MLB players to win Triple Crown without being named MVP

Ted Williams 1942

In the early decades of the MVP award, voters displayed a clear preference for contributions to team success ahead of individual accomplishment. The 1942 vote was yet another example of this belief.

Coming off his .406  season of 1941, Williams was a start-to-finish sensation in the first year of the game’s World War II era. He repeated as batting champion – this time at .356 – won his second straight home run title (with 36) and led in RBIs with 137.

But Williams’ Red Sox finished in second place, nine games behind the defending World Series champion Yankees.

Although the voting was split, MVP voters were less impressed with Williams’ contributions to a runner-up season than they were by Joe Gordon’s contributions to a pennant winner.

Gordon certainly had a solid season. The Yankee second baseman batted .322 with 18 home runs and he drove in 103 runs. But he trailed Williams by 34 points in average, hit half as many home runs, and drove in 34 fewer runs.

As a second baseman, he did, of course, play a more vital defensive position than Williams, a left fielder.

The first place voting was close, Gordon being named first on half of the 24 ballots cast, and Williams winning nine of them. But on total points, the decision went to Gordon by a fairly decisive 270-249. Williams received news of his loss while taking pilot training in preparation for joining the military.