NEW YORK (AP) — Joey Votto and Albert Pujols had a long conversation behind the batting cage before a game a few years ago.
"There's something about a star player of that magnitude kind of pulling you in and saying, it's OK, we can talk, don't be a rookie right now, we're going to talk like men," Votto said. "I think he made me feel comfortable and a little more confident."
Lesson learned.
Votto was overwhelmingly elected the National League's Most Valuable Player on Monday, ending the Pujols' two-year reign.
A first baseman who helped the Reds reach the postseason for the first time in 15 years, Votto received 31 of 32 first-place votes and 443 points in voting announced by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.
Pujols, the St. Louis Cardinals' first baseman, was second with the remaining first-place vote, from Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and 279 points after winning the award in 2005, 2008 and 2009.
If you currently subscribe or have subscribed in the past to the Los Alamos Monitor, then simply find your account number on your mailing label and enter it below.
Click the question mark below to see where your account ID appears on your mailing label.
If you are new to the award winning Los Alamos Monitor and wish to get a subscription or simply gain access to our online content then please enter your ZIP code below and continue to setup your account.
| ZIP Code: | |