First of all, congratulations to Joe Maddon for being named AL Manager of the Year by the Baseball Writers Association of America.  Maddon received 27 out of 28 first place votes.  The only other first-place vote went to Minnesota's Ron Gardenhire.  Are you kidding me!  Maddon should have been a unanimous choice, period.  Had that one lone Gardenhire vote gone Maddon's way, it would have been the first unanimous choice in Manager of the Year voting in either league. 

    Listen, Ron Gardenhire did a nice job.  He's been runner-up to this award in 2003, 2004, 2006, and now 2008.  The lone first place vote for Gardenhire came from Terry Pluto of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.   Love to hear how you came to the Gardenhire conclusion!  By the way, if you want to vent, here's Pluto's e-mail address: tpluto@plaind.com

    Tom Korun