start (they are 9-13 now) didn’t capture my imagination.

But here we are… the first home run hitter to double digits is Paul Konerko.

When you think of it, Konerko has had a pretty cool career. Not a Hall of Fame one, but certainly one that would earn him a spot on the U.S. Cellular Field outfield wall of retired numbers.

He may have been kicked around early in his career (he played for 3 big league teams in his first 4 seasons) but he has been an underrated fixture in Chicago. In a free agent era when people skip town constantly, he has spent 12 straight years in the South Side of Chicago. He was supposedly off to the Angels after the 2005 World Series… but decided to stick around with the Sox.

He’s been an All Star three times and finished 6th in the 2005 AL MVP vote. He has hit 20 or more homers in 10 of the past 11 seasons (and is halfway there already for 2010.) Four times he has driven in 100 runs.

Plus he has been a horse in the post season. He played for the 2000 and 2008 Division Champions… and of course was a big part of the 2005 World Champs run.

He crushed a key homer off of Tim Wakefield in Game 3 of the Division Series.
He hit first inning homers in Games 3 and 4 of the ALCS on his way to the Series MVP award.
And his grand slam off of Chad Qualls in Game 2 of the World Series turned a 4-2 deficit into a 6-4 lead.

Now here he is, leading the league in homers so far.
He’s had a cool and underrated career.

Like everyone on that White Sox team (including his currently unemployed former teammate Jermaine Dye) , there were no superstars (especially with Frank Thomas hurt). Just a bunch of guys who did their jobs well.

So I didn’t know Konerko had 10 homers already… and if nobody else in cyber space is going to salute him, I WILL!