SI

Cubs Reliever Ryan Tepera Got an Accidental MVP Vote

In Friday’s Hot Clicks: the dangers of dropdown menus, a 200-point football game and more.

Dan Gartland

You can’t take that vote away from him, though

The voting for the National League MVP wasn’t much of a surprise. Freddie Freeman, who absolutely crushed the ball, won the award by a comfortable margin over second-place finisher Mookie Betts. There was one shocker way down at the bottom of the ballot, though. Ryan Tepera received a single 10th-place vote. 

Who? 

He’s a relief pitcher for the Cubs, and an extremely average one. After getting cut by the Blue Jays last winter, Tepera signed with Chicago and appeared in 21 games. He allowed nine runs in 20 2/3 innings, good for a 3.92 ERA, and allowed the highest WHIP of his career, 1.403. He did have a career-best 13.5 strikeouts per nine, but still, those stats are nothing to write home about. 

So how did he end up with the same number of MVP votes as dominant Brewers reliever and Rookie of the Year winner Devin Williams? It was an accident. 

The lone vote came from Rick Hummel, a Cardinals writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch who was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007. The 74-year-old Hummel told Gordon Wittenmyer of NBC Sports Chicago that his vote for Tepera was the result of a computer flub. 

“I’m sure the Tepera family is delighted, but there’s no way I would have voted for him. It was an accident,” Hummel told Wittenmyer. 

Hummel had intended to cast his 10th-place vote for Nationals shortstop Trea Turner, a worthy candidate, but had trouble with the voting website’s dropdown menu. Tepera’s name was near Turner’s alphabetically, and Hummel simply clicked on the wrong guy. 

“Trea Turner should have one more point,” Hummel said. “He’s a good player.”

Mistake or not, Tepera’s 18th-place MVP finish will go down in history. Anyone remembering some guys 20 or 30 years from now who ends up on Tepera’s Baseball-Reference page will find MVP-18 in the awards column of his 2020 season. Maybe it will be accompanied by an asterisk explaining Hummel’s error. Or maybe people will just shrug it off because, after all, 2020 was the strangest baseball season in history. It’s only fitting that it included the strangest MVP vote, too. 

The best of SI

LaVar Ball has been quiet throughout LaMelo’s predraft process, but he spoke to Ben Pickman and guaranteed his son is going first. ... Josh Allen has used a unique skill set to become an unlikely NFL star. ... Given how cancellations are upending the college football calendar, it would be smart to expand the playoff, but there’s no way it’s happening. 

Around the sports world

A high school football game in Iowa ended with a final score of 108–94. ... Warriors owner Joe Lacob wants to have 50% capacity at games by spending $30 million to test everyone in the building. ... Iowa State has a 310-pound defensive line commit who’s also excelling as a quarterback. ... Yu Darvish didn’t know his second-place Cy Young finish earned him a bonus so he’s donating some of it to charity. 

He got every bit of this

There’s a downside to all that power, though

Check out how the ball doesn’t even bounce when it hits the green

That’s how soft the greens were after the rain

In front of his teammates?

Neutrality is overrated

Emoni Bates would be a lottery pick this year if he was allowed to skip college

Jeff Passan got the Tony La Russa scoop from someone sliding into his Twitter DMs

Love the pixelated look

Suspenders!

Not sports

A rare and valuable pine tree was stolen from the University of Wisconsin Arboretum. ... Martin Jenkins, who played briefly in the NFL, is California’s first openly gay Supreme Court justice.

Who could have foreseen this!

Dinosaurs are alive

A good song

Email dan.gartland@si.com with any feedback or follow me on Twitter for approximately one half-decent baseball joke per week. Bookmark this page to see previous editions of Hot Clicks and find the newest edition every day. By popular request I’ve made a Spotify playlist of the music featured here. Visit our Extra Mustard page throughout each day for more offbeat sports stories.

Published
Dan Gartland
DAN GARTLAND

Dan Gartland is the writer and editor of Sports Illustrated’s flagship daily newsletter, SI:AM, covering everything an educated sports fan needs to know. He joined the SI staff in 2014, having previously been published on Deadspin and Slate. Gartland, a graduate of Fordham University, is a former Sports Jeopardy! champion (Season 1, Episode 5).

Home/Extra Mustard