The voting for the Rawlings gold glove awards was worse than the presidential voting process going on in America. It bothers me that the human element has been replaced with total analytics. Numbers decided who won and who lost.
I never like to write negative columns but Rawlings and the people that are responsible for these moments in sports have a responsibility to the fans to do the right thing. Because of the pandemic, more than most years, I got to see more baseball games this year. I got to see a lot of the players from all teams and their defensive prowess.
I’m not going to talk about every position, however the one position that was a total highlight reel was third base. That’s because Yankees’ third baseman Gio Urshela put on a show that I have not seen since the days of Brooks Robinson and Graig Nettles. Gio was so good that his defense was clearly a big factor in the Yankees getting to the playoffs. At one point during a Sunday night, ESPN Game, former super star third baseman and true baseball historian Alex Rodriguez said that Gio was clearly the best third baseman in all of baseball. Kiner Isiah-Falefa of the Texas Rangers won the gold glove because the analytics said so. Numbers should not govern who is supposed to win certain sports awards.
In watching both players this season, Urshela’s range and incredible acrobatic skills was truly game changing and what should’ve been an easy vote for the players that in the past would pick the best defensive player, has become a thing of the past. Gio Urshela is the type of person that would never make a big deal out of this but in my real job I’m the Yankees Community Consultant. I deal with a lot of kids that idolize this guy and when he didn’t win this award they felt like they lost too. During these trying times of pandemic, this award would have been a big deal for these Bronx kids.
Please people, don’t take all the human elements away from the greatest game in the world. Times are hard enough.
A special thank you to Gio Urshela and the New York Yankees for understanding that the game still belongs to the kids. Come on Rawlings, do the right thing!