Maybe this season the chroniclers of our national pastime will formally recognize what fans already know: Derek Jeter is baseball's MVP--and has been for years.

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Fast forward to this spring, when the 2010 NL MVP felt so good that he played for Canada in the World Baseball Classic.

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In the fall of 1993, at the peak of his athletic abilities, three-time NBA finals MVP Michael Jordan quit the Chicago Bulls to join a minor league baseball farm team in Birmingham, Alabama.

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He was the All-Star game MVP in July and currently has the second highest batting average in all of baseball.

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Verlander earned the American League MVP honor Monday, receiving 13 of 28 first-place votes and 280 points in voting announced by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

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But in any case, Cal Ripken, of course, won two MVP awards, played in 2, 632 consecutive games and really stood for a lot of the virtue in baseball, and a lot of the good things that baseball represents to a lot of people.

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