St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols just won his third Most Valuable Player award, by a unanimous vote. Not yet 30 years old, Pujols has already had the kind of career that most other players (and baseball fans who wish they could play the game) dream about. He has a career batting average of .334, has hit 366 home runs and knocked in more than 1,100 ribbies. He may (hopefully) one day pass Barry Bonds as the all-time home run leader. He's widely considered to be one of the best, if not the best, player in baseball today. And he led the St. Louis Cardinals to a World Series title in 2006, their first in 24 years.
A superstar slugger like Pujols doesn't envy many people. But Pujols can only aspire to what Derek Jeter already has: five World Series titles.
Jeter had an MVP-caliber season himself this year, but ran into the wall that was Twins catcher Joe Mauer and was also hurt by splitting the vote with teammate Mark Teixeira.
But Jeter doesn't much care for personal glory so he probably didn't mind losing the MVP award for the second time in the last few seasons (he finished second in 2006 to Mauer's Twins teammate Justin Morneau). Jeter was even reluctant to enjoy the remarkable feat of passing the Iron Horse Lou Gehrig for the Yanks all-time hits record, having to be nudged by his dad to enjoy that individual honor.
I'll bet if you ask Jeter he wouldn't trade even one of his rings for all three of Pujols' MVP awards. Ask Pujols the same question, I suspect he would have a different answer. It's the best kind of Jeter envy!
Thanks to SHGmom56 via Wikipedia for the photo.
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