The 28-year-old Verlander, who features a 100-mph fastball, pitched a no-hitter against the Toronto Blue jays in May and his win total was the most in the league since 1990 when Bob Welch won 27 games for the Oakland Athletics. The Tigers ace said he felt something different during the no-hitter in Toronto that helped serve as a springboard to his outstanding 2011 Major League Baseball campaign.

Verlander said it went hand in hand with a conscious decision he had made to become more of a ‘pitcher’ than a ‘thrower’, looking to get easy outs rather than focusing his first career no-hitter against the Milwaukee Brewers in 2007. “It was the whole approach, the starting of the game slow, not trying to do too much early, pitching to contact and building as the game goes on. As soon as I did that, I went on the best month of my career. So I stuck with it.”

Verlander was so dominant he seemed capable of throwing a no-hitter at any time. In his next start after the no-no against the Blue Jays, Verlander went 5 1/3 hitless innings against the Kansas City Royals, and in June took a no-hit bid into the eighth inning against the Cleveland Indians. On July 31 at Detroit’s Comerica Park, he threatened again, taking a no-hitter into the eighth inning against the Angels.

Verlander, who helped Detroit advance to the American League Championship Series, also led AL pitchers by throwing 251 innings and holding opponents to a .192 batting average.

Los Angeles Angels starter Jered Weaver (18-8, 2.41 ERA), the only other pitcher named on each ballot, placed second while Tampa Bay Rays pitcher James Shields (16-12, 2.82 ERA) finished third.

Verlander became the first unanimous AL selection since Johan Santana of the Minnesota Twins in 2006. “I saw him pitch in 2006, I was a rookie and watching him pitch and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, that is a big league pitcher, that is a stud.’ To be here five years later is a full-circle moment and very exciting for me personally,” said Verlander.

Since the creation of the Cy Young Award, in 1956, nine pitchers have also won the M.V.P. in the same season – Don Newcombe in 1956, Sandy Koufax in 1963, Bob Gibson and Denny McLain in 1968, Vida Blue in 1971, Rolie Fingers in 1981, Willie Hernandez in 1984, Roger Clemens in 1986 and Dennis Eckersley in 1992. Two of those pitchers, McLain and Hernandez, were Tigers.

Verlander beat out Boston’s Jacoby Ellsbury, who had 240 points, and Toronto’s Jose Bautista with 231. Bautista got five first-place votes and Ellsbury received four. Ellsbury, Boston’s sparkplug, batted .321, hit 32 home runs and stole 39 bases.

Verlander, 28, became only the second player to win the association’s most valuable player, Cy Young and rookie of the year awards. He overcame any voter antipathy to voting a pitcher as most valuable player with his 24-5 record, 2.40 E.R.A. and 250 strikeouts.

Verlander had to overcome widespread belief that starting pitchers should not be considered and that everyday players should always win the award. Only nine pitchers had won most valuable player honors previously (all doing the Cy Young-most valuable double), none since Dennis Eckersley did after his 51save performance for Oakland in 1992. The last starting pitcher to win was Roger Clemens with the Red Sox in 1986. Verlander took issue with those who automatically discount pitchers in the voting. “Pitchers are on the ballot,” he said. “We are players.”

In Verlander’s case, he was inordinately responsible for the Tigers being a playoff contender. His 24 victories not only led the majors, but tied for the most victories since Bob Welch won 27 for Oakland in 1990. Verlander held opponents to a .192 batting average and threw a no-hitter on May 7 against Toronto.

Curtis Granderson of the Yankees had a season that put him among the favorites for the award (41 home runs, 119 R.B.I.) but had to battle the idea that he wasn’t even the best player on his own team, with many arguing that distinction goes to Robinson Cano. Granderson finished fourth in the voting with 215 points and three first-place votes. Cano was sixth in the voting.

Before Verlander, the pitchers to win both the Cy Young and most valuable player awards were Eckersley in 1992, Clemens in 1986, Willie Hernandez in 1984, Rollie Fingers in 1981, Vida Blue in 1971, Denny McClain and Bob Gibson both in 1968, Sandy Koufax in 1963 and Don Newcombe in 1956.

Braun led the NL with a .597 slugging percentage and had a chance to overtake Jose Reyes for the batting title on the last day of the season but finished second with a .332 average. The four-time All-Star had 33 homers, 111 RBIs, 109 runs scored and stole 33 bases as Milwaukee won a franchise-best 96 games. His 77 extra-base hits was tops in the league. Pictured here, Braun follows through for a home run during the fourth inning of a game against the Dodgers in Milwaukee on August 15.

“I’m not going to pretend like I wasn’t anxious or nervous because I was,” said Braun, who was sitting on the balcony of his home in Malibu, Calif., when he received the call that he had won. “I was obviously thrilled, excited. It’s honestly difficult to put into words how much this means to me.”

Los Angeles center fielder Matt Kemp, who came close to winning the Triple Crown, received 10 first-place votes and finished second with 332 points. Kemp led the NL in homers with 39 and RBIs with 126 and was third in average (.324), but played for the NL West’s third-place Dodgers. He also won a Gold Glove.

Braun’s teammate Prince Fielder finished third with 229 points, and Arizona’s Justin Upton finished fourth with 214 points. Fielder and Upton each received one first-place vote.

St. Louis’ Albert Pujols finished fifth. It was the 11th straight year the three-time MVP was in the top 10 in balloting. NL Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kersaw was 12th in the voting a day after Detroit’s Justin Verlander added the AL MVP to his Cy Young.

“I think he was the single most dominant player in baseball this year,” Braun said of Verlander. “As a position player I’m biased to the fact that I think position players should be at the forefront of the award but if you honestly look at what he accomplished, how much he meant to that team and how dominant he truly was you cannot make any argument against him winning that award.”

The 28-year-old Braun is the first Brewers player to win the MVP award in the National League and first since Robin Yount won in 1989, when Milwaukee was in the AL East. Rollie Fingers (1981) and Yount in 1982 are the other Brewers to take home MVP honors.

“This team has been so loyal to me,” said Braun. “They believed in me. They drafted me. They helped to develop me and there would be nothing more meaningful to me than to eventually win a world championship in Milwaukee. It would mean a lot more to me than if I went to a large-market team, big-market team and won two or three championships.” Braun is shown here celebrating after hitting a game-winning home run during the 11th inning of a game against the Rockies in Milwaukee on Sept. 13.

The 2007 NL Rookie of the Year winner rewarded the club with his fourth straight season with more than 100 RBIs. He hit a three-run, go-ahead homer in the eighth inning on Sept. 23 to clinch the division title for Milwaukee.

On a dreary afternoon, some fans headed home with the Yankees trailing 7-1 after three innings and rain still falling in a game that began after an 89-minute delay. Turns out they missed the Yankees coming home – over and over and over. Yankee manager Joe Girardi said, “You have to be pretty fortunate to do what we did. You’ve got to get the bases loaded a lot. We got production from everyone in our lineup.” Girardi subbed out his starters liberally, to the point that his second baseman for the bottom of the ninth was catcher/DH Jorge Posada.

Cano began the barrage with his slam in the fifth, a clean shot into the lower deck in right field off starter Rich Harden that made it 7-6. Pictured here, Cano celebrates with Alex Rodriguez after his grand slam.

Martin connected in the sixth off Fautino De Los Santos, a fly that barely made it over the auxiliary scoreboard in right for a 10-7 lead. Granderson took his turn in the eighth, launching a no-doubt drive into New York’s right-center field bullpen with two outs off Bruce Billings. With MLB in its 136th year and approaching its 200,000th regular-season game next month, the Yankees knew it was a slammin’ day. Not until they saw a note posted on the video board about the three slams, however, did they realize exactly what they’d achieved. “You’re not going to see it again, probably,” said captain Derek Jeter, who batted a whopping four times with the bases loaded and drove in one run. “You can’t explain it.”

Martin homered twice and doubled, setting career highs with five hits and six RBIs. Cano and Granderson each drove in five runs as the Yankees pulled off their biggest comeback win since 2006 and avoided a three-game sweep.

“It was definitely cool and fun to be a part of,” said Martin, who is congratulated here by teammate Nick Swisher on his grand slam homer. “When there’s nowhere to put them, they have to throw strikes. This game has been played for a long time. Pretty much everything has already happened. I’m waiting to see who hits four,” added Martin who went 5-for-5.

Granderson, shown here hitting the historic third grand slam, said, “There are so many players that have played. There’s a few times I’ve been one of a few or the first guy this season or something like that. But the fact that we as a team have done something that all the teams that have ever played this game have never done before, especially all the offenses … it kind of speaks to what this offense is.”

Billings watched Granderson’s shot sail. “I was looking at it, hoping that it was not going to go out,” he said. “I’m not thinking about trying to give up another grand slam.”

The Yankees became the first club since the Phillies in 2009 to score 22 runs in one game. It was the most allowed by the Athletics since 1955, when they were based in Philadelphia and lost 29-6 to the Chicago White Sox.

A’s pitchers gave up 21 hits, issued 13 walks, and all 22 runs were earned. “It only counts as one, but it was definitely embarrassing,” Oakland interim manager Bob Melvin said. “We got the lead early and just weren’t able to hold it. It just got out of hand.”

The Yankees also did something special with their gloves. Five-time All-Star catcher Jorge Posada made his first career appearance at second base and had the final play, fielding a grounder and firing a one-hop throw that knocked over first baseman Nick Swisher and left him laughing as he caught it.

“I threw it too hard. I got super excited,” said Posada, long ago a second baseman in the minors. “That tells you right there why they moved me behind the plate.”

Yankees manager Joe Girardi said Posada began hounding him in the eighth inning. “I think at this point it was 16-8 and I was going to put Russell at second. Jorge went and got his mitt and started telling me, ‘I’ll go to second, I’ll go to second,” Girardi said.

The final out of the game came when Posada fielded a grounder from A’s rookie Anthony Recker and, from about 30 feet, gunned a throw to first base that Swisher dug out deftly.

The 67-year-old La Russa said good bye to baseball and became the first manager to retire after leading his team to a Series title – the third of his career. “I think this just feels like it’s time to end it,” La Russa said after the championship parade and a team meeting with his players. He said no one factor led to his decision. “They all just come together telling you your time is over.”

La Russa had a 2,728-2,365 record as a manager, putting him behind only Connie Mack (3,731) and John McGraw (2,763) on MLB’s all-time wins list. He won World Series titles with the Cardinals in 2006 and 2011 and with the Oakland Athletics in 1989.

La Russa’s 2011 Cardinals came from 10 1/2 games behind in the final month of the season to clinch a playoff spot on the final day and forced the World Series to a decisive seventh game after being within a strike of having their season ended in the ninth and 10th innings of Game Six. “He’s been like a dad to me,” Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols said during the World Series. “As soon as he’s done with this game, he’s going to be obviously in the Hall of Fame, and to share that, those moments with him, it’s pretty special.”

La Russa is the only MLB manager to win multiple pennants in both leagues and the second to win a World Series in each. Sparky Anderson won titles with Cincinnati and Detroit.

“Rudy has been an outstanding leader of many different teams under many different circumstances, and that’s hard to do,” said New York Mets general manager Sandy Alderson, La Russa’s GM with the Oakland Athletics.

His decision to retire did not come as a surprise to Cardinals insiders as he and General Manager John Mozeliak had talked about the possibility since August.

“I know the impact he had on this organization and specifically this 2011 team,” said Mozeliak. “So it was sort of hard for me to swallow. But on the same token, I have to admire that he never wavered.”

“When I think back to my time with him, he’s been a leader, a mentor and a friend. When you have somebody step away from your life that incorporates all that it’s never a great feeling.”

Bill De Witt Jr., the Cardinals’ chairman and chief executive officer, said, “We’re grateful for what Tony has done for the Cardinals all these years.”

Oakland Athletics officials praised La Russa for his remarkable career and congratulated him on retiring after his crowning moment in baseball. “He led the Athletics to three straight American League championships, including the 1989 World Series title, and the Oakland A’s organization will forever be indebted to him,” the team said in a statement.

La Russa, a likely Hall of Famer, began his managerial career with the Chicago White Sox in 1979 and moved to the Athletics nine seasons later. “La Russa revolutionized the sport during his time with Oakland,” wrote R.B. Fallstrom of Associated Press, “making Dennis Eckersley a one-time closer. Now, it’s common for all 30 big league teams.” La Russo became the Cardinals manager in 1996.

“This is what you dream about,” La Russa told reporters after his never-say-die Cardinals capped off their season of comebacks. “Truly a dream come true, it’s hard to imagine it actually happened.”

Some 70 junior high school students from schools throughout the disaster area took part in the clinic conducted by Ripken, his former Baltimore teammate Brady Anderson and Japanese baseball’s own “Iron Man,” Sachio Kinugasa. Ripken is pictured here showing his batting skills to the children.

“We were able to provide a small distraction,” Ripken said in an interview with The Associated Press. “Something that makes you feel good, makes you smile and maybe just for a brief moment helps you get through the day.”

Ripken said he was fascinated to hear that some of the students would play baseball deep into the night just to help them deal with their losses. “It was horrific in many ways,” Ripken said. “Some of them lost their entire families, they lost everything they had and in many cases they were the only ones left from their families. You realize a baseball team for most of us is a secondary family but for some of these kids it became a primary family.”

While Cal said there was no comparison between his streak and what the students in the region were going through, the mental approach that allowed him to play in 2,632 consecutive games could provide some valuable lessons.

“I think there is a valuable process that says we played it one game at a time and had to focus on what you could control today to get you to tomorrow,” said Ripken. Pictured here, teachers and baseball players from a Tokyo school gave a warm welcome to the Orioles great.

This was Ripken’s third trip as a Public Diplomacy Envoy. He traveled to China in 2007 and to Nicaragua in 2008. A 2008 trip to South Africa was scrapped because of scheduling issues.

Ripken said touring the disaster zone was a sobering experience. “Going through the areas and seeing it firsthand started to get me emotional,” Ripken said. “There is no way you can fathom the scale of what happened by seeing it on TV. When you are standing there and looking left and looking right and seeing some signs of how high the water came – some people told me it was almost 50 feet in some areas – you can’t realize what anyone would do in that situation.”

Some of the children that Ripken instructed had met him before. In August, 16 young Japanese baseball and softball players traveled to the United States for a three-week exchange program.

Ripken’s consecutive game streak broke the Major League Baseball record held by Lou Gehrig (2,130) and the mark in Japan set by Kinugasa (2,215).