The Florida Marlins, by virtue of big spending and extraordinary luck, won both the pennant and the World Series. They didn't have an MVP candidate, but they had some fine young players (Edgar Renteria, Charles Johnson), some fine free-agent acquisitions (Moises Alou, Alex Fernandez), and a great staff ace in Kevin Brown. Other playoff teams included San Francisco, Houston and the powerful Atlanta Braves, who again flamed out in the playoffs.

        Larry Walker of Colorado won the MVP Award. Walker's slugging percentage was the highest by any player since.. .well, 1994. But it was the highest by any player in a full season since Mantle and Williams in 1957. He clearly had the best hitting stats of this group... but unfortunately we have to take his numbers with a grain of salt, because Walker played in Colorado, where the ball travels far, and curve balls don't curve.
        Walker debuted with the Montreal Expos in 1989 when he was 22 years old. A young power hitter with speed and a fearsome throwing arm in right field, he hit .300 for the first time in 1992, and established himself as a star in 1994, when he hit .322 with a .587 slugging percentage. He was one of the best players on an Expos team that had the league's best record at the time of the strike. After the season ended, he was granted free agency, and signed with the Rockies.
        In his first year with Colorado, Walker set a career high with 36 home runs, but only hit .276; better things were expected of him in the rarified air of Denver. This season, he delivered in a big way, and he wasn't just a creation of his home park. Big Larry had an amazing road season, hitting 26 of his 49 homers on the road. His road numbers are as good as, if not better than, his home numbers, which were amazing to begin with. The injury-prone Walker stayed healthy all year, playing in 153 games, ten more than he has played in any other season of his career.
        The Dodgers' Mike Piazza put himself in some elite company this season. He had the best offensive season ever by a catcher. And it's not really all that close; the greatest seasons of Bench, Campanella, Dickey and others clearly fall short in almost every respect. Unlike Walker, Piazza had to play his home games in Dodger Stadium, one of the best pitcher's parks in the league.
        Piazza may have had the best season ever by a catcher. He did not have a good defensive reputation, but that was mostly because of his inability to throw out baserunners. In a league where base stealing was a dying art, that wasn't such a big deal. Otherwise, Piazza, was a durable, competent catcher who handled some very good pitching staffs in Los Angeles, and later in New York. It is hard to imagine that even great defensive players like Bench and Campanella could have been more valuable than Piazza was this year.
        I live in Canada, where Walker was the first Canadian to win the MVP Award. It was a big deal for the country's baseball fans, and I would like to think that in many years he would be more than deserving. But the truth is that Mike Piazza was the best player in baseball in 1997. When you adjust for the differences in the ballparks, Piazza's hitting numbers are just as good as Walker's — actually, they're a little better.
        Defensively, even a Gold Glove outfielder like Walker isn't as valuable defensively as a durable catcher. Walker had a great year, but this was Piazza's season.
        After Walker, I guess the next best player was (surprise) Barry Bonds, who had his typical season, and managed to lead an underwhelming Giants team into the playoffs. Likewise, Craig Biggio had a great season for the Astros, who won the Central Division. Though he had a great year, Biggio hit just .083 in the playoffs, the first of four disappointing postseasons for both him and the Astros.