Now that the baseball season has entered September, it's time to begin narrowing the list of candidates for each league's Most Valuable Player award.

Each season there are debates about what the MVP should represent. Should it be awarded to the league's best player? Should it go to the most exciting player? Should the MVP be the player who is the most valuable to his team? Should a dominant pitcher be considered?

On the MVP ballot that the baseball writers fill out each year, it says they should consider a player's "general character, disposition, loyalty and effort" along with his "actual value" to his team. But although the voting is supposed to be objective, it becomes subjective. Each voter has his own criteria for the award.

To help make the MVP a less debatable issue, I propose the creation of a new honor, the Willie Mays Award, which would be awarded to the major-league player who has the most outstanding season.

Awards have been named after Ted Williams (All-Star Game MVP), Hank Aaron (best overall hitter in each league) and Babe Ruth (World Series MVP). It's about time that Major League Baseball honored Mays, the game's greatest all-around player, and recognized outstanding achievement by an individual not related to his team's place in the standings.

Waiting for the call

When I was named the NL MVP in 1975 and 1976, I was playing on the best team with some of the best players who ever played the game. Before I was an MVP, Johnny Bench had won twice and Pete Rose had won once. Then, another teammate -- George Foster -- won in 1977. We also had Hall of Famer Tony Perez and All-Star shortstop Davey Concepcion. So for me to be accorded those honors was pretty special. Plus, the two years I won we also won the World Series. Jack Lang, who was president of the Baseball Writers Association of America, would always call the top candidates to find out where they would be on the evening the MVP would be decided. In 1975, he said he would call between 8-9 p.m. ET. And he called around 8:15 ET. Obviously, I was pretty excited because I had been close before; I was fourth in both '72 and '73. I ended up winning by the largest margin ever in the NL MVP voting. The next year, the same conditions applied. But they hadn't called me by 8:45. I remember saying, "Well, I guess someone else won." I was little disappointed -- until Jack called at around 8:48. When I answered the phone and said, "Hi, Jack," everyone at my house knew who it was and let out a big cheer. -- Joe Morgan

First and foremost, baseball is an individual game with a team concept. An individual stands in the batter's box and goes one-on-one against another individual, the pitcher. An individual catches a fly ball to record an out. An individual runs the bases. Yet everything an individual does helps his team win or lose. So individual accomplishments deserve recognition apart from the team.

While the Mays Award would go to the most outstanding player, baseball should still award the league MVP awards to the players who are -- as the award says -- the "most VALUABLE players." For instance, even though I believe Miguel Tejada so far has been the AL's MVP, Alex Rodriguez would be the front-runner for this season's Mays Award since he will most likely lead the majors in home runs and RBIs. Another strong candidate would be Curt Schilling, who at one time had fewer walks than victories.

The Mays Award could still go to the league MVP if he is both the most outstanding and the most valuable player. As an example, last year's Mays winner would have been NL MVP Barry Bonds for both his record-setting season and his value to the Giants. A-Rod and AL MVP Ichiro would have been strong candidates behind Bonds.

While Ichiro had the more outstanding season, however, I felt his Seattle teammate, Bret Boone, deserved to be the AL MVP. Because he was the Mariners' leading run producer -- and because it's easier to score runs than to drive them in -- Boone was more critical to Seattle's success than Ichiro was. The distinction has become more clear this year; although Ichiro is having another great season, he can't carry the Mariners. Boone is on a tear now, but he has struggled much of the season -- and so has Seattle's offense.

The players, managers and coaches should vote for the Mays winner. The players, in particular, judge their peers better than anyone else and and would only be concerned about picking the most dominant player. There would also be fewer politics involved in the voting.

Maybe it's time to contact the commissioner's office. Giving an award to the best all-around player, and naming it after the best living player, makes a lot of sense.

It's the Most Valuable Player
Since no Mays Award exists yet, we are left with the MVP awards. And when I consider the top candidates, I always eliminate the pitchers. Pitchers are wonderful people. Some of my best friends are pitchers. But they are not MVPs.

Why? First, they are not on the field enough. In a 162-game season, a pitcher will start and help a team win no more than 35 games. After each start, someone else has to carry the load for four games before a pitcher returns to the mound. Meanwhile, an everyday player will hopefully start 150 games or more and have a chance to contribute something to almost every game.

Although closers have also won the MVP award in the past, they don't pitch enough innings to warrant consideration. Closers only enter the game when their team is winning. Someone else has had to do the work before a closer is handed the ball for one inning.

The best analogy to a closer might be a kicker in football. I'll never forget what former NFL star Alex Karras once said: "We played 47 minutes and 50 seconds. We got dirty, bloody and beat up. And then a kicker comes in with a clean uniform. He was never touched during the game. He kicks the winning field goal, and we call him a hero."

Obviously, a closer does more than a kicker. There was a time when I thought a closer could be deserving as an MVP, but that was when Rollie Fingers, Bruce Sutter and others pitched three innings to earn a save. But that is no longer how the game is played.

Besides, pitchers have an award created solely for them -- the Cy Young. The Cy Young should go to pitchers and the MVP should go to everyday players. It's Most Valuable Player -- not Most Valuable Pitcher.

The favorites? Tejada and Bonds
The rules do not say the MVP must play on a winning team, although a team's performance should be heavily considered. A precedence has been set for players on losing teams; Andre Dawson won the NL MVP for the last-place Cubs in 1987, and Ernie Banks did the same for the last-place Cubs in 1959. However, the only time a player on a losing team should win the MVP is if his season is far better than anyone else's.

That said, A-Rod is a strong contender in the AL, despite playing for the last-place Rangers. Yet if I were voting today, I would pick Tejada first, Alfonso Soriano second and A-Rod third.

The toughest obstacle for the A's to overcome was the loss of Jason Giambi, but Tejada has replaced Giambi, both as a leader and as a run producer. The last two seasons Giambi carried the A's on his shoulders and into the playoffs. Tejada is doing the same thing this season. Eric Chavez has had a solid year, but he is a streaky player and has suffered through some bad spells. Tejada, however, has been their most consistent performer, the one the A's look to in critical situations.

In the NL, Bonds is by far the MVP. Statistically, he may not seem as qualified as he was last season, but his presence alone makes everyone around him better. Without Bonds, the Giants would be battling the Padres for last place in the NL West.

I have never seen anyone get more respect from an opposing team than Bonds. I don't think pitchers even pitched to Babe Ruth the way they pitch to Bonds now. In three games this season, Bonds didn't even get an official at-bat because the other team feared him so much. And walking Bonds gives other players an opportunity to drive in runs.

However, because Bonds won't come close to 73 home runs or 137 RBI, I don't expect him to win the award. Because pitchers continue to walk him and take the bat out of his hands, Bonds only has 337 official at-bats -- or nearly 200 fewer than teammate Jeff Kent (531). Whenever there is a runner in scoring position, Bonds rarely gets to swing the bat. He has just 68 at-bats with runners in scoring position, while Kent has hit 124 times with runners in scoring position.

Other than Bonds, I think the top NL candidates are Albert Pujols, Shawn Green and Sammy Sosa. The winner will probably either be Pujols or Green, depending on where their respective teams finish.

But with one month to play, the jury is still out -- in both leagues.

Hall of Fame second baseman Joe Morgan is a baseball analyst on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball and contributes a weekly column to ESPN.com.