The History of the MVP and Cy Young Awards
December 28th, 2011 | by Ray Flowers |
Every year Major League Baseball rewards players for their excellence, and two awards top the list -the MVP and Cy Young awards (for this year’s voting see http://bbwaa.com). Everyone knows about the awards, and continually debates whether or not the appropriate players were chosen for the awards. However, I’d posit that the vast majority of people know little about the history of the awards. Today, I’ll help to rectify that oversite (the information is gathered from Total Baseball, 7th edition, pp.192-194 for the MVP portion of the paper, and pp.205-206 for the Cy Young segment).
MVP HISTORY
Originally the MVP award was presented by Hugh Chalmers, president of the Chalmers Motor Company, to the player with the highest batting average in major league baseball (this occurred in 1910). However, after the Ty Cobb/Nap Lajoie fiasco of 1910 in which the St Louis Browns allowed Lajoie to go 8-for-8 in a double header with seven of the hits coming on bunts because they detested Cobb so much, it was determined that in 1911 the MVP award, and the car that went with it, would go to the one player in each league who was the “…most important and useful player to his club.” This was the way the award was presented until 1914 when World War I began (the war obviously caused people to turn their attention towards other avenues). In addition to the battle across the Atlantic, Chalmers had signed only a five year deal with baseball to present the award and the accompanying car which ran out after the 1914 season, so the award basically just disappeared.
In 1922, the American League established a new set of rules and procedures and decided to reinstate the award after neither league awarded a trophy from 1915 to 1921 (the National League eventually followed suit, though it waited until 1924 to reinstate its award). However, a few quirks in the rules of the time deserve mention.
First, the original rules prohibited teammates from both receiving votes in the same season. Second, players who also managed ball clubs were disqualified from being chosen. Third, in the most blatantly stupid idea of the history of the award, once a player won the award he was ruled ineligible forever meaning that players like Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig were only eligible to win the award once (in Ruth’s historic 1927 season when he hit his record 60 HR, as well as batting .356, with 160 RBI and 158 runs scored, he was ineligible because he had won the award in 1923). So disenchanted were those in the know with the whole process involved with the award, that on May 6, 1929, the AL award ceased to exist with the 1928 winner being the last given (the NL again followed suit, but only after awarding a winner for the 1929 season).
In 1930, The Sporting News – yes the same one you still read today – presented its own “unofficial” winners. Following this turn of events, the BBWAA (Baseball Writers Association of America) determined at its meeting on Dec. 11, 1930, to appoint two separate committees, one for each league, to select the MVP winner each year. This meant that the modern day MVP award officially began in 1931, and though the awards voting process has changed through the years in subtle ways, (such as including more writers in the voting and changing the way the points awarded are tabulated) the award has basically been carried on since that point with little change.
Unanimous MVP Winners:
Ty Cobb (1911)
Babe Ruth (1923)
Hank Greenberg (1935)
Carl Hubbell (1936)
Al Rosen (1953)
Mickey Mantle (1956)
Frank Robinson (1966)
Orlando Cepeda (1967)
Denny McLain (1968)
Reggie Jackson (1973)
Mike Schmidt (1980)
Jose Canseco (1988)
Frank Thomas (1993)
Jeff Bagwell (1994)
Ken Caminiti (1996)
Ken Griffey Jr. (1997)
Barry Bonds (2002)
Albert Pujols (2009)
There have been 18 unanimous MVP award winners in the history of the award.
CY YOUNG HISTORY
In 1956 Ford Frick, the Commissioner of baseball, determined that pitchers were not receiving their due in MVP voting, so he proposed creating a new award that would be given solely to pitchers. Cy Young, the winningest pitcher of all-time, had died less than a year earlier so it only seemed natural to name the pitchers’ MVP award after him (the vote to place his name on the trophy only passed by a 14 to 12 margin though). Who voted? One writer from each city with a team was selected for the honor of casting a vote. More difficult was the decision pertaining to how many Cy Young Awards would be awarded yearly. Frick was greatly opposed to the idea of multiple winners so from 1956-1966 there was but one joint Cy Young award for both leagues. In 1967, after Frick died, William Eckert took over as the Commissioner and ceded to the wishes of the writers and fans an authorized the commission of two awards, one for each league. There have been minor changes to the voting process since the date of its inception (mainly adding more writers to the voting body), but it is in essence the same award that has been given since the split, to one per league, in 1967.
Unanimous Cy Young Winners:
Sandy Koufax (1963, 65-66)
Bob Gibson (1968)
Denny McLain (1968)***
Steve Carlton (1972)
Ron Guidry (1978)
Rick Sutcliffe (1984)
Dwight Gooden (1985)
Roger Clemens (1986, 98)
Orel Hershiser (1988)
Greg Maddux (1994-95)
Pedro Martinez (1999-2000)
Randy Johnson (2002)
Johan Santana (2004, 2006)
Jake Peavy (2007)
Roy Halladay (2010)
Justin Verlander (2011)
***McLain is the only player ever to unanimously win both the MVP and Cy Young awards.
There have been 22 unanimous Cy Young winners handed out over the years.
By Ray Flowers
Tags: Cy Young, Cy Young Award, History, MVP, MVP Award
By Paul on Dec 30, 2011
Nice piece Ray,
Love baseball history!
I take it 1931 was the first time players were allowed to win the MVP award more then once?
You say these awards were “unofficial” in 1931, when were these awards recognized as “official”.
And how do take the rights away from them …. lol
Paul
By Ray Flowers on Dec 30, 2011
Paul – Here is a list of all the winners. as you can tell, it’s a varied history.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/mvp_cya.shtml
Major League Baseball recognizes players back to 1931:
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/awards/mlb_awards_content.jsp?content=mvp_history
By Carl Rispoli on Dec 30, 2011
Hi Ray, can you pick 1, non ppr…
Kevin Smith, Blount, Wayne, James Jones.
Thanks!!
By wesley on Dec 31, 2011
Hey ray i was thinking about fantasy baseball lol , whats you think of carl crawford and carlos gonzalez. i feel there going to be good values and bounce back guys. im going to target them in every draft. do you agree? And happy New year wish i could party with ya
By Ray Flowers on Jan 2, 2012
Wesley – Two diff stories. CarGo hit .295, went 20/20, and scored/knocked in 90 runs. There’s not much to “bounce back”" from there. If he had played another 20 games we’d be tlaking about .300-30-100-100-20. Expecting more than that is asking way too much.
Crawford on the other hand is a prime bounceback candidate. My thoughts here – http://baseballguys.com/2011/10/12/carl-crawford-total-failure/
Yeah, partying with me is fun… j/k
Hope you had a nice new year’s too.
By Pefacommish on Jan 7, 2012
Fascinating article, Ray. Thanks for the research.
I appreciate your point about the stupid early rule preventing a player from ever winning the MVP award more than once. But you are doing a huge injustice to Lou Gehrig to imply that he only won the MVP in 1927 because Ruth had already won the award. Gehrig’s 1927 season was absolutely momentus.
Yes, Ruth beat him in homers 60-47. That said, 47 was a gigantic number in that era. But Gehrig beat Ruth in:
Doubles – 52-29
Triples – 18-8
Extra Base Hits 117-97 (2nd most ever behind Ruth’s 119 in 1921)
Total Bases – 447-417 (a record at the time)
Batting Average – .373-.356
RBIs – 175-164 (a record at the time)
Hits – 218-192
And just for fun, he stole 10 bases to Ruth’s 7.
And remember – Ruth hit 60 homers, which means nobody was on base all of those times when Gehrig came up. How he bested him in RBIs is beyond me.
Ruth led in runs (158-149), OBP (.486-.474), Slg (.772-.765) and OPS (1.258-1.240). Look how close those numbers are, and also, look how absolutely fantastic they are!
Ruth also led in WAR 12.8-12.0, though they were tied in Offensive WAR at 11.6.
Let’s throw in that Gehrig missed no games and most importantly, batted behind Ruth, allowing Ruth to see a lot more pitches. With another batter behind him, the Babe might have walked even more than he did and might not have hit those 60 jimmy-jacks.
It has always been one of the great debates as to who really had the better season in 1927, and it certainly does not begin and end with 60 homers.
As great as we all know he was, I think Gehrig remains underrated, partly because he was overshadowed by a teammate who was arguably the greatest player who ever played and certainly because his career numbers are less than they would have been had he not lost at least 5 productive years at the end of his career.
By Ray Flowers on Jan 8, 2012
Pefacommish – Gerhig has always been one of my favorites. From an article I wrote back in 2008 for Rototimes/Fanball.
The Greatest Fantasy Baseball Season Ever – Hitters
FIRST BASE
Best ever: 1931, Lou Gehrig (.341-46-184-163-17)
Runner up: 1932, Jimmy Foxx (.364-58-169-151-3)
Talk about a battle huh? Really, you can’t pick a loser from these two, but I’ll give the nod to Gehrig thanks to his total of 17 SB (so much for your idea of the lumbering first baseman). Gehrig produced one of eight 40/15 seasons by a first baseman in league history in 1931, and his 1.108 OPS was the fifth of 11-straight seasons in which he posted a 1.000 OPS. Heck, his 1927 wasn’t that bad either (.373-47-175-149-10).
OUTFIELD
Best ever: 1921, Babe Ruth (.378-59-171-177-17)
Runner up: 1997, Larry Walker (.363-49-130-143-33)
In Mike Sheets article, referenced above, Walker’s 1997 season was the best of the past 10 years (the article was written prior to last season). Walker finished 1st in the NL in HR, OBP, SLG, OPS, TB, 2nd in batting average, hits, runs and 7th in steals. Yet that performance was only good for second place in this two-horse race, and it’s easy to see why. Ruth’s 177 runs scored is the highest total in the modern era, while his 171 RBI are the seventh highest single season mark. Toss in the bombs, the seventh highest mark ever for an outfielder, and the 17 steals, and it’s easy to see what a massive performance was had in 1921 by Ruth. In fact, those numbers kind of reminded me of the type of numbers I used to put up while giving the smack down to my friends when we played RBI Baseball back in the 1980’s on Nintendo. Hell, Ruth even won two games on the hill in nine innings pitched during his remarkable campaign.
By Mike on Jan 11, 2012
Hi, Ray. Prepping for an early fantasy baseball draft starting soon and want to get your thoughts on a quick question. I am pretty solid on my personal “Top 10″ so, of course, I’m picking 11th. Hopefully, one of my chosen ten will fall to me but, if not, I’m struggling with who to rank #11. I think I have it down to Justin Upton and Carlos Gonzalez – any strong preference between the two? Thanks, Mike
PS – Still waiting on your baseball guide!
By Ray Flowers on Jan 11, 2012
Mike – Boy you’re drafting early. My Draft Guide is likely about 2 weeks away – think end of January.
As for your question, both are elite options. I will probably end up having both of them side by side with each other in the rankings with CarGo one spot ahead. Very, very close.
By Mike on Jan 11, 2012
Thanks, Ray. I decided to join a Slow Draft league this year, in addition to my main league. I can’t wait for baseball to start, and I figured I would have fun with this league and the format would help get me ready for any March drafts I’m involved in. I’ll be looking for your draft guide when it comes out – I really enjoy your in-depth analyses of individual players. Mike