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It's award season in the baseball realm so SB Nation is vacuuming the red carpet and polishing the statues. While that seemed like a bunch of sexual euphemisms, in truth, we're heralding the forthcoming 2014 SB Nation MLB Awards. Over the last couple of weeks we've held polls in a number of different categories. Those categories were as follows:
- 2014 Funniest Rangers Moment
- 2014 Most Regrettable Rangers Moment
- 2014 Rangers Defensive Play of the Year
- 2014 Most Important Rangers Hit
- 2014 Rangers Best Pitching Appearance of the Year
- 2014 MLB Team of the Year
Now it's time to announce the results of those polls and submit our official site nominees for the awards.
Chivalry is only mostly dead (Funniest Moment):
With 33% of the vote, this moment where a young rascal pulled a fast one on a winsome lady while earning a smile made us laugh the most in 2014.
Regrettable Rangers (Most Regrettable Moment):
With 55% of the vote, we regretted the entirety of everything that comprised the Texas Rangers in 2014. It was all bad. From the Rangers players missing nearly 1,000 more games to the disabled list than the nearest team, to the team setting a record for most players used in one season, the 2014 Rangers define a regrettable sports season.
The one and only Leonys Martin (Best Defensive Play):
With 46% of the vote, Martin making a fantastic play to rob Daric Barton at the wall at the deepest part of The Ballpark would have been special enough. What happened next makes the play otherworldly. Warning: Jaws are in serious danger of dropping while viewing this video.
The Guilder of Fate (Top Hit):
With 43% of the vote, we liked the saccharine tale of the long forgotten minor league vet getting his first hit in what was pretty much a living Disney movie. It was made all the better by his pop being in the crowd to see it. Had the Rangers been even moderately decent in 2014, Guilder Rodriguez never would have gotten his chance to live a dream. I'm having an existential crisis just pondering what that means as a fan. What single base hit could be more important than that?
Marteen throws zeroes against A's (Pitching Performance of the Year):
With 37% of the vote -- barely edging out Yu's near no-no (35%) -- Martin Perez tossing his second consecutive shutout took this one. This particular performance seems bittersweet now as it marked the high point of Perez's big league career so far but came just a few days before he went down with an injury that required Tommy John surgery. At the time, however, it was pretty awesome watching Perez finish off a sweep in Oakland to put the Rangers in first place.
Washington Nationals (Team of the Year):
Forced to decide the prettiest pig at the fair, at 32% of the vote, we justly selected the team that played the best over 162 games rather than a barely .500 team that waltzed through the weakest American League in decades and the fifth best team in the National League that happened to win the World Series because it was an even year. Call it the 2011 Texas Rangers principle of knowing that a short series is a silly method of determining the best baseball team.
Our nominees now go off to the SB Nation MLB awards committee which is comprised of unfortunate people forced to think about the 2014 baseball season some more. Pity them.
Once the overall nominees are selected, there will be a vote held at SB Nation MLB in each category. We'll keep you posted. Thanks for voting.