Yogi Berra is the AL MVP
On November 8 1951 Yankees catcher Yogi Berra is voted the American Leagues most valuable player for the first time in his career.St.Louis Browns ace pitcher and slugger Ned Garver almost won the awardin fact a representative from the Baseball Writers Association of America phoned him and told him that he had won itbut after a recount it turned out that Berra had edged Garver out by a nose.
Its great to be classed with fellows like DiMaggio and Rizzuto who have won the award Berra told reporters that night.I sure hope I can win it a couple of more times like Joe did.He went on to be the league MVP twice more in 1954 and 1955.Berra had had a great season for the most parthed been the Yanks leading slugger with 27 homers and 88 RBIbut hed had a dramatic slump near the end of the year.
His teammate Allie Reynolds meanwhile had pitched two no-hitters in 1951 and Garver had won 20 games and batted .305 for the Browns a collection of old rags and tags that had only managed to win 32 games that Garver wasnt pitching.In the face of these performances Berra was sure he wouldnt win the award.I was afraid I had blown it with the bad finish he said.In fact it was one of the closest MVP races ever.
Each member of the baseball writers association voted by naming the leagues 10 best players and then ranking them.A first-place vote got a player 14 points second place was worth nine third place eight and so on.When the votes were tallied the player with the most points overall won the MVP.
Berra Garver and Reynolds actually had the same number of first-place votessix eachbut Yogi squeaked by on his second- third- and fourth-place points.(His final score was 187 Garvers was 157 and Reynolds was 125.)Berra was only the second catcher to win the AL MVP prize.(Mickey Cochrane was the first.) That same year another catcherRoy Campanella of the Dodgerswas the NL MVP.
