Who will be the Most Valuable Player Award winner of the 112th World Series? For the first time in Major League Baseball history, you get to help decide that important honor by participating in the World Series MVP Vote presented by Chevrolet.
Through the end of Game 7 tonight at Progressive Field, fan balloting was conducted exclusively at MLB.com/vote to determine the star of this historic Fall Classic.
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No Indians or Cubs player has won a World Series MVP Award, because the honor was first bestowed upon Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Johnny Podres in 1955. So this will be an important first for a member of one of these teams, and a fitting time for fans to jump in.
The fan vote will count for 20 percent of the official determination of the World Series MVP Award winner, with the other 80 percent coming on location from the three broadcast rightsholders (FOX Sports, ESPN Radio and MLB International) and the Baseball Writers' Association of America.
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It is an important responsibility that fans have enjoyed during All-Star Games in the digital era. This new vote closely mirrors that game's process, where the All-Star MVP Award voting always begins with the sixth inning. You helped give Kansas City first baseman Eric Hosmer that 50th Anniversary Edition Chevy Camaro at Petco Park in July, and the same vehicle model will go to this World Series MVP Award winner, in addition to the traditional crystal MVP trophy presented to the winner after the clincher.
Just choose from the Indians' or Cubs' rosters and submit your vote during the balloting window. At the very least, the fan vote could help decide whether a winner is decided unanimously or not.
Who can forget what the award last year meant to Salvador Perez, who became the first catcher since 1992 to win the World Series MVP Award? Battered and bruised throughout the season, Perez said of the MVP Award, "It's unbelievable. ... Now I don't feel pain. I don't feel nothing."
The year before that, Perez popped out to end the World Series against the pitcher who won that year's honor. Giants left-hander Madison Bumgarner was the World Series MVP after a dominant series in which he won his first two starts and then came back out of the bullpen on two days' rest in the fifth inning of Game 7, securing San Francisco's 2014 title.
• Past World Series MVP Award winners
For those contemplating the Indians' bullpen, it is worth noting that a pure reliever has not won the World Series MVP Award since Mariano Rivera of the Yankees in 1999. Randy Johnson (2001) and Bumgarner were examples of starters who also won it through relief work.
"It feels great when you're in that type of zone," now-retired slugger David Ortiz said after receiving the World Series MVP Award following Boston's 2013 championship. "The funny thing is that everyone kept asking me about it and I kept saying, 'I've had plenty of times when I was that hot.' In this case, it just happened that it was in the World Series."