Why isn't Manny getting more attention in MVP race?

	Manny Ramirez leads David Ortiz in batting average and on-base percentage. John Iacono/SI

In the past four years, since the beginning of the 2003 season and counting some of the most memorable Octobers that you're ever going to see, the Yankees and Red Sox have played a mind-numbing, nerve-shredding, throat-searing 81 games.

If it seems like twice that many ... yeah, well, we know where you're coming from.

Still, this weekend's five-game series in Boston is something more than just another overhyped Sawx-Yanks showdown, and it's not because this is the first regular-season five-gamer between the American League East rivals in more than 30 years.

This year, for the second straight season, the AL's Most Valuable Player almost certainly will come from one of these teams. And this series could play a huge part in figuring out just who it'll be.

In one corner, we're talking David "Big Papi" Ortiz, the Fenway favorite and maybe the most clutch hitter -- if, that is, you're not one of those sabermetricians who don't believe in such things -- in the game today. In the other corner we have Derek Jeter, the Yankees' captain, who is having one of the best seasons of his very good 12-year career.

And in the other corner -- yep, we have a surprise contestant -- we have a man whose numbers stand up very nicely next to Big Papi's (they're even better in some cases, if you can believe that) and who plays the field every day.

Really, what about Manny?

I don't know how Manny Ramirez gets left out of these conversations, I really don't. Maybe it's the goofy grin and the sagging pants and the ... let me see how I can put this ... the unique way he plays left field for the Sox.

The point is, he does play the field, unlike the designated hitter Ortiz, and that should count for something. That should, in fact, count for a lot. The fact that Jeter plays defense is the only reason that he is in the same MVP conversation with Ortiz in the first place, because Jeter's offensive numbers, as good as they are, sure don't stack up to Big Papi's.

Manny's a different story. Big Papi is the trendy choice for MVP because of all of his dramatics, the so-called "close and late" situations. (He has three walkoff homers this season.) Ramirez, who has been in the top 10 in AL MVP voting every year since 1999 but never has won it, is every bit the hitter that Ortiz is.

Here's the kicker: Ramirez is an even better hitter with runners on base (.322, with a 1.047 OPS, compared to .297/.997 for Ortiz), with runners in scoring position (.307/1.021 to .300/.996) and with runners in scoring position with two outs (.351/1.221 to .291/.988). If that's not clutch, the sabermetricians are right. There is no clutch.

This weekend's series could tell us a lot about who will be selected this year's AL MVP, but it won't tell us all. The Sox and Yanks still have four more games against each other after this weekend. And, with another month-plus left in the season, Ramirez still has plenty of time to do something Manny-like -- beg out of a critical game, screw up in the field, turn a double off the wall into a showboating single, ask for a trade -- that will send voters screaming toward Ortiz or Jeter.

Still, right now, give me the man in the third corner, the one with the dreads, the silly smile and the big bat.

You'll find him out in left field while Big Papi's on the bench.