Over the last two days the last two awards in baseball were given out. The Most Valuable Player honor is considered the greatest award in the game and this year it went to St. Louis Cardinals' first baseman, Albert Pujols, and Boston Red Sox second baseman, Dustin Pedroia.

This is Pujols' second MVP award as he won it back in 2006 also. He came up just short in 2006 when the Philadelphia Phillies' Ryan Howard was voted as the MVP. That was the same season the Cardinals won the World Series thanks in large part to Pujols. When Howard was given the award Pujols said that he didn't think any player whose team did not make the playoffs, which the Phillies did not in 2006, should win the award. Well, the Cardinals didn't make the playoffs this year, but of course that just mean that Pujols would retract what he said about Howard a couple years ago. And he did just that.

Pujols beat out Howard this time around receiving 18 of the possible 30 votes. Ryan Braun of the Milwaukee Brewers came in third in voting with Los Angeles Dodgers' newcomer Manny Ramirez finishing fourth. Pujols finished the 2008 season batting .357 with 37 homers and 116 RBIs playing with an elbow injury that required surgery. Howard his 48 homeruns and had 146 RBIs.

Pedroia became the first second baseman to win the AL MVP award in almost half a century (Nellie Fox of the Chicago White Sox, 1959). Last season he won the AL Rookie of the year in addition to a World Series championship ring. Earlier this month he also received his first Gold Glove award.

Batting .326 with 17 homeruns and 83 RBIs to go with 20 stolen bases, Pedroia beat out Minnesota Twins' first baseman Justin Morneau and teammate Kevin Youkilis. He received 16 of the 28 possible first place votes. Pedroia lead the AL in hits, runs and doubles and helped get the Red Sox to a wild-card berth. With this award, Pedroia becomes the 20th player to win both the Rookie of the Year award and an MVP honor in their career.