Ted Williams played 19 seasons in the majors and won two MVP Awards: in 1946 and 1949. That would be a great achievement for most players, but not so much for a player who is widely regarded as "the greatest hitter who ever lived.”
The truth is, Williams didn’t have just two fantastic seasons during his illustrious career. He had a string of phenomenal seasons that didn’t result in an MVP Award.
For example, in 1941, Williams’ third season, he led the majors with 135 runs, 37 homers, 147 walks, that legendary .406 batting average, a .553 OBP, a .735 slugging percentage, and a 1.287 OPS, the highest of his career.
Yet, Joe DiMaggio, who had a 56-game streak that season, won the award and Williams was the runner up. The Yankees won the American League Pennant, while the Red Sox finished in second place, 17 games out.
But that wasn’t the only time that Williams’ was snubbed.
In 1942, Williams’ fourth season, he led the majors with 141 runs, 36 homers, 137 RBI, 145 walks, a .499 OBP, a .648 slugging percentage, a 1.147 OPS, and 338 total bases. He also lead the AL with a .356 batting average.
Yet, despite winning the Triple Crown, Williams again finished in second place to another Yankee, second baseman Joe Gordon. Boston once again finished in second place, behind the Yankees.
Williams missed the 1943, 1944 and 1945 seasons — the prime of his career — while fighting in World War II. We can only imagine what he would have done on the diamond, but it surely would have been extraordinary.
As noted above, Williams finally won the MVP Award in 1946, upon returning from the war. That year he led the majors with 142 runs, 156 walks, a .497 OBP, and a .667 slugging percentage. He also led the AL with 343 total bases. Additionally, Williams batted .342, which, quite incredibly, led neither league. By Williams' lofty standards, there was nothing exceptional about this year. It was almost an ordinary year for Williams, who made greatness seem ordinary.
In 1947, Williams again finished second to DiMaggio, despite leading the AL with 125 runs, 32 homers, 114 RBI, a .343 batting average, a .634 slugging percentage, and 335 total bases. He also led the majors 162 walks, a .499 OBP, and a 1.133 OPS. Williams once again won the Triple Crown (his second in three seasons), yet still didn’t win the MVP. It seems impossible, yet it happened.
In 1948, Williams led the AL with 44 doubles, 126 walks, a .369 average, .497 OBP, .615 slugging, and a 1.112 OPS. Yet, Cleveland's Lou Boudreau won the MVP and Williams finished third, despite leading the league in six offensive categories.
Williams won his second and final MVP Award in 1949, after leading the AL with 155 games, 39 doubles, 43 homers, a .650 slugging percentage, and 368 total bases. He also led the majors with 150 runs, 159 RBI, 162 walks, a .490 OBP, and a 1.141 OPS.
Williams was 30-years-old and in his prime, yet had won the final MVP Award of his long, extraordinary career. Despite turning in six Hall-of-Fame-caliber seasons, he had just two MVPs to speak for it all.
In 1951, his age-32 season, Williams led the AL with a .556 slugging, a 1.019 OPS, and 295 total bases, while leading the majors with 144 walks, and a .464 OBP. Despite leading the AL or the majors in five offensive categories, Williams finished 13th in the MVP voting. The Red Sox finished the season third in the American League.
Yet, Williams still wasn’t done producing historic seasons.
In 1954, his age-35 season, Williams led the majors with 136 walks, a .513 OBP, and a 1.148 OPS, while leading the AL with a .635 slugging percentage. Most remarkably, Williams did all of this in just 117 games. For his efforts, he finished seventh in the MVP voting.
Notably, Williams hit .345 in 386 at-bats, yet Bobby Ávila, who had hit .341, won the batting championship. This was because a batter needed 400 at-bats to qualify for the batting title. Williams' league-leading 136 walks kept him from qualifying under the rules at the time. Using today's standards (plate appearances), he would have been the champion. The rule was changed shortly thereafter to prevent this from happening again.
In 1955, Williams batted .356 in 320 at bats, lacking a sufficient number to win the batting title over Al Kaline, who batted .340. Williams, who also hit 28 home runs and drove in 83 runs, was named the "Comeback Player of the Year.” He finished fourth in the MVP voting.
Yet, that still wasn’t the end of Williams' historic output.
In 1957, his age-38 season, Williams led the majors with a .388 batting average, a .526 OBP, a .731 slugging percentage, and a 1.257 OPS. He also bashed 38 homers, 28 doubles, drove in 87 runs, and scored 96 times. Yet, he finished second in the MVP voting, behind Mickey Mantle. The Yankees won the AL Pennant, while the Red Sox finished third.
By this point, Williams was a living legend. He had complied nine Hall-of-Fame-caliber seasons, yet had still won only two MVP Awards. Winning just one pennant in all those years likely played a role in this, as did Williams' surly demeanor toward the press. Yet, it is impossible to look at the dominance he displayed year after year and not wonder how the writers could have snubbed him so often. It seems spiteful.
However, Williams still had one final burst in him. Though it wasn’t necessarily an MVP-caliber season, in 1958, the year he turned 39, the ageless wonder led the AL with a .328 batting average, while also leading the majors with a .458 OBP and a 1.042 OPS. Williams also belted 26 homers, 23 doubles, and had 85 RBI. He finished seventh in the MVP voting. Again, he was 39 years old.
It’s fair to say that Williams could have, perhaps should have, won as many as seven more MVP Awards in his career. And this doesn’t even include the three years he spent fighting in WWII during his prime, or the two years (1952, 1953) that he spent as a Marine Corps Aviator in the Korean War. Williams was still in his extended prime at that time, as these were his age-33 and age-34 seasons. As further evidence, he turned in two more MVP-caliber seasons following his return from the war ('54 & '57). Upon his return in 1953, Williams batted .407 over 37 games. In 1957 and 1958 at the ages of 39 and 40, respectively, he was the AL batting champion for the fifth and sixth time. Williams was not washed up by any stretch of the imagination.
The point is, over the course of those five seasons that were completely (or mostly) lost to war, Williams would certainly have performed well enough to justifiably earn multiple MVP Awards. Whether the writers would have voted for him is another matter and can only be left to the imagination. But it requires little imagination to recognize that Williams would have produced statistics that modern writers just couldn’t have ignored or overlooked.
The writers of his era shouldn’t have either. It was an injustice.
No comments:
Post a Comment