Brandon Inge named "Man of the Year"

That's two in a row!

Brandon Inge won the 2010 Marvin Miller Man of the Year award for his outstanding charitable work in the Detroit area (especially his work with Mott's Children's Hospital at UofM).

It's this sort of stuff that has endeared Inge to Tigers fans. Well, that and the fact that he actually lives in Michigan. And he tries really hard. And he's a nice guy.

Apart from the fact that he is a frustrating baseball player, he is universally beloved for all that other stuff. I'm glad to see that he'll be around for another two years, thanks to last week's contract extension.

Notably, this makes the Tigers' second postseason honor--Austin Jackson was named the Player's Choice Rookie of the Year last week. What's more, Inge is the second Tiger in a row to be named "Man of the Year." Curtis Granderson won the award last year (more comments here), which just goes to show how Detroit brings out the best in everybody.

You can stop laughing now.

Seriously though, Congratulations to Inge for the award, and a special pat on the back to the Tigers organization, which clearly fosters an environment of service to the community and responsibility to the City and State at large. There aren't a lot of organizations that can say the same thing.

Curtis Granderson Wins 2009 Man Of The Year Award

...I think.

I was driving up to work this morning and had uncharacteristically bad reception on ESPN radio. All week, on Mike and Mike they've been announcing the 2009 MLB Player's Choice Awards. Today, in between garbled voices and static I heard them announce "Curtis Granderson" for something and proceeded to listen to an interview with him during which I was able to understand about 15% of what was said.

Using my powers of deduction, I'm pretty sure that all of this meant that Curtis Granderson won the 2009 Marvin Miller Man of the Year Award, joining such recent recipients as Michael Young, Torii Hunter and Albert Pujols.

So, assuming that I'm right in all of this, congratulations to Curtis, who has devoted himself to kids and education throughout Metro Detroit through his Grand Kids Foundation, and shows the integrity, work ethic and personality that makes him one of the best role models in the game.

Once they post the podcast, I'll try to get it embedded or linked over here.

UPDATE:Sure enough, he is the winner! Congrats Curtis! You can listen to the Mike and Mike interview here.