I like Crisp as a player. He brought speed and outfield defense to the Red Sox at a time they had little of either. Now they have Jacoby, Bay, and Drew for the outfield, all "plus" outfielders defensively, each with decent speed and Jacoby with exceptional speed. I also like Crisp as a person; he just always struck me as thoughtful and articulate. He also is still one of the leading sources of traffic for this website.

People were certainly thinking about it, but I figured one of the Twins, Morneau or Mauer, would win it. But maybe the Twins falling short of the playoffs hurt their chances. As it turned out, the two Twins players got second and fourth while Pedroia and Youk got first and third.

The thing that jumped out at me was that Petey is the first AL MVP at second base since 1959, when Nellie Fox of the White Sox won it.

In the meantime, you can go listen to Life on Mars Radio. As I type, we've got the O'Jays with "Love Train."

So this is my view when I walk to the office in the morning. That's the Boston Public Library to the left, Old South Church straight ahead.

Oh, and I won my fantasy baseball league, despite making a bonehead trade at the beginning of the season and having David Ortiz hurt for a long stretch.

The Sox retired Johnny Pesky's number yesterday, a great tribute to a great man. I am too young to remember Pesky playing, but I remember him as both a full-time coach and an announcer, and more recently as the fungo-hitting special-assistant-ambassador-baseball-lifer and mentor to Red Sox stars such as Nomar Garciaparra and Jim Rice.

I have two memories of Pesky, both from to Red Sox Spring training in Fort Myers. In one, Pesky has parked himself in a shady spot where he sits and signs autographs all day. I take my sons through the line and he signs baseballs for both of them. He is warm, sunny, avuncular. He talks to everyone, asks my boys if they play baseball, and wishes us well, tells us to enjoy the day and the season.

In the other, Pesky is on a far field hitting ground balls to a minor leaguer. Jim Rice is standing not far from us. Seeing Pesky walk around the field collecting stray balls in a bucket, Rice grabs his own bucket and a bat and begins lofting fly ball after fly ball onto the field, behind and around Pesky. Rice--a giant of a man known for his surly disposition as a player--is giggling in delight as Pesky starts to grouse loudly about the balls, not sure yet that he is being pranked. When Pesky finally sees one of Rice's fly balls land near him he turns and yells goodnaturedly at Rice, and the two share a long laugh from a few hundred feet apart.

I think we all were. More here.

Read more here.

By Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate, 2004-2006

Stuart Kestenbaum, the author of this week's poem, lost his brother Howard in the destruction of the twin towers of the World Trade Center. We thought it appropriate to commemorate the events of September 11, 2001, by sharing this poem. The poet is the director of the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts on Deer Isle, Maine.

Prayer for the Dead

The light snow started late last night and continued
all night long while I slept and could hear it occasionally
enter my sleep, where I dreamed my brother
was alive again and possessing the beauty of youth, aware
that he would be leaving again shortly and that is the lesson
of the snow falling and of the seeds of death that are in everything
that is born: we are here for a moment
of a story that is longer than all of us and few of us
remember, the wind is blowing out of someplace
we don't know, and each moment contains rhythms
within rhythms, and if you discover some old piece
of your own writing, or an old photograph,
you may not remember that it was you and even if it was once you,
it's not you now, not this moment that the synapses fire
and your hands move to cover your face in a gesture
of grief and remembrance.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright © 2007 by Stuart Kestenbaum. Reprinted from Prayers & Run-on Sentences, Deerbook Editions, 2007, by permission of Stuart Kestenbaum. Introduction copyright © 2008 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

The Massachusetts Poetry Festival is a three-day celebration of the poets, poetry, and literary heritage of a state whose contribution to American poetry is unsurpassed in the nation. Join us as we pay tribute to the poets and writers of the past while experiencing the creative energy of today’s literary artists. This first-ever, state-wide event will include readings by renowned and emerging poets, teacher workshops, performance poetry, films & music, programs for children and young writers, literary heritage tours, a small press fair, poetry in the streets, and much more.

It's on Columbus Day weekend, October 10-12, and is being held at the Lowell National Historical Park, which is a great venue. Featured poets include Andre Dubus III, Marjorie Agosin, and Robert Pinsky.

Most of the events on the schedule are free, but the featured readings require tickets that you can buy here.

As my friend and Gilbane colleague David Guenette has noted, wouldn't it make sense for Kindle to be the device for all this content?

By Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate, 2004-2006

What's in a name? All of us have thought at one time or another about our names, perhaps asking why they were given to us, or finding meanings within them. Here Emmett Tenorio Melendez, an eleven-year-old poet from San Antonio, Texas, proudly presents us with his name and its meaning.

My name came from. . .

My name came from my great-great-great-grandfather.
He was an Indian from the Choctaw tribe.
His name was Dark Ant.
When he went to get a job out in a city
he changed it to Emmett.
And his whole name was Emmett Perez Tenorio.
And my name means: Ant; Strong; Carry twice
its size.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. 2000 by Emmett Tenorio Melendez. Reprinted from Salting The Ocean: 100 Poems By Young Poets, Greenwillow Books, 2000, by permission of the editor. Introduction copyright © 2008 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.