When The MVP Was The Only Award Pitchers Could Win Baseball Considered Them the Best in the Game

 

When Cy Young, the winningest pitcher in baseball history passed away in 1955, in one of the nods to its history that the sport does so well Major League Baseball chose to name an award to be given annually to the best pitcher in baseball. (This took some kinks to iron out, but I'll deal with that in another article.)

In large part I suspect much of this was because ever since the MVP had been established in 1911 (sort of) there had been debates among those in the national pastime as to whether a pitcher could be as valuable as an everyday player.  Whether this was coming more from the pitchers or the players in the game is lost to history; what is clear is that pitchers had to be spectacular – really spectacular – to get the kind of recognition from the sportswriters then the ones they saw every day. That didn't mean they didn't went the Most Valuable Player Award but it took a lot of work and each time, there was some grumbling.

What follows is my attempt to pay tribute to the thirteen pitchers who managed to win the Most Valuable Player Award in their leagues prior to 1956 when the first Cy Young award was given. Some of them were the greatest in baseball history; some were stars for a short time. All come from an era that is quickly being forgotten to all but the oldest fan. Attention should be paid.

 

1913  Walter Johnson American League MVP

A brief note. Between 1911 and 1914 the Chalmers auto company gave the first official Most Valuable Players Award along with a car. The company experienced financial troubles and discontinued the award in 1915.

Walter Johnson, of course, is on the shortlist of the greatest pitchers in baseball history and its very hard not to consider his 1913 season the greatest in his two decade career. He won 36 games, lost only 7, had an Earned Run Average of 1.09, pitched 11 shutouts and led the league in strikeouts with 243. Even in an era dominated by pitchers Johnson's dominance was incredible in 1913: the second winningest pitcher that year was Cleveland's Claude Falkenberg who won 23 games and whose ERA was a full run higher than Johnson's.

The Senators had by far their best finish in their brief history in the American League, winning 90 games and finishing 5 and a half games behind Connie Mack's A, who had already won World Series in 1910 and 1911 and were the AL's first great dynasty.  The A's were an offensive juggernaut but Johnson had almost single-handed carried the Senators, winning 40 percent of their total victories. It's hard to argue that even the great Ty Cobb or the A's Frank Baker was anywhere near as valuable as Johnson was.

 

In 1922 Major League Baseball officially began their MVP system but it still had some kinks in it. For one thing, the American League didn't let any player win more than one MVP while the National League allowed multiple winners. In any case in 1924 both winners of the MVP were pitchers.

No one questioned Walter Johnson becoming the first pitcher two win two MVPs. His 23-7 season had helped carry Washington to its first ever American League Pennant where they had triumphed over the Yankees who had won three straight AL pennants and were on the verge of a dynasty. The winner of the 1924 MVP really raised eyebrows. With good reason

 

1924 Dazzy Vance National League MVP

Dazzy Vance was without question the best pitcher in the National League during the hitter's decade that was the 1920s. He didn't win a game before he aged 30 but before he retired he won 197, enough to get him to the Hall of Fame. He was practically the only draw Brooklyn had during that decade as he was the strikeout king and in 1924 he did everything he could to try and get the Dodgers to the pennant.

He went 28-6 and had an ERA of 2.16 which was incredible in the 1920s. He struck out 267 batters that year, threw 309 innings and 30 complete games. His record overall was better than Johnson's that year in every category, save shutouts.

The problem was not only that this was a hitter's decade and one hitter in particular had done something impossible. Rogers Hornsby hit .424 by far the highest average in the 20^th century and I think its save to say no one will ever hit that high again. He also led the league in slugging average, hits, doubles, runs scored and bases on balls. And yet he lost the MVP to Vance which caused a lot of people – even in Brooklyn – to grumble.

Hornsby went on to win two MVPs during the rest of his career but if I had to guess this is where the rumbling about pitchers winning the MVP started.

 

The MVP system took its modern form in 1931. The first winner in the American League was a pitcher but nobody questioned.

 

1931 Lefty Grove American League MVP

Lefty Grove makes the shortlist of the greatest pitchers of all-time and 1931 is one of the greatest years any pitcher ever had. He went 31-4, becoming the first pitcher in 11 years to win 30 games or more. He led the ERA with 2.06 the seventh consecutive year he had done so. He led the league in complete games, shutouts, strikeouts and winning percentage and tied an American League record with 16 consecutive wins.

And I have to tell you about why he didn't win seventeen straight, or rather I'll let him do so:

"That was Simmons' fault."

"He misplayed the ball?

No, you see Simmons had left the club to go home to Milwaukee for a few days, God knows why. His replacement in left field, Jim Moore, loused up the play. Simmons would have caught it. It was Simmons's fault. And I told him about it."

This conversation took place in 1974, forty-three years later. Grove was still touchy about it. The man had a temper and he hated losing. In 1931 he didn't do it that often but you get the feeling every one of those four losses stuck in his craw.

The A's won their third consecutive American League Pennant but lost the World Series to the Cardinals in seven games that year. Even considering the incredible offensive seasons of Al Simmons, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, it's very hard to begrudge Grove this one.

 

1933 Carl Hubbell National League MVP

By the early 1930s the offensive heights of the previous decade were starting to diminish and pitchers started to regain some control of the game. One such pitcher was Carl Hubbell of the Giants, one of the most successful pitchers.

He was the ace of the Giant staff in 1933, going 23-12 with a 1.66 ERA, by far the lowest in either league since 1919.  (I have no idea with a team that included Bill Terry and Mel Ott in its lineup how Hubbell lost 12 games that year.) Hubbell was also the teams workhorse in an era where starters were offer used to relieve. He made 45 appearance that year and led the league with 5 saves. (Yes that was enough to lead the league at one time.) That year the Giants were led more by great pitching then their offense in the Polo Grounds and with Hubbell's help they won the National League pennant, the first the Giants had won since John McGraw's retirement. That year they beat the Senators in five games for their first World Championship since 1922.

Under Bill Terry the Giants would win three pennants in five years. And one of the reasons they didn't make it four was because of the very next man on the list.

 

1934 Dizzy Dean, National League MVP

Dean famously said: "it ain't bragging if you can do it." And when Dean was at his peak, he absolutely could.  Between 1932-1936 he averaged 24 wins a season. Never was he more at the peak of his ability then 1934.

The St. Louis Cardinals of that period are famously known as 'The Gashouse Gang', known for their ferocity, their clowning and the egos of everyone involved. None had a bigger one than Jerome Hanna Dean, who before the season even began predicted that he and his brother Paul would win 45-50 games that year. And they did. Dizzy won 30 and Paul won 19.

Dean appeared in 50 of the Cardinals games that year also managing to save 7 along with 30 starts.  He led the league in strikeouts, complete games, was second in earned run average to Hubbell and threw 312 innings. And in the final week of the season he helped the Cardinals clinch the pennant by throwing three complete games in the last six starts, including a shutout on the last day of the season.

Both years their were great offensive players. In 1933 Chuck Klein won the triple crown and Mell Ott led the National League with 38 homers and 135 runs batted in during the 1934 season. But Klein played for the last place Phillies and Dean had become the first N.L. pitcher to win 30 games since Grover Cleveland Alexander in 1917. Few would question either.

 

1936 Carl Hubbell, National League MVP

In 1936 Hubbell became the only pitcher in the history of the National League to win two MVPs.  He'd had what was arguably his best season. He went 26-6 with a 2.31 ERA. He led both leagues in wins, winning percentage and ERA, threw 25 complete games and 304 innings.  And he didn't have much protection in the line up or backing him on the mound. Mel Ott was the only Giants batter to hit double digits in home runs or drove in more than one hundred runs. The Giants won the pennant by five games over Chicago and St. Louis, both of whom had stronger offenses and more balanced pitching. Without Hubbell, the Giants almost certainly wouldn't have won the pennant that year.

 

1939 Bucky Walters, National League MVP

This is where the devoted fans will start saying: Who?  That's understandable because you likely neither heard of him or the team he pitched for, even though they won back to back National League Pennants and in 1940 the World Series.

Bucky Walters had come up with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1934 in the midst of a period when they were one of the worst teams in baseball history. During that period they pitched in the Baker Bowl where pitchers were lucky to escape a game with the opposition scoring 9 runs. Walters went 11-21 with Philadelphia with a 4.26 era and managed to be a .500 pitcher on a team that was fifty games below .500. Then in the middle of the 1938 season, salvation came as he was traded to the Cincinnati Reds. He went 11-6 after being traded finishing the season 15-14.

But the next two years would be his greatest, particularly 1939. He went 27-11 and led the league with a 2.29 era. He also let the league in starts, complete games, innings pitched and strikeouts. Even more amazingly the Reds won the National league Pennant for the first time since 1919. They were swept in the World Series by the Yankees in four games but this did not dampen the spirits of Walters or the Reds.

The following year the Reds were just as good as was Walters. He led the National League with 22 wins, ERA, complete games and innings pitched. And that year the Reds won their first World Series since the forever tainted one in 1919.

Walters was the definition of a workhorse pitcher, good for thirty-five to 38 starts or 3000 innings a year. He finally ran out of gas in 1948 and finished his career with 198 wins and 160 losses. He is not a Hall of Famer by any standard but he was far from an undeserving MVP. (Johnny Mize had a superb offensive season that year for the Cardinals but it was nowhere near good enough to merit.)

 

During World War II pitchers again regained dominance. Every year during the War one pitcher won win the MVP in either league.

 

1942 Mort Cooper, National League MVP

I've mentioned Cooper in previous articles and in 1942 he was by far the best pitcher in either league. He went 22-7 with a 1.73 ERA throwing an incredible 10 shutouts. That year the Cardinals had an incredible stretch run, winning 44 of their last 51 games. During that period Cooper went 9-2 and threw four shutouts which almost certainly reflected in the minds of the voters.

Cooper was the workhorse of the Cardinals during their three years of dominance during the war. After the war he was traded to Boston and perhaps because of the extensive work he'd done was washed up by the time he was 34.

 

1943 Spud Chandler, American League MVP

Chandler had come up with the Yankees in 1937 at age 29. He'd been a reliable pitcher that period though never a big winner. Then in 1943 he had his best season for the Yankees and they needed him to.

He went 20-4 with a 1.64 ERA by far the lowest in the American League since the deadball era. He threw 20 complete games and five shutouts enough to lead the American League. With all the Yankees best players in olive drab, they needed all the help they could get and Chandler was one.

He went into uniform the following year and while he still had some stuff at 38 (he went 20-8 IN 1946) he was getting tired and when the Yanks won the World Series the following year, he decided to hang it up. His lifetime winning percentage of .717 is still the highest in baseball history in some circles.

 

1944, 1945 Hal Newhouser, American League MVP

Newhouser had actually been part of the Tigers since 1940 he'd been drafted at 19. Because of a heart murmur, he was 4-F and didn't get drafted. It took him a while to find his stuff and then in 1944 he spectacularly did.

That year he went 29-9 with a 2.22 era, through 312 innings and lead both leagues in strikeouts with 187. His fellow pitcher Dizzy Trout won 27 games that year, which meant the two of them combined for 56 of the Tigers 88 wins. The two of them were one and two in every pitching category in the AL and most of baseball. It wasn't enough as the Browns beat them by one game for the only pennant they ever won.

The following year Newhouser was even better going 25-9 with a 1.81 ERA, leading both leagues in complete games,  shutouts and strikeouts. When Trout dropped to 18 wins that year the Tigers needed Newhouser more than ever and aided by the return of Hank Greenberg, the Tigers won the American League Pennant and the World Series.

In the years that followed Newhouser would prove his wartime success was far from a fluke. He won 26 games in 1946 and 21 in 1948 both years leading the league. He would finish his career with 207 wins and eventually be inducted to the Hall of Fame.

 

1950 Jim Konstanty, National League MVP

This one raised the most eyebrows yet. That year the Philadelphia Phillies – the Whiz Kids because of the youth of the regulars – came out of nowhere to win the National League Pennant, the first since 1915 and the last until 1980. There's an excellent if they hadn't won that pennant, they might have gone to Kansas City instead of the A's.

Konstanty was the model of what would the model reliever for much of the rest of the 20^th century. He appeared in an unheard of 72 games and only 154 innings. And he was incredibly successful going 16-7 and saving 22 games, working almost exclusively out of the bullpen. I suspect the phenomena of Konstanty caused the writers to lose their bearings and give the MVP to him instead of more deserving candidates such as Stan Musial or for that matter the real star of the Phillies Robin Roberts, who won 20 games and clinched the pennant for the Phils on the last day of the season.

No doubt due to overwork (far from uncommon for many of the relievers that followed in his wake) Konstanty was no where that good again. Eventually he was traded to the Yankees where he had one good year as a reliever in 1955 before they released him in 1956.

 

1952 Bobby Shantz, 1952 American League MVP

Shantz had come up with the A's in 1949. He was barely five foot four and was hardly imposing on the mound. He quickly became a superb starter but in 1952 he was incredible.

He went 24-7 that year, leading the league in wins and winning percentage.  He pitched 27 complete games, threw 5 shutouts and was second in strikeouts and complete games. And the reason he didn't have an even better season was that three weeks before the season, he was hit in his pitching arm and his tendon was torn. His season ended there and it really seemed like his career was over.

He struggled with arm pain for the next four seasons and it didn't help he was pitching for a truly terrible team whether it was Philadelphia of Kansas City. Then he was part of what would be the first of a series of trades between the Yankees and the A's which as any fan of that era knows were basically swindles by George Weiss.

He wasn't expecting much of Shantz but that year he went 11-5 with 5 saves and led the American League in ERA. He would be a valuable member of the Yankees pitching staff and pitched competently if not spectacularly until his career ended at age 38. By the way he turned 100 this week.

 

After the Cy Young award was established and Don Newcombe won both it and the MVP in 1956, that was pretty much that for the debate of where pitchers would be ranked in the MVP. In the nearly 67 years since only 7 pitchers in both leagues have managed to win an MVP and in many cases they had to really be brilliant.

Of course that didn't mean the league got it right at first with that award. In the article that will follow this  I'm going to talk about the first decade of the Cy Young Award – and I do mean 'award'.