November 27, 1947
MVP controversy is not a recent development. In 1947, Ted Williams won the American League triple crown, but Joe DiMaggio won the League MVP award by one point in the voting system.
The stats:
DiMaggio NYY .315/.391/.522 20 HR 97 RBI 2.2 BFW 30 WS
Williams BOS .343/.499/.634 32 HR 114 RBI 7.2 BFW 44 WS
To make this story more interesting, Williams was completely left off one of the ballots. Based on the scoring system in place, if he had been placed 10th on that ballot, the results would have been a tie. A 9th place finish would have given Williams the award.
It would be easy to place all of the blame for the results on that one writer who left Williams off of the ballot, but there was plenty of blame to go around. Williams recieved only 3 out of 22 first place votes. Lou Boudreau also received 3, while Eddie Joost recieved 2.
Boudreau CLE .307/.388/.424 4 HR 67 RBI 5.3 BFW 28 WS
Joost PHA .206/.348/.330 13 HR 64 RBI 0.3 BFW 18 WS
DiMaggio received 8 first place votes, followed by Joe Page with 7.
Page NYY 14-8 2.48 ERA 1.25 WHIP 3.3 PW 17 WS
So, while the one voter who left Williams off of the ballot certainly had an impact, it seems he is not the only one to have a questionable ballot in 1947.
