Saturday, December 19, 2015

Big Red Machine MVPs.

1970-1977 Cincinnati Reds were awarded the NL MVP six times in eight years: Bench, Bench, Rose, Morgan, Morgan, Foster.

New York Yankees won 6 of 8 1950-1957: Rizzuto, Berra, Berra, Berra, Mantle, Mantle.  The Yankees followed that two years later with four straight: Maris, Maris, Mantle, Howard.  Yanks won 10 of 14 1950-1963.  The only Reds to be MVP after 1977 were Barry Larkin in 1995 and Joey Votto in 2010.

But it may have been twice as hard to win MVP starting in 1969 when the leagues split into two divisions, creating two first place teams.  The Reds won the championship in 1975 and 1976; Morgan was MVP both years.

The same Reds started in 1975 and 1976.  1975 stats from baseball-reference.com:
RkPosNameAgeGPAABRH2B3BHRRBISBCSBBSOBAOBPSLGOPSOPS+TBGDPHBPSHSFIBB
1CJohnny Bench27142606530831503912811011065108.283.359.519.8781402751220812
21BTony Perez3313757451174144283201091254101.282.350.466.816124238123066
32BJoe Morgan*311466394981071632761794671013252.327.466.508.97416925333063
4SSDave Concepcion27140558507621392315493363951.274.326.353.67987179172644
53BPete Rose#34162764662112210474774018950.317.406.432.8381322861311118
6LFGeorge Foster26134511463711392442378214073.300.356.518.8751392401430511
7CFCesar Geronimo*27148557501691292556531354897.257.327.363.6909018274318
8RFKen Griffey*25132540463951411594461676767.305.391.402.793119186101632
Photo of Johnny BenchPhoto of Joe MorganPhoto of Pete RosePhoto of George Foster

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