Triple Crown but not MVP: Klein, Gehrig, Williams, Williams.

The gibberish continues this morning about how the batting triple crown (leading the league/conference in home runs (HR), runs batted in (RBI) and batting average (BA) in the same season) pretty much entitles a batter to the most valuable player (MVP) award, which was first given in 1931.  This may be especially true if the batter's team finishes first in an arbitrarily defined division and plays most of its games outside that division and even though the team has fewer wins than two teams that do not qualify for the Major Baseball League (MBL) tournament.

Click link to read my August 14, 2011 Triple Crown research.

Miguel Cabrera dominated the vote of the writers and was awarded the American Conference (AC) MVP award.  Mike Trout, whose Angels team won one more game than Cabrera's Tigers but did not make the tournament, finished a solid but distant second, 362 points to 281; 22 first place votes to 6.

I'm guessing that many of those who voted for and/or supported Cabrera are also Ted Williams sycophants and Yankee haters who constantly whine that Williams finished second in MVP voting to Yankees in both his triple crown seasons, 1942 and 1947.  They never mention that Williams Red Sox teams did not finish first.

In 1942 Boston finished second, nine games behind the Yankees.  Yankee second baseman Joe Gordon beat Williams in MVP points 270 to 249, 12 first place votes to 9.  In 1947 Boston finished third, twelve games behind the Yankees.  Yankee center fielder Joe DiMaggio beat Williams in MVP points 202 to 201, 8 first place votes to 3.

They also never mention that two other Hall of Fame triple crown batters did not win the MVP award.

In 1933 Chuck Klein of the Philadelphia Phillies and Jimmie Foxx of the Philadelphia As led their respective leagues in the triple crown categories.  Neither Philadelphia team finished first.  The Phillies were seventh, 31 games behind the New York Giants and the As were third, 19.5 games behind Washington's last pennant winner, which lost the World Series to the Giants.  NL MVP points: Giants pitcher Carl Hubbell 77, Klein 48.  AL MVP points: Foxx 74, Joe Cronin Washington SS 62.

In 1934 Detroit won the AL pennant, seven games ahead of the second place Yankees who had two triple crown players: Lou Gehrig and southpaw pitcher Lefty Gomez who led the AL in wins, strike outs and ERA.  Gomez did it again in 1937.  Gehrig finished FIFTH behind three Tigers and even his own teammate Gomez.  You should live long enough to hear a Red Sox fan mention that.

			Voting Results				Batting Stats												Pitching Stats
Rank		Tm	Vote Pts	1st Place	Share	WAR	G	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	SB	BB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	W	L	ERA	WHIP	G	GS	SV	IP	H	HR	BB	SO
1	Mickey Cochrane	DET	67.0		84%	3.7	129	437	74	140	2	76	8	78	.320	.428	.412	.840
2	Charlie Gehringer	DET	65.0		81%	8.1	154	601	134	214	11	127	11	99	.356	.450	.517	.967
3	Lefty Gomez	NYY	60.0		75%	7.4	38	99	8	13	0	4	0	6	.131	.189	.141	.330	26	5	2.33	1.133	38	33	1	281.2	223	12	96	158
4	Schoolboy Rowe	DET	59.0		74%	6.6	51	109	15	33	2	22	0	6	.303	.339	.450	.789	24	8	3.45	1.278	45	30	1	266.0	259	12	81	149
5	Lou Gehrig	NYY	54.0		68%	10.1	154	579	128	210	49	165	9	109	.363	.465	.706	1.172
6	Hank Greenberg	DET	29.0		36%	5.8	153	593	118	201	26	139	9	63	.339	.404	.600	1.005
7	Hal Trosky	CLE	18.0		22%	5.2	154	625	117	206	35	142	2	58	.330	.388	.598	.987
8	Wes Ferrell	BOS	16.0		20%	4.7	34	78	12	22	4	17	1	7	.282	.341	.487	.828	14	5	3.63	1.403	26	23	1	181.0	205	4	49	67
9	Marv Owen	DET	13.0		16%	3.0	154	565	79	179	8	96	3	59	.317	.385	.451	.837
10	Jimmie Foxx	PHA	11.0		14%	8.6	150	539	120	180	44	130	11	111	.334	.449	.653	1.102
11	Al Simmons	CHW	9.0	0.0	11%	4.2	138	558	102	192	18	104	3	53	.344	.403	.530	.933
12	Roy Johnson	BOS	8.0	0.0	10%	1.9	143	569	85	182	7	119	11	54	.320	.379	.467	.846
12	Billy Werber	BOS	8.0	0.0	10%	5.2	152	623	129	200	11	67	40	77	.321	.397	.472	.868
14	Goose Goslin	DET	6.0	0.0	8%	2.4	151	614	106	187	13	100	5	65	.305	.373	.453	.826
15	Sam West	SLB	5.0	0.0	6%	2.6	122	482	90	157	9	55	3	62	.326	.403	.469	.871
16	Mel Harder	CLE	4.0	0.0	5%	6.7	44	87	9	14	0	5	0	3	.161	.189	.230	.419	20	12	2.61	1.281	44	29	4	255.1	246	6	81	91
17	Earl Averill	CLE	3.0	0.0	4%	6.5	154	598	128	187	31	113	5	99	.313	.414	.569	.982
17	Pinky Higgins	PHA	3.0	0.0	4%	4.0	144	543	89	179	16	90	9	56	.330	.392	.508	.901
19	Bill Knickerbocker	CLE	2.0	0.0	2%	2.4	146	593	82	188	4	67	6	25	.317	.347	.408	.755

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 11/16/2012.

All other triple crown batters through 1967 were on pennant winners and voted MVP:

1937 Joe Medwick Cardinals; MVP points: Medwick 70, Gabby Hartnett Cubs 68.  Cubs were second by three games.  First place votes: Medwick 2, Hartnett 3, Harry Danning Giants catcher 1 and 10 points finishing 14th.  Danning batted .288 in 93 games.

1956 Mickey Mantle Yankees; MVP points: Mantle 336 (all first place votes), Yogi Berra 186.

1966 Frank Robinson Orioles; MVP points: Robinson 280 (all first place votes), Brooks Robinson 153.

1967 Carl Yastrzemski Red Sox; MVP points: Yastrzemski 275 (all but one first place votes), Harmon Killebrew Twins (second by one game) 171; Cesar Tovar, Killebrew's Twins teammate, got the other first place vote and 70 points tied for seventh.