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October 1, 2006
Worst MVP Snub?
In 1961, when Maris and Mantle chased Ruth's record of 60 HRs, Maris again bested Mantle for the MVP -- winning the award in another tight vote by only 4 points.
In 1962, Mantle won the MVP award. He played in only 123 games for the Yankees that year, hit 30 HRs, had only 89 RBI, and a .321 average.
Roger Maris, in 1962, led the Yankees with 33 HRs, 100 RBI, second in 2B with 34, second in BBs with 87, fourth in Runs with 92. As for his league-wide numbers in 1962, Maris finished 9th in SLG, 7th in TB, 5th in 2B, 5th in HRs, 8th in RBI, 9th in BBs, 9th in runs created, 3rd in extra-base hits -- a pretty damn good season by any account that would have justified a then-record third straight MVP trophy.
But Maris received NOT ONE POINT in the MVP balloting. Not even a single 1-point third-place vote. Even ChiSox outfielder Al Smith, who had 16 HRs, 82 RBI, and a .292 avg. for the 5th place Sox received a 3rd place vote. Smith, though, was not in the top-10 in any AL hitting category.
Since its inception in 1931, the MVP award has always been voted on by the Baseball Writers Association of America (2 reporters for each team's city). Maris reputedly had a pretty rocky relationship with the media, particularly during the last weeks of 1961 when he was chasing the homerun record. Does that explain his shutout in the MVP voting in 1962? Hard to know. But baseball writers have always been known to be notoriously vengeful.
Other players -- Ted Williams, especially -- suffered at the ballot box for their bad media relations. Williams won only two MVP awards (1946, 1949) and finished second in years in which he had far superior numbers to the winner (1941 - DiMaggio, 1942 - Joe Gordon, 1947 - DiMaggio, 1957 - Mantle). But he never was left entirely off every writers ballot in any year in which he played a full season -- not even in 1959 when he hit .254 with just 10 HRs and 43 RBI, and the BoSox finished 5th in standings.
But Maris's snub [update: OF NOT GETTING EVEN 1 POINT FROM ANY VOTER] in 1962, given his offensive numbers, seems an awfully harsh tribute to have paid the protectors of baseball's reputation.
Posted by shertaugh at October 1, 2006 12:51 PM
Comments
By relying on the traditional Triple Crown stats for judging offensive performance, you're not getting the most accurate perspective on player valuations. In 1962, Maris may have edged Mantle in HR and RBI, but he trailed in average (by .065), on-base percentage (.130), and slugging percentage (.120). Using the park- and league-adjusted metric OPS+, Mantle bested Maris 196 to 127, where 100 is average. Mantle just plainly lapped the rest of the AL batters that year, more than making up for his shorter season; he finished second in AVG (.005 behind Pete Runnels), first in OBP (by .074), first in SLG (by .060), first in OPS (by .179), and first in OPS+ (196 to Norm Siebern's 141).
On the subject of MVP snubs, it's tough to look past Ted Williams, who finished second to Joe Gordon in 1942 despite leading the league in every relevant offensive category, including the Triple Crown categories. And in 1941, at least he lost to a worthy candidate in DiMaggio, but Williams's season was historically great: he posted the 19th-best batting average (.406), the then-best (and now 3rd-best) on-base percentage (.553), the 17th-best slugging percentage (.735), the 7th-best OPS (1.287), and the 8th-best OPS+ of all time.
[Shertaugh: Agree. Agree. My point on Maris was not that he deserved to win -- he didn't. But he at least should have gotten 1 point. Mantle was the man that year.]
Posted by: Rex at October 2, 2006 12:55 AM
Gotcha. Given the idiosyncratic nature of the MVP voters, the voting breakdown beyond the winner is often quite strange. While there should be some correlation between being, say, the fifth-best player in the league and finishing fifth in the MVP balloting, team allegiances and other factors often obscure this quite significantly.
In that 1962 example, even more disturbing than Maris's omission from the voting is the fact that six writers cast their vote for a Yankee other than Mantle (or Maris, for that matter): Bobby Richardson (102 OPS+) and Tom Tresh (117 OPS+).
[Shertaugh: ABSOLUTELY. Great point.]
Posted by: Rex at October 2, 2006 8:56 AM
My choice for the biggest snub is Lou Gehrig in 1934, when he got the triple crown, led the league in slugging, on-base percentage, games played (of course), total bases (409 of them), had 40 doubles and 109 walks, and finished fifth in the voting, losing to Mickey Cochrane who played 129 games, hit 2 home runs and had 180 total bases. It wasn't even a particularly good season by Cochrane's standards. Cochrane won because he was also manager of the Tigers and they won the pennant for the first time in 25 years, but it's the Most Valuable Player Award.
To be fair, one other player ahead of Gehrig was Lefty Gomez, who got the pitching Triple Crown that year. I think that's the only time two players on the same team got the two triple crowns. And the Yankees still finished second.
Posted by: Syd at October 2, 2006 7:15 PM
My information is that one Boston writer DID leave Williams off his 1947 ballot.
Posted by: Murphy at November 4, 2006 10:58 AM