Madison Bumgarner Named Sports Illustrated's 2014 Sportsman of the Year

In a year that featured numerous groundbreaking exploits by athletes off the field, Sports Illustrated decided to keep it on the field in selecting its 2014 Sportsman of the Year. The legendary publication honored San Francisco Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner on Monday, just over a month after he capped off one of the best postseason runs in baseball history.

Sports Illustrated managing editor Chris Stone explained the decision to Scooby Axson:

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It's easy to mythologize the small-town sports hero. Baseball, especially, is full of them. Madison Bumgarner isn't the Sportsman of the Year because he's from a tiny town, but that town goes a long way toward defining who he is and it gives his story a different texture from past Sportsmen. And while he's been an outstanding pitcher for the last five years, his Sportsman candidacy was so sudden and seemingly out of nowhere that it makes him the most unique Sportsman in recent memory.

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Andrew Baggarly of CSN Bay Area also weighed in on the honor for Bumbargner:

Bumgarner, 25, had an excellent 2014 MLB campaign overall but won the award on the back of his postseason work. The lefty went 4-1 with a 1.03 ERA and 0.65 WHIP across seven appearances to lead the Giants to their third World Series championship in the last five seasons.

Perhaps his most memorable performance came in Game 7, when Bumgarner threw five shutout innings on two days' rest to hold San Francisco's 3-2 lead.

Bumgarner is the first baseball player to win the Sportsman of the Year since Derek Jeter in 2009. Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning won the award in 2013.

As noted by Axson, Bumgarner is the 15th baseball honoree and seventh pitcher to win the award, which has been handed out since 1954. The last pitchers to win Sportsman of the Year were Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling in 2001, following their own World Series heroics.

A formal announcement will take place Tuesday in New York.

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