MLB players to win Triple Crown without being named MVP

Lou Gehrig, 1934

The 1934 American League MVP voting is the clearest historical case of on-field statistical dominance clashing with such intangibles as leadership. In the end, voters went with leadership.

Looking purely at statistics, Gehrig was a clear winner.  He hit 49 home runs, drove in 166 runs, and batted .363, sweeping those categories. He also led in on base average (.465), slugging average (.706), and total bases (409).

Even in a hitting-mad season, those were phenomenal numbers.

Gehrig’s problem was that his Yankees finished seven games behind the champion Detroit Tigers. The Tigers, who hadn’t won a pennant since 1909, were managed by their catcher, Mickey Cochrane, who had come over the previous winter from Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics.

As the principal pre-season pickup, Cochrane was widely viewed as the difference that lifted the Tigers ahead of the Yankees. The Tigers catcher-manager certainly had a good season; he hit .320 with 75 RBIs, although he produced just two home runs.

But when the MVP voters cast their ballots, they had little problem looking past Gehrig’s tangibles in favor of Cochrane’s leadership. He won the award with 67 voting points, two more than his teammate, second baseman Charlie Gehringer.

Yankee pitcher Lefty Gomez finished third, Tiger ace Schoolboy Rowe was fourth, and Gehrig landed fifth with 54 vote points. Gehrig was named on 68 percent of ballots, but Cochrane was supported on 84 percent of those same ballots.