Jeter should win his first MVP award

There was -- until this season -- a chance that the New York Yankees' Derek Jeter would fall into an unlucky group of world-class baseball players who never won a most valuable player award.

It happened to Duke Snider, Tony Gwynn, Lou Brock, Al Kaline, Wade Boggs and Dave Winfield.

During that same period (1965) Minnesota shortstop Zoilo Versalles won the American League MVP despite batting just .273 with 19 home runs and 77 runs batted in.

Shortstop Maury Wills of the Los Angeles Dodgers was the National League MVP in 1962 after batting .299, in addition to six homers and 49 RBIs.

Wills did steal an astounding 104 bases that season and was without question the catalyst of his team, but it was a team that finished second to San Francisco in a 10-team league.

That same season, the Giants' Willie Mays batted .304 with 49 homers, 141 RBIs and 18 stolen bases on a team that adhered to a big-bang offensive credo.

Frank Robinson, who won the NL award while with Cincinnati in 1961 and then in the AL with Baltimore in 1966, once said MVP voters are the most fickle in the sport.

Jeter has been living proof of that.

Unless he one day tests positive for a banned substance, you could make a valid argument that Jeter will end his career as the best shortstop in the game's history.

During Jeter's career, which now is approaching two decades, the AL most valuable awards routinely have gone to power hitters -- Juan Gonzalez, Jason Giambi, Ken Griffey Jr., Frank Thomas and Mo Vaughn to cite a few. When the voters looked short of the fences, it was to honor Ichiro Suzuki and Dustin Pedroia.

A couple of years ago, Jeter said his MVP timing was never right. That's not the case this season. On a team that's on track to win more than 100 games, he's likely to finish with close to 200 hits and a .330 batting average. Those numbers have to be good enough.