Verlander named MVP

NEW YORK (AP) ― Justin Verlander figured time had run out on his chance to become the first starting pitcher in a quarter-century to be voted Most Valuable Player.

Last Tuesday, he found out about 12:40 p.m. that he was a unanimous winner of the AL Cy Young Award. It was closing in on 1 p.m. Monday, and he still hadn’t gotten word on the MVP.

“I had told myself that it wasn’t going to happen,” he said. “I figured somebody else got the call.”

Not to worry, there was just a slight delay because Verlander didn’t give the Baseball Writers’ Association of America his telephone number, forcing the BBWAA to relay the news through Brian Britten, the Detroit Tigers’ director of media relations.

Britten telephoned Verlander at 12:56 p.m., about one hour before the announcement.

“It was just a weight off my shoulders,” Verlander said, “and pure elation, really.”

After winning the AL’s pitching triple crown by going 24-5 with a 2.40 ERA and 250 strikeouts, Verlander received 13 of 28 first-place votes and 280 points. He became the first pitcher voted MVP since Oakland’s Dennis Eckersley in 1992 and the first starting pitcher since Boston’s Roger Clemens in 1986.

“Obviously pitchers are not just written off all of a sudden because they’re pitchers,” Verlander said.

Boston center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury was second with four firsts and 242 points, followed by Toronto right fielder Jose Bautista with five firsts and 231 points, Yankees center fielder Curtis Granderson with 215 and Detroit first baseman Miguel Cabrera with 193.

Recent history has been against pitchers. Since Eckersley’s win, only once had a pitcher finished as high as second.

In 1999, Boston’s Pedro Martinez was 13 points behind Texas catcher Ivan Rodriguez after going 23-4 with a 2.07 ERA and 313 strikeouts. Martinez had eight first-place votes to seven for Rodriguez, but La Velle Neal of the Minneapolis Star Tribune and George King of the New York Post left Martinez off their ballots.

“Not even in my wildest dreams had I thought of this,” Verlander said during a conference call from his home in Virginia. “I want to say this is a dream come true. I can’t say that because my dream had already had come true ... to win a Cy Young. And the next dream is to win a World Series. This wasn’t even on my radar until the talk started. And then all of a sudden it was a this-could-actually-happen type of thing.”

Verlander had the most wins in the major leagues since Oakland’s Bob Welch went 27-6 in 1990.