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.

Postseason, Week 2: Howie Kendrick

The Washington Nationals weren't even supposed to make it to the postseason much less defeat the dominant Los Angeles Dodgers in the the National League Division Series. Yet, they did both. And there's no better representative of their improbable journey than Howie Kendrick.

This headline tells the story: Howie Kendrick goes from postseason zero to hero for the Washington Nationals with one swing. To say Kendrick's postseason had been lackluster would be an understatement. He made some key mistakes. Then, in game 5 of a tied series, he did this in the 10th inning:



That's right, a grand slam. In this picture, you can see that Kendrick's grand slam had on of his teammates literally jumping for joy.

Howie Kendrick is 36 years old and a 14-year veteran of Major League Baseball. He said in an interview after the game that it was "probably the best moment" of his career. There's no "probably" about it; this is how Kendrick will be remembered in baseball history.