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MLB WORLD SERIES: RANGERS v CARDINALSOctober 24, 2011Jose BautistaMatt KempAllan H. "Bud" SeligARLINGTON, TEXAS: Hank Aaron Award BRIAN KENNY: Welcome, everybody. Welcome to the announcement of the winners of the 2011 Hank Aaron Award, which recognizes the most outstanding offensive performers in each league. I'm Brian Kenny from Major League Baseball Network. It's a pleasure to be here with you and I'm honored to be here with the Commissioner and two such great players, to be here and of course to honor Hank Aaron, as well, one of the all-time greats in the history of the game. The winners were selected through a combination of fan vote on MLB.com and a panel of Hall of Famers, and you can listen to the names on the list here that made up the panel, some of the greatest offensive players in the history of the game. Roberto Alomar, Tony Gwynn, Willie McCovey, Paul Molitor, Joe Morgan, Billy Williams, Robin Yount, and of course the award's namesake, Hank Aaron. With that, let me introduce the dais right now. The Commissioner of Baseball Bud Selig, from the Toronto Blue Jays Jose Bautista, and from the Los Angeles Dodgers Matt Kemp. To make the official announcement, let me bring in the Commissioner of Baseball, Bud Selig. COMMISSIONER BUD SELIG: I did this yesterday, and it seems like some of you were in the exact same seats that you were in yesterday. Well, I look forward to this press conference every year because it's an opportunity to bring some of the great players in our game together with a living legend, Hank Aaron. I think most of you know that Hank and I have been friends for 54 years now, and I know how much this means to him. Unfortunately this year, he's unable to be with us. He had a knee replacement surgery, so he's been in therapy. He and I have talked a lot and talked just a little while ago, and he said he was going to call both these guys, and I'm sure he will. The surgery went well. He's recovering comfortably, but he can't travel, and he's not going to be able to travel for a while. First, in my conversation today, he wanted me to congratulate Jose and Matt on his behalf, and let you know that he will call you both very, very shortly. Second, he wanted to point out, he's very sensitive about this injury. I have to say he keeps making excuses to me. Why he's making excuses to me, I don't know, but he said it's the first time that he ever missed a game due to an injury. He wanted me to say that. Over the course of his 23-year career, he was never on the disabled list, which is pretty remarkable when you think about it. We created the Hank Aaron Award in 1999 to honor the 25th anniversary of Henry breaking Babe Ruth's all-time home run record. The award recognized the most outstanding offensive performer in each league for a particular season as chosen by our fans and, as you heard before, a very elite group of Hall-of-Fame hitters. There were a lot of players this year who had very productive seasons, but Jose and Matt stood out. Jose Bautista led the Major Leagues in three categories, 43 home runs, .608 slugging percentage and 132 walks. In addition, Jose was the first American League player since Babe Ruth in 1930 to record at least 40 home runs, 130 walks and nine stolen bases in the same year. So Jose, congratulations on being named again. I want to tell you about him. I ought to know, because he and I did this again last year, we're doing it again this year. I told him it's an annual event so far. As for the National League, now I'm going to get to you, Matt. The winner is Matt Kemp of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and he had an absolutely remarkable year. He narrowly missed winning the National League Triple Crown, leading the league in home runs and runs batted in, finishing third in batting average, amazing year. Matt was also first and second in the National League in runs scored, total bases, multi-hit games, hits, slugging percentage, extra-base hits and stolen bases. Not much more you could do than that, I guess. So Matt, congratulations on a very impressive season and on winning the National League Hank Aaron Award. You both have just had wonderful years, and congratulations. BRIAN KENNY: Jose, you followed up on your breakout season, you win the home run title again, and as the Commissioner mentioned, you led the league in slugging, also OPS, wins above replacement, all the new metrics, league leader in everything. What does it mean to win the award again that's named after Henry Aaron? JOSE BAUTISTA: First of all, I'd like to thank everybody for coming. It's a great honor for me to receive this award, just like I said last year. Mr. Aaron represents the epitome of consistency throughout a Major League career, and he managed to do that while hitting a lot of home runs. I can only hope to follow in his footsteps, not only as a baseball player but as a human being, and the things he's done on and off the field are just remarkable, and it's just one of those persons that I really look up to when I look back and see some of the best athletes in the past century. Glad to be here, and just really excited and proud to receive the award again. BRIAN KENNY: And Matt, for you, what does it mean to you to win the award? MATT KEMP: This is my first big, big award but I'd also like to thank everybody for coming out. For me it's a great honor because Mr. Hank Aaron was somebody who paved the way for guys like me, and he's definitely been a great part of baseball on and off the field. He's just a true hero to a lot of people around the world. To follow in his footsteps and to receive this award is great, and I'm very blessed to be here. My family is here, and this is a pretty big day for us. BRIAN KENNY: Again, and high rewards and high praise for both of you. Commissioner? COMMISSIONER BUD SELIG: I just want to say at this time Commissioner Peter Ueberroth is here, and I want to welcome him and thank him for coming. Q. Matt, I was wondering, I see all your family here, saw some of them at the All-Star Game, too. Does this season seem like a dream to you, not only getting the accolades but getting to share with your family, as well? MATT KEMP: My family is very important to me. Walking on the field every day is a dream. It's something I've dreamed of ever since I was a little kid, and for them to be here and experience the same things that I am experiencing right now is a blessing. It's definitely a dream come true, and hopefully I can keep dreaming and keep going, keep this dream alive. Q. Jose, last year after your breakout year, there was some speculation that you were going to be a one-hit wonder and not follow it up with what you did. I wonder how satisfying it was for you to prove some critics that you could not come out and do it back-to-back years, when in fact the stats bear out, you actually improved in many areas from your first breakout season in Toronto. JOSE BAUTISTA: More satisfying to me was just to be able to get on the field and be out there with my teammates and contribute on a daily basis to try to help the team win games. It's not really my goal to prove anybody wrong or to come out and show the critics wrong. To me the most important thing is helping my team win games, and I'm glad that I was able to do that this year. Q. Obviously today is about offensive prowess, and most of you guys are going to be in Most Valuable Player contention. What's your thought on a pitcher also being eligible and having a chance to win, such as Justin Verlander this year? JOSE BAUTISTA: Well, as the rules pertain, he's eligible right now. It's one of those things where he had such an amazing year that he's in line for the Cy Young and the MVP at the same time. I can't remember the last time I saw a pitcher had a year like he did, maybe Pedro Martinez when he was in Boston, but it's been a very long time. He was very dominant. He gave his team a chance to win every day, and the rules say that he's eligible to win it. Unless they change the rule, I don't think there's anything wrong if he ends up winning it. Q. Jose, do you think you're the MVP of the American League this year? JOSE BAUTISTA: Well, of course I do. (Laughter). MATT KEMP: That's what I'm talking about right there. JOSE BAUTISTA: If I didn't, then I wouldn't be a person that liked myself a lot. But there's a lot of people that had great years, and they're also very worthy of getting the award. There's a lot of things that go into it. It's not only about production and numbers, so I'm just grateful to be considered and I've got my fingers crossed. Q. Matt, no one is giving you any love. I'm going to ask you the same question: Do you think you deserve the MVP now that you've won this award? MATT KEMP: I'm on the same boat as Jose. As baseball players we work hard in the offseason to be the best. I'm sure Jose, me myself, I know Jose, our work ethic is pretty strenuous. We work pretty hard to basically -- to work as hard as we did, you want to be the best. And to win MVP is something you dream of as a kid, being the best. If I win it, I'm definitely going to be happy, one of the happiest people in the world. But if I don't, that means I've got to work harder to win it next year. Q. For both of you: As good as it is to win these awards, does part of you miss not having the opportunity to show what you can do on the national stage of the postseason? MATT KEMP: Definitely. It's something that you want to do every year. Your goal is to make it to the playoffs and to get a chance to make it to the World Series. Unfortunately our team wasn't as good as some of these other teams that made the playoffs this year, but you want to showcase your talents. It was just one of those years that didn't happen. There's always next year. JOSE BAUTISTA: Just to follow up on the same page, when I said that I wasn't here to prove critics wrong, I try to help my team win games. The reason we want to win games is to make it to the playoffs and to try to win the World Series. I definitely wish I was one of those guys that is getting dressed right now and be able to step on the field here in a little bit. But like Matt said, it just gives me something to work for next year and try to help my team again. COMMISSIONER BUD SELIG: If I can, just in closing, yesterday at the award to Ken Griffey, Jr., I said I hoped that the current generation of players would follow in the footsteps of Ken and other people, and I'm very proud, proud to be the Commissioner of Baseball when you have two young men like this. And so they won the Hank Aaron Award, but they've won a lot of other things, and they've represented our sport beautifully, and I thank both of you for that. (Applause). FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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