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Sports Briefs: Twins' Mauer named MVP; Teixeira is 2nd
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Published: November 24, 2009
Updated: 11/24/2009 01:00 am
NEW YORK -- Joe Mauer sat behind a table on a podium in a conference room at the Metrodome when Justin Morneau shouted out the last question of the day.
"Are you finally going to buy dinner now?" Morneau said to his teammate from the audience, one MVP to another.
Mauer became only the second catcher in 33 years to win the American League Most Valuable Player Award, finishing first in a near-unanimous vote yesterday.
The Minnesota Twins star received 27 of 28 first-place votes and 387 points in balloting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.
Yankees teammates Mark Teixeira (225 points) and Derek Jeter (193) followed. Detroit's Miguel Cabrera drew the other first-place vote and was fourth with 171 points, one point ahead of the Angels' Kendry Morales.
Mauer became the second Twins player to win in four years, following Morneau in 2006. Morneau gave Mauer a bottle of champagne.
More baseball
Ken Griffey Jr. stands to earn nearly $4 million from the Seattle Mariners next season.
According to contract figures obtained by The Associated Press yesterday, Griffey's deal signed this month to return to his original team for one more season as a 40-year-old calls for a $2.35 million base salary for 2010.
Omar Vizquelagreed to $1,375,000, one-year contract with the Chicago White Sox.
Vizquel, 42, is an 11-time Gold Glove winner and has played mostly shortstop during 21 major league seasons. He figures to add depth to Chicago's young infield.
Golf
Anna Nordqvist won the LPGA Tour Championship and Lorena Ochoa finished second to win her fourth consecutive player of the year award by one point over Jiyai Shin.
Nordqvist, 22, shot a final-round 65 yesterday to finish 13 under par. Ochoa was two strokes back and won the top player honor when Shin couldn't chip in from the front of the 18th hole.
Swimming
Freshman Julianna Prim of Pfeiffer, who is from Yadkinville, shattered six more school records and qualified for the NCAA II National Meet in the Wingate Fall Frenzy this weekend at the Mecklenburg County Aquatic Center in Charlotte.
Prim qualified for the national meet, to be held in Canton, Ohio in March, in the 200 butterfly with a time of 2:04.66.
Cross Country
Four Oklahoma State runners finished in the top 25, leading the Cowboys to their second national championship in men's cross country over favored Stanford yesterday in Terre Haute, Ind.
Oregon was second, Alabama third and Stanford finished 10th. Duke wound up 28th out of 31 teams.
Villanova dominated the women's race, winning its eighth national title and its first since 1998. Duke was eighth paced by sophomore Carly Seymour who finished 29th.
Recruiting
Austin Blake, an outfielder at Reagan High School, has signed to play baseball at East Carolina and was part of an 11-man class by Coach Billy Godwin for 2011.
Blake, 5-11 and 175 pounds, was all-conference in the Piedmont 3-A for three straight seasons.
He hit .508 as a freshman, hit .450 as a sophomore and last season he hit .400 with eight home runs and 33 RBI.
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