All too often during my four years working within higher education at Johnson County Community College, I watched as awards, titles, and jobs were given to candidates based not upon merit, but as a result of emotions and/or the candidate’s political views, skin color, or gender.  Indeed, the college’s current top employee, CEO/President Terry Calaway, is not fit to run a day care center.  I mean no disrespect toward day care providers.

Sports of all types maintain great popularity in large part because, in general, the greatest athletes succeed as a result of a combination of God-given talent, hard work, and taking risks.

With that, I congratulate all of the 2009 Major League Baseball award-winners, and in particular the Kansas City Royals’ Zach Greinke for earning the 2009 American League Cy Young Award.

From MLB.com:

Greinke received 25 of a possible 28 first-place votes and tallied 134 points. Mariners right-hander Felix Hernandez received two first-place votes and finished second in the balloting with 80 points. Tigers right-hander Justin Verlander received one first-place vote and placed third overall.

Hernandez and Verlander each won 19 games, and there was a suggestion in some places that Greinke’s 16-8 record, a rather modest win total for a Cy Young winner, might override his Major League-best ERA of 2.16. But that did not happen…

Greinke, 26, became the third Cy Young winner in club history. Bret Saberhagen won in 1985 and 1989, and David Cone won in 1994. Cone was the only other starter to win the AL award with as few as 16 wins and he did it in a strike-shortened season. Brandon Webb was the last starter to win the National League award with so few wins, having gone 16-8 for Arizona in 2006.

“It’s a great tribute to Zack and who is he is as a person and everything that he’s had to battle through,” Moore said. “It’s a great story.”

It sure is — Greinke emerged from the shadow of a social anxiety disorder that took him away from the game for two months in 2006. He worked his way back to the Royals with a tour in the Minors that year and spent most of 2007 laboring in the bullpen. Back full force in 2008, he made 32 starts en route to a 13-10, 3.47 season that set the stage for this thunderous year…

He attracted Cy Young notice from the beginning, winning his first six starts and registering a 0.40 ERA. Only legendary pitchers Walter Johnson in 1913 and Fernando Valenzuela in 1981 had won their first six starts while posting lower ERAs.

His strong getaway was helped by the development of a changeup, a pitch that successfully augmented his sizzling fastball and devastating slider. That was a Spring Training project that Greinke attacked with his usual single-minded zeal. Never mind that he got hammered in some exhibition games…

There’s no doubt that Greinke could have won 20 or more games with a bit more help. For one thing, the bullpen blew four leads after he’d left the game. For another, the Royals didn’t score many runs for him. In the 17 starts in which he took a loss or had no decision, the Royals scored a total of 37 runs for him, just 2.2 per game, including only 15 runs in the eight losses (1.9).

Even so, he stood tall.

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Benjamin Hodge publishes the Web site KansasProgress.com, based in Johnson County, KS, in the Greater Kansas City area.  Hodge is a delegate to the Kansas GOP, a former state representative, and a former trustee at Johnson County Community College. You can join Hodge’s efforts on Facebook, through his personal Web site, on Twitter, and through his PAC.