Baseball has already crowned the Rookies of the Year, the Cy Youngs, the MVPs, the Gold Gloves, the Silver Sluggers, the SI Sportsman of the Year (congratulations, Jeet) and, of course, the World Champions (congratulations, Yankees).

In other words, lots of hardware has already been handed out.

With the Winter Meetings scheduled to begin next week and nothing much happening in the meantime, it’s my pleasure to present the 2009 She-Fan Awards, which recognize excellence in the field of contributing to the success of the New York Yankees. Yes, that’s a mouthful, so let me put it another way. The award goes to a person or persons who helped the Yankees win this year.

No, it doesn’t go to a player. Or the manager. Or the general manager. It’s intended to spotlight those who are more obscure and who don’t generally receive the attention they deserve. And in case you’re wondering, the award itself is solid gold, has been custom-designed by my superb craftsmen here in Santa Barbara and, in keeping with the fan theme, looks like this.

Now, without further ado, the awards….

And the nominees are:

– Dr. Marc Phillipon (A-Rod’s hip surgeon) 

– Dr. David Altchek (Posada’s shoulder surgeon, as well as Mo’s shoulder surgeon)

– Dr. James Andrews (Chien-Ming Wang’s shoulder surgeon, as well as consultant to many Yankees, including Dave Robertson)

– Dr. Lewis Yocum (Xavier Nady’s elbow surgeon)

And the winner of the 2009 She-Fan Award for Best Surgeon is…Dr. Marc Phillipon.

It was a tight race right down to the wire. Dr. Altchek performed surgeries on not one but two valuable Yankees shoulders and certainly merited attention. That said, A-Rod’s hip surgery was more delicate and it allowed the Yankees third baseman and clean-up hitter to return to the team in May, sparing us another minute of Cody Ransom, providing protection for Tex in the lineup and treating us to that heart-stirring walk-off homer in the 15th inning against Boston. Congratulations, Dr. Phillipon. Enjoy your award.

Coming next: the 2009 She-Fan Award for….you’ll have to wait and see.