Nine National League Pitchers that Have Been Named Most Valuable Player

A Most Valuable Player Award in some form has been given out in the National League on a regular basis since 1924, and during all of those years only nine pitchers have copped the honor. It has been an amazing 39 seasons since a pitcher in the National League has been voted the MVP, going all the way back to Bob Gibson of the Cardinals in 1968. Of these players, five are Hall of Famers, and the only pitcher to grab an NL MVP twice is the New York Giants Carl Hubbell.

The first hurler to accomplish the MVP feat was Brooklyn Dodger ace Dazzy Vance in 1924. Vance was 28-6 with a 2.16 earned run average that year as he led the Dodgers to a second place finish in the league, just a game and a half behind the Giants. Vance would go on to win 197 contests in 16 Major League Baseball seasons, retiring at the age of 44 in 1935. Twenty years later the Hall of Fame inducted the right-hander, six years before his death in 1961.

Carl Hubbell was a two-time Most Valuable Player as mentioned, winning for the Giants in 1933 and again in 1936. Another Hall of Fame moundsman, Hubbell and his famous screwball baffled hitters to the tune of 254 career victories on the hill; his combined MVP years' record was 49-18 with almost identical earned run averages of 2.30 and 2.31. Hubbell went 3-1 in the two World Series that he led his club into when he won those honors, as the Giants beat the Senators in 1933 but then got theirs from the Yankees in 1936. Hubbell went into Cooperstown in 1947 and lived to the age of 85, dying in 1988.

In between Hubbell's pair of MVP performances, Dizzy Dean threw in one of his own. His 1934 MVP came as a result of a 30-7 standard, the start of a three year run where Dean was an astounding 82-52 before arm trouble made him a shell of his former self. In the 1934 World Series, Dean pitched his Cardinals to the title, winning Game One, losing Game Five 3-1, and then coming back on two days rest to shutout Detroit in the deciding Game Seven by an 11-0 count. Dizzy, whose real name was Jay, went into the Hall in 1953 with a 150-83 lifetime standard. He came out of retirement in 1947 for one game to pitch for the Browns, pitching four scoreless innings after boasting on the radio that he was better than any of their pitchers. He was right of course; Dean passed in 1974.

With the awful Phillies, Bucky Walters was a losing pitcher, but a trade to the Reds in 1938 turned his career around. Walters was the NL MVP as a pitcher in 1939 with a record of 27-11, and he remained an effective hurler through 1946. If Walters had his Philadelphia years stricken from his career ledger he would stand at 160 wins against 93 losses rather than 198-160. If that was the case, he more than likely would be in the Hall of Fame. The righty died the day after his birthday in 1991, at 83 years old.

Mort Cooper took advantage of the absence of the games' best hitters due to the war from 1942 through '44, going a remarkable 65-22 for the Cardinals and helping them to three straight World Series and two titles. Cooper was NL MVP in 1942 for his 22-7 mark with a 1.78 earned run average. Mort was 63-53 if you remove those three great seasons from the books. He died young, at the age of 45, in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1958.

Jim Konstanty's one great season garnered him an MVP on the mound for the Phillies in 1950, the year they won their first pennant. The first true reliever to be given the NL MVP, Konstanty went 16-7 with 22 saves as Philly went to the World Series, where the Yankees swept them. Although he had not started a game all year, the Phillies sent him out against New York in the opener, where he threw eight innings of four hit ball, allowing the contest's only run on a sac fly by Jerry Coleman in the fourth. The Phils made Jim a part-time starter in 1953 and he went 14-10, but he was 36 and it was his last good year with them. For the Yankees in 1955 he was 7-2 out of the bullpen. Konstanty died in 1976 at 59.

The Dodgers' Don Newcombe became the MVP and the first Cy Young Award winner in 1956 when he was 27-7 for Brooklyn on his way to a 149-90 record. Newcombe had been the Rookie of the Year seven years earlier. Another Dodger, Sandy Koufax, was NL MVP in 1963, one of his trio of Cy Young seasons, but truth be told he could have and probably should have won another pair of MVP trophies. He was 25-5 the year he was awarded it, and 26-8 and 27-9 in 1965 and 1966 respectively. Koufax finished second in the MVP voting both of those years, first to Willie Mays in a close vote and then to Roberto Clemente by an even narrower margin. Looking back, if Koufax hadn't been with the Dodgers for those two seasons, they would have been a second division squad, rather than pennant winners.

The last pitcher to capture a National League MVP was the Cardinals Bob Gibson, who had one of the all-time campaigns ever in the sport. He was 22-9 with 13 shutouts, pitching to an ERA of 1.12 and dominating hitters as few have. Gibson struck out a record 17 Tigers in the first game of the World Series that year; Bob was always at his best in the Fall Classic, pitching three Game Sevens, winning two and losing in '68 on a misjudged fly ball by outfielder Curt Flood. Both Gibson and Koufax went into the Hall of Fame, Bob in 1981 after winning 251 baseball games and Koufax in 1972 after arthritis in his left arm forced an early retirement.