'With Justice for All'

In baseball, as in most of life, there are winners and there are losers. Mickey Mantle and the New York Yankees are winners; Ted Williams and the Boston Red Sox are losers.

Because of this situation, Boston has long been a paranoiac sports town with a moody, individualistic idol representative of its frustration. The complex extends not only to the Yanks, but to the New York sportswriters, who are envisioned as engaging in a plot to destroy the few postseason consolations which fans in other cities may possess.

This cry of oppression is false. New York represents three teams in a sixteen-team system. It influences, but does not create majority in opinion.

The choice of Mickey Mantle as MVP is a sound one, and the cry of prejudice against Williams should ring hollow. Because Ted Williams spits at fans and because he is impolite to sportswriters are not the reasons why he was bypassed as the Most Valuable Player in the American League. Even if the writers who rated Williams ninth and tenth had placed him first and second, the Splinter's revised point total still would have lagged behind Mantle's 233 to 229.

The MVP is the player who has helped his team most. At 39, Williams has neither the speed nor the fielding ability to do so. At 39 a player such as Williams, who is frequently walked, can be doubled up easily. Williams had a great individual season; there can be little question that he won individual batting honors.

But batting champion and MVP are not corollary awards. The sparkplug value of a player cannot be evaluated by statistics, which are the sole arguments which Williams partisans muster. Mantle approached Williams in most batting departments, and beat him in RBI's.

Moreover, Mantle played in more games than Williams. He was a threat on the basepaths, possessed a stronger throwing arm, and fielded his position better than the aged Ted.

New York is now a one-hoss sports town and the shout of its iron heel may never be raised again. But its denizens have one comforting thought. They possess the best in the American League--the Yankees and Mickey Mantle.