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Asking for your assistance

By Bill James
March 8, 2023
 Does anybody have a list of the World Series MVPs (or most outstanding players. . .whatever) before 1955?   I know that recognition of that nature goes all the way back to 1903, but for some reason I am unable to find any listing of World Series MVPs anywhere from 1955.   If you can provide such a list, I would appreciate it. 
 
A CREATED list--that is, who SHOULD have won such an award, if such an award was given--that would be of no use to me for what I am trying to do.  I could create a list myself.  What I need is a list of who actually won those awards.  I know I have seen that list somewhere, but. . .can't find it now.   Thanks.  
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COMMENTS (12 Comments, most recent shown first)

DJ_Man
I remember that Bobby Richardson, 1960, was the only (to date) non-pitcher and only player from a losing team to cop the SPORT magazine car.
11:41 AM Mar 10th
 
TonyClifton
Looked all over, Bill. Nothing.

Are you sure you aren't thinking of Emy Ratajkowki's 2016 Playboy spread?
2:42 PM Mar 9th
 
Robinsong
Total Baseball has a list of presumptive MVPs for the years no award was given, but not a list of presumptive World Series MVPs.
12:07 PM Mar 9th
 
Robinsong
According to Total Baseball, World Series MVP only goes back to the 1949 Babe Ruth Award established by the New York chapter of BBWAA the year after Ruth died. SPORT Magazine started a competing award in 1955, which is now the one that gets the most attention. Between 1955 and 2003 (the year my version of Total Baseball was published, these are the years the two differed (17 of 48!) (SPORT listed first):
1958: Turley, Howard
1960: Richardson, Mazeroski
1967: Gibson, Brock
1969: Clendenon, Weis
1973: Jackson, Campaneris
1974: Fingers, Green
1975: Rose, Tiant
1980: Schmidt, McGraw
1981: Cey/Guerrero/Yaeger, Cey
1982: Porter, Sutter
1984: Trammell, Morris
1990: Rijo, Hatcher
1992: Borders, Winfield
1996: Wetteland, Fielder
1997: Hernandez, Alou
2001: Johnson/Schilling, Johnson
2002: Glaus, Eckstein

12:03 PM Mar 9th
 
drzobo
I do not believe such an animal exists. Award was started in 1955. But do complete some work on HOMA-baseball.com I tried to determine who should get such an award. In several cases multiple players were outstanding so I listed up to three of them. I will post my listing shortly.
11:48 AM Mar 9th
 
jfenimore
When I was a kid and subscribed to SPORT magazine, they would post a page showing the current WS MVP, next to the Corvette awarded, as well as smaller photos of the previous winners. This definitely began in 1955 with Podres.
9:26 AM Mar 9th
 
villageelliott
I think there was a list of "Presumptive World Series MVPs" in Total Baseball. I no longer possess my copy or I'd look it up.
11:22 PM Mar 8th
 
bhalbleib
started in 1949, not 1954. Need an edit button here
5:35 PM Mar 8th
 
bhalbleib
I like MarisFan61 could not find anything prior to the Babe Ruth Award, which started in 1954. I looked in my Sporting News Record Book for 1941, which has a great summary of the 1940 WS and nice long summaries of all of them back to 1903, but no indication of MVP or similar award.

I find it deeply ironic that the 1954 Babe Ruth Award winner was not the player who the WS MVP Award is now named after for a play in that World Series (Willie Mays) but Dusty Rhodes.
5:34 PM Mar 8th
 
MarisFan61
(....sorry for the extra P.S.'s...
Just clarifying: Of course I know that since 1969 there's a clear difference between "World Series" and "post-season" -- but there was no such clear difference before 1969.)
5:22 PM Mar 8th
 
MarisFan61
P.S. How that other award seems to be defined:
"the player with the best performance in the post-season"

Of course that's also how we could view the "MVP" award too.
So, what's the difference between them??
I guess just different organizations doing their own things.
5:13 PM Mar 8th
 
MarisFan61
Are you sure there was any such exact award before 1955?
(BTW, I can't tell if you're including 1955 in the question.
If so, yes, they had it that year -- Johnny Podres.)

BUT, there was this other thing called "Babe Ruth Award" which (as I see, looking it up) existed since 1949.
I used to get it confused with the MVP for the World Series. In my first year following MLB, Elston Howard got that award, and I sort of came away from it thinking he was "MVP" of that series, but he wasn't. That was Bob Turley. Sometimes the same guy got both awards.

Anyway, since maybe it's this other award that you might be looking for from prior to 1955, here's the list that I find of those winners:

"Babe Ruth Awards" from 1955 and prior

'49 Joe Page
'50 Jerry Coleman
'51 Phil Rizzuto
'52 Johnny Mize
'53 Billy Martin
'54 Dusty Rhodes
'55 that same guy, Johnny Podres




5:11 PM Mar 8th
 
 
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