It’s time again for Baseball Roundtable’s Trivia(l) Tidbit Tuesday. I hope you are enjoying this weekly presentation of baseball occurrences that for some reason caught The Roundtable’s eye. (I’m particularly fond of unexpected performances and statistical coincidences.) These won’t necessarily be momentous occurrences, just events, statistics or coincidences that grabbed my attention. I’m also drawn to baseball “unicorns,” one-of-a-kind MLB accomplishments or statistics. This week’s Tidbits are intended to give you some fodder for trivia challenges at World Series time. For example:
Question: Who was the first Yankee to win the World Series Most Valuable Player Award?
Answer: No, it wasn’t Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig or Joe DiMaggio. It was Don Larsen in 1956 (a Perfect Game will do that for you). As for Ruth, Gehrig and DiMaggio, the World Series MVP Award was first presented in 1955.
Or
Question: Who was the first position player to win the World Series MVP Award? With the hint that he remains the only player at his position to be a WS MVP. (Side note: Ten of the first eleven WS MVPs were pitchers.)
Answer: Yankees’ 2B Bobby Richardson in 1960, who is – in Roundtable parlance – the World Series MVPs’
greatest unicorn:
- The first position player to be selected WS MVP;
- The first – and still only – player from the losing team selected as the WS MVP;
- The first – and still only – second basemen to earn WS MVP honors.
In the Series, which the Yankees lost to the Pirates four games-to-three, Richardson hit .367, and led all players with eight runs scored and 12 RBI (a WS record, since tied). Among his 11 hits were two doubles, two triples and one home run. Side note: In 150 regular-season games, Richardson had just one home run and 26 RBI.
Now, here are a few additional World Series MVP tidbits. I’ll let you draft your own questions.
- The first player recognized as WS MVP was Dodger southpaw Johnny Podres (1955 World Series). Podres helped the Dodgers topple the rival (and dreaded) Yankees four games-to-three – pitching a Game-Three, complete game, seven-hitter (three runs, two earned) in an 8-3 win and an eight-hit shutout in a 2-0 win in Game Seven. Side Note: At this point, the Dodgers had faced the Yankees in five World Series (1941-47-49-52-53) and had lost all five, Podres was, indeed, a conquering hero in Brooklyn. (During the season, Podres had gone 9-10, 3.95.)
- In 1981, three players – an infielder, an outfielder and a catcher – shared the World Series MVP Award: Dodgers’ catcher Steve Yeager; 3B Ron Cey; and OF Pedro Guerrero. Yeager had gone .286-2-4; Cey, .350-1-6; and Guerrero, .333-2-7. Together they had driven in 17 of the Dodgers’ 26 runs and hit five of LA’s six homers. Note: As the Dodgers topped the Yankees four-games to two, Guerrero started four games in center field and two in RF, also in three of the games played both CF and RF. The only other time the WS MP Award was shared was 2001, when Diamondbacks pitchers Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling were honored.
- The WS MVP Award has been presented in 69 seasons. In 28 of those seasons, pitchers have taken home World Series MVP hardware – the most for any position. The list includes 27 different pitchers (seven Hall of famers). Of those, 23 were primarily starters and four primarily were relievers. Side note: Third basemen are next on the list of most WS MVPs at ten. This does not include the Blue Jays’ Paul Molitor, MVP of the 1993 World Series, who started three games at DH, two at 3B and one at 1B.
- Three rookies have been selected as WS MVP: Dodgers’ reliever Larry Sherry in 1959; Marlins’ SP Livan Hernandez in 1997; Astros’ SS Jeremy Pena in 2022). Side note: Hernandez, who went 9-3, 3.18 in 17 1997 regular-season starts, was a bit of surprise WS MVP. While Hernandez started and won two games in the Series (won by the Marlins over the Indians four games-to-three), he put up a 5.27 ERA over 14 2/3 innings. In Game One, he went 5 2/3 innings, giving up eight hits and three runs, as the Marlins topped the Indians (and Orel Hershiser) 7-4. In Game five, matched again against Hershiser, he went eight innings and gave up six runs (five earned) – on seven hits and eight walks in an 8-7 win. (It was a high-scoring series. The two teams put up 81 runs over seven games. There were those who made an MVP case for Marlins’ LF Moises Alou, who hit .321-3-9 in the Series, leading the Marlins in home runs and RBI and scoring the second most runs on the team (6).
- Four players have won multiple WS MVP Awards: Sandy Koufax (Dodgers 1963, 1965); Bob Gibson, Cardinals (1964, 1967); Reggie Jackson (1973 Athletics, 1977 Yankees); Corey Seager (2020 Dodgers, 2023 Rangers).
- The youngest player to win a World Series MVP Award was 21-year-old Royals’ RHP Brett Saberhagen – as the Royals bested the Blue Jays four games-to-three in 1985. Saberhagen, the 1985 AL Cy Young Award winner, pitched a pair of complete games (Games Three and Seven – and gave up just one run over 18 innings. Saberhagen was in his second MLB season.
- The oldest WS MVP was 39-year-old Pirates’ 1B Willie Stargell, who hit .400-3-7, as the Pirates topped the Orioles four games-to-three in 1979. He was in his eighteenth MLB season.
- A couple of interesting (to The Roundtable) runs: From 1955-68, pitchers were selected WS MVP in 12 of 14 seasons. Then, from 1969-84, position players were selected in fifteen of sixteen seasons.
Primary Resources: Stathead.com
To access past Trivia(l) Tidbits, just tye tidbit into the search box on the right-hand side of the page.
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