New York, NY (My Sportsbook) - Following another record-breaking season, San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds was named the 2002 National League Most Valuable Player on Monday in voting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

The 38-year-old Bonds, who was a unanimous choice for the award, captured the NL MVP for an unprecedented fifth time and earned the honor for a second straight year. He became the oldest player to win a batting title for the first time, as he led the majors with a .370 average, while clubbing 46 homers and driving in 110 runs.

The left fielder finished with all 32 first-place votes and the maximum 448 points, far outdistancing the Cardinals' Albert Pujols, who finished second in the voting with 276 points and 26 second-place votes. Astros outfielder Lance Berkman finished third with 181 total points. Ballots were due by the 32 voters on the final day of the regular season.

Bonds also won the MVP award for Pittsburgh in 1990 and 1992 and for the Giants in 1993 and 2001.

Bonds broke the all-time, single-season record for on-base percentage with a .582 mark, due largely in part to the fact that teams walked him almost one- third of the time. He broke his own record for walks with 198 and set the mark for intentional walks with 68.

A year after breaking the single-season mark for home runs with 73, Bonds continued his offensive onslaught and may have solidified the MVP with an outstanding second half of the season. He played in 51 of last 54 regular season games (all starts), going 59-for-144 (.410) with 44 runs, 10 doubles, 17 homers and 47 RBI.

Bonds also topped the NL in slugging percentage (.799) and ranked among the league leaders in runs (117), and extra base hits (79). He became just the fourth player in history to reach the 600 home run plateau and has 613 going into next season.

Although this year's postseason numbers didn't factor into Bonds getting the award, he did have an incredible playoff run. The left-handed slugger hit .356 in the postseason with eight homers and had an unbelievable .471 average with four homers and 13 walks to go along with a 1.294 slugging percentage in the World Series, as the Giants lost in seven games to Anaheim.

Berkman finished the season with an NL-best 128 RBI, one ahead of Pujols. He also had 42 homers and 35 doubles to go along with a .292 batting average. The 26-year-old became the fastest player in franchise history to 100 homers, reaching the century mark in his 452nd game. He also is only the fifth switch- hitter in history to hit 40 or more homers in a season.

Pujols became the first player in baseball history to compile a batting average of at least .300, 30 homers and 100 RBI in his first two seasons. The 2001 NL Rookie of the Year batted .314 with 34 homers last season.

Montreal outfielder Vladimir Guerrero came in fourth in the voting, followed by Shawn Green of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Jeff Kent of the Giants and Randy Johnson of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Johnson was named the NL Cy Young Award winner for a fourth straight time last week.

The American League MVP will be handed out Tuesday.