2019 MLBoyfriend Of The Year & Award Winners

For the first time, I'm naming an MLBoyfriend of the Year. And the winner is... Minnesota Twins Manager, Rocco Baldelli.

You may be surprised that the winner is not one of my MLBoyfriends of the week from this season or even a player. I had been looking for a chance to name Baldelli my MLBoyfriend all season. From the start, it was clear the rookie manager had made a huge impact on the Twins. Baldelli led the Twins through an amazing season with his supportive "millenial" style. He deservedly won the American League Manager of the Year award.

The icing on the cake is that Rocco Baldelli is a stone cold fox. His eyes alone could have won him the MLBoyfriend of the Year award.

It was a great night at Target Field when I got Rocco's baseball card as the give-away.

View this post on Instagram

As a gay, I have to say that the give-away at the #TwinsGame tonight might be better than the great cap I got at #TwinsPrideNight. #TwinsPic #BaseballZaddy #MLBoyfriend

A post shared by Koko Hogan (@koko_hogan) on Aug 6, 2019 at 5:29pm PDT

Rocco Baldelli is also, apparently, a good guy. Being nice to kids is a great way to earn points in my book.

we met Rocco Baldelli tonight at dinner. he could not have been nicer and my 7yo baseball loving dude is over the moon. pic.twitter.com/eoI3CP62z0

— Zach (@floyding) October 13, 2019

Congratulations, Rocco Baldelli! You my MLBoyfriend of the Year. I couldn't be happier with my selection for the first winner of this prestigious award.

Several of my 2019 MLBoyfriends won MLB awards. Let's close out the year by taking one last look at those winners.

Pete Alonso*: National League Rookie of the Year

José Altuve: American League Conference Series MVP

Cody Bellinger: National League MVP; NL Golden Glove, Right Field

Nelson Cruz: AL Silver Slugger, Designated Hitter

Howie Kendrick: National League Conference Series MVP

Anthony Rendon: NL Silver Slugger, 3rd Base

Kolten Wong: NL Golden Glove, 2nd Base

Christian Yelich: NL Hank Aaron Award; NL Silver Slugger, Outfield

Congratulations to the MLB award winners and all my MLBoyfriends. Thanks for another great season. See you in 2020.

*Okay, technically, Pete Alonso was never my MLBoyfriend this season; however, I did have a lot of very nice things to say about him in my All-Star Break post. Also, I couldn't pass up the chance to post about Pete Alonso participating in my favorite new celebration in baseball, players losing their shirts after a walk-off. This video seems like the perfect way to end my last post of 2019.

Week 20: Cody Bellinger

 

I chose Cody Bellinger to be my MLBoyfriend on Monday simply because it was bizarre that I hadn't done so earlier. He didn't have a particularly good week last week, but he has been having an amazing season--especially in the spring.

Then, life got in the way, and I didn't get around to writing this post until tonight which is Thursday. I'm glad I waited because he made a good case for himself just a couple of hours ago: Cody Bellinger became the first player to hit 40 home runs this season.  He did it style with a monster, three-run blast.



Not entirely coincidentally, this happened:

Cody Bellinger is the new MLB home run leader, setting a career high with his 40th of the year. The Dodgers are also the first team since at least 1908 to hit 4+ homers in four straight games. https://t.co/46MuOs89N0

— Dodger Insider (@DodgerInsider) August 15, 2019

I don't really have much to add to that except to say that I really enjoyed doing my "photo research" on Cody Bellinger. So, now, I'm just going to post some pics of Bellinger with little-to-no comment.

Cody Bellinger is really pretty.

He also has a really pretty swing.

Bellinger is an outfielder,
and I'm a sucker for pics of leaping catches.

It took two security guards to pry this teen girl off Bellinger
after she got onto the field and hugged him. Even though she
was arrested, she said it was the best day of her life.
She is my new hero.

I mean... come  on...