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November 19, 2010

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Black and Gardenhire named top managers

BUD Black of the San Diego Padres narrowly outpointed Dusty Baker of the Cincinnati Reds to win the National League Manager of the Year Award, while Minnesota Twins skipper Ron Gardenhire won American League honors, which were announced on Wednesday.

Black, who led San Diego to a surprising 90-72 record and a second-place finish in the NL West behind the Giants in a race that went to the final day, edged three-time winner Baker by a single point in voting by the Baseball Writers' Association.

Minnesota's Gardenhire, runner-up five previous times, directed his club to the AL Central title despite injuries to two key players and received 16 first place votes of the 28 ballots cast by two writers from each league city.

Texas manager Ron Washington, who steered the Rangers to the AL West title and eventually to the franchise's first World Series, finished second, receiving 10 first-place votes.

Voting for the awards took place before the playoffs.

Black, who totaled 104 points, was listed first on 16 ballots to Baker's 13 among the 32 submitted by NL voters, although the Cincinnati manager, whose team made the playoffs for the first time in 15 years, was listed on one more ballot.

Voters designated their top three choices with points awarded on a 5-3-1 basis.

'Pretty neat'

In the American League, Gardenhire was without closer Joe Nathan for the whole season and slugging first baseman Justin Morneau for half the campaign due to injuries yet led Minnesota to their sixth division title in his nine seasons at the helm.

"There were some challenges," Gardenhire said. "We battled through it pretty good. We responded pretty good."

Gardenhire said getting the award was "pretty neat to have" but he relished another breakthrough - getting past the first round of the playoffs.

Black's team scrapped their way to a successful season using a strong starting rotation and deep bullpen to compensate for a weak offence.

"We played sound baseball," Black said. "I'm not sure we overachieved. We fell a game or two short of where we wanted to be. We did a lot of things great on the field.

"This vote was kind of like the season. Came right down to the wire."

 

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