Philadelphia Athletics co-owner and the namesake of the Athletics’ and Phillies’ ball park, Ben Shibe, died on January 14, 1922.

Ben Shibe was largely responsible for bringing the American League to Philly and making the City of Brotherly Love a 2 team town. Shibe is credited with making advancements in the manufacturing of baseballs, and made enough doing it to buy 50% of the Athletics and build the first steel and concrete stadium at 21st and Lehigh in Philadelphia. Connie Mack owned the other 50% of the A’s.

Connie Mack took over sole ownership of the Athletics in 1936 once Ben Shibe’s sons had also died, but did not change the name from Shibe Park. Mack sold the Athletics in 1954, which resulted in the franchise’s move to Kansas City, but not before the park was renamed Connie Mack Stadium in the long-time manager/owner’s honor.

The Daily News announced it’s first ever “Sportsperson of the Year” award, and the voting was, predictably, dominated by the Phillies.

Brad Lidge won the inaugural award, and it is hard to argue with a guy was was literally perfect the entire season, and then went out in the playoffs, when any normal Philadelphia athlete would then subsequently choke, and was perfect 7 more times. It’s the kind of stuff that makes you think that we aren’t destined to root for teams that exist solely to break our hearts.

Charlie Manuel came in second, with Cole Hamels and Ryan Howard rounding out the quartet of Phils at the top of the voting.

Had I been voting, Lidge would most likely have been third on my ballot behind Charlie (1st) and Cole Hamels (2nd).

Successfully managing a baseball team requires strong leadership to say the least. For countless years, the Phils have struggled to find a manager who could command respect from his players while requiring accountability from them at the same time.

Lesser managers would have crumbled under multiple dust ups during the Phils’ 2008 run – the Jimmy Rollins benching in New York, J-Roll’s “front-runner” controversy and Brett Myers’ histrionics coming off the mound after being yanked in the 8th inning of a 4-2 win against the Pirates in August to name a few. Manuel instead thrived during these moments; going with his gut instincts in how to handle his players. Very few leaders can toe the line successfully between accountability and respect. The Phillies are not a team that could just be managed by anyone and they would have won it all regardless. Charlie led them there.

Charlie’s management during the playoffs was exemplary, and his ability to make small changes to the lineup, specifically swapping Victorino and Werth periodically, in most cases paid off quite well. Joe Maddon may have gotten all of the press for being such a great baseball mind, but Charlie outmanaged him in the World Series after doing the same to Joe Torre in the NLCS.

Phil Sheridan goes medieval on the BBWAA for not giving the MVP award to Ryan Howard, as well as a general distaste for the fact that the writers have any say in the voting for awards in the first place.

I don’t really like the idea of the writers deciding these awards either. The same goes for the Hall of Fame. But I also don’t have a great idea for who should do it if they don’t, and it doesn’t seem like Sheridan does, either.

Maybe a consortium of writers, Hall of Famers, current players and other baseball minds would be better than putting all of the onus on the writers.

Sheridan’s second point, that Ryan Howard deserved the MVP award, is just silly. Howard had a good year, but caught fire mostly at the end. His first few months were awful. His batting average was atrocious, and no MVP should be given to any player with a batting average of .251, unless he drives in 200 runs and hits 80 homers.

The award is to the player who was most valuable to his team. There were many reasons why the Cardinals finished 4th in their division, and none had anything to do with Pujols. The fact that he couldn’t will them to a higher finish despite a .357 BA, 116 RBI and 37 HR should not preclude him from being awarded.

Clearly there were some stupid votes cast, as Sheridan points out, but in the end the right guy won the award.