Wednesday, November 13, 2013

November 13, 1979: Stargell and Hernandez Share MVP Honors

On November 13, 1979, a first happened in the world of Major League Baseball when Willie Stargell from the Pittsburgh Pirates and Keith Hernandez of the St. Louis Cardinals were named co-winners of the National League MVP award. It is the only time in the history of the league that the award was shared by two different players. Hernandez hit a league leading .344, eleven home runs, and knocked in 105 men. He aslo led the league in doubles with 48 and scored the most runs with 116. On the other hand, Stargell hit .281, 32 bombs, and knocked in 82 runs. One other thing Stargell did was help lead his team to a first place finish before winning the NLCS MVP and the World Series MVP awards for the World Champion Pirates. He is the only man to win all three awards in one season. This was the only MVP award in Stargell's Hall of Fame career. Twice before he had better stats but was passed over. It was something that he didn't let bother him in fact he wasn't upset that he was not the sole winner of the award, after all he did just win the World Series which is by far a much greater prize. Hernandez was surprised after being told that he would be sharing the award with Stargell, he knew he was well deserving but at the same time he thought that the leadership that Stargell provided pushed the Pittsburgh legend into first place in the voting. Instead the members of the Baseball Writers Association of America voted and each player received 216 points leading to the both men being named MVP of the National League.

2 comments:

  1. I feel the award should be for regular season only- apples to apples. But we all know why....don't we....

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