Derek Jeter and Mark Teixeira recently got some silver to go with their gold. These two stars of Ira Riklis’ home-town heroes, the New York Yankees, both won American League Silver Slugger awards last week. They earned the awards by being the top offensive performers at their respective positions. This comes after both received Rawlings Gold Glove awards for their defensive accomplishments.
It was the third Silver Slugger Award for switch-hitting first baseman Teixeira. He led the leagues in RBIs and tied for the league lead in home runs. In doing so, he became one of just two players to have a least 100 runs scored and 35 homers in 2009.
Jeter earned his fourth consecutive AL Silver Slugger Award by batting .334 with 107 runs scored, 18 home runs, 66 RBIs and 30 stolen bases. Fans like Ira Riklis, who follow the team and its players know that it’s been a good year for Jeter. In addition to Golden Glove and Silver Slugger awards, he also won the Hank Aaron Award as one of the AL’s top offensive player winning the votes of more than 1.6 million fans. And if that weren’t enough, he also won this years’ Roberto Clemente Award for his humanitarian contributions to Major League Baseball.