WAIT A SECOND!!! Joe Maddon's Manager of the Year award WASN'T unanimous?

What the hell?

There were 28 votes for AL manager of the year and all 28 first place votes DIDN'T go to Joe Maddon?
Look, no disrespect to Ron Gardenhire.
He did a terrific job! He took a team that had Johan Santana and Torii Hunter stripped from them and got them to a one game playoff for the AL Central... and if they scored 2 runs in that game, they would have been AL Central Champs.

Great job.

Joe Maddon did the baseball equivalent of bending time and space.

The Rays were so bad and had NOTHING going for them
No tradition
No history
No fan base (save for Pat and Christin)
And in a division with the Red Sox and Yankees, no hope.

They had the smallest payroll in the AL.
They were the laughing stocks of baseball.

Their 71st win was the highest the franchise had ever climbed.
And he took on a Red Sox team that defending their World Series title with 95 regular season wins...
And the Rays STILL won the division.

And they didn't go nuts in the free agent market and buy it either, a la the 1997 Marlins.

Moses midway through parting the Red Sea would have said "Wait the RAYS are in first place? Are you f---ing kidding me?"

It is one of the most mind boggling turn arounds in the history of American sports.
And Joe Maddon helmed the team to the single least likely division title EVER!

And someone felt he did the second best managing job of the year?

REALLY?

I'm guessing it was a sports writer named Lou Gardenhire