Revisiting The 1977 AL MVP Ballot

Rod Carew was one of the great contact hitters of his generation and in the history of baseball. Playing first base for the Minnesota Twins, he reached the individual high point of his Hall of Fame career when he won the 1977 AL MVP award. Here’s a look back at the voting, focusing on the top 5 and some notable finishes down ballot.

Rod Carew (1B, Minnesota)
*.449 on-base percentage/.570 slugging percentage
*.388 batting average
*23 stolen bases
*128 runs scored, 100 RBIs
*14 home runs
Additional Notes: Carew’s pursuit of .400 was a big storyline in the 1977 baseball season. The Twins ended up with a record of 85-77, thanks to a league-best offense that covered for a woeful pitching staff. Moreover, Carew, and American League RBI leader Larry Hisle, were the only two notable performers on that offense.

In spite of this, Carew only got 12 of the 24 first-place votes and his 70 percent vote share (percentage of the available ballot points) isn’t dominant.

Al Cowens (RF, Kansas City)
*.361 OBP/.525 slugging percentage
*.312 batting average
*23 home runs
*112 RBIs, 98 runs scored
*16 stolen bases
Additional Notes: Cowens played in all 162 games for a Royals team that won 102 games, the best record in baseball. On the flip side, K.C. did do it primarily with a league-best pitching staff and third baseman George Brett’s numbers were modestly superior to Cowens in everything except RBIs.

Cowens still received 4 first-place votes and a 55 percent share.

Ken Singelton (RF, Baltimore)
*.438 OBP/.507 slugging percentage
*.328 batting average
*24 home runs
*99 RBIs, 90 runs scored
Additional Notes: Far and away the best everyday player, Singleton and 20-game winner Jim Palmer essentially carried the Orioles to 97 wins and kept them in contention to the second-last day of the season in an AL East race won by the eventual World Series champion New York Yankees.

Singleton picked up 3 first-place votes and garnered a 51 percent share.

Jim Rice (LF, Boston)
*.376 OBP/.593 slugging percentage
*.320 batting average
*39 home runs
*114 RBIs, 104 runs scored
Additional Notes: A potent Red Sox lineup, second only to the Twins in the American League, kept them right with the Yanks and Orioles to the final weekend, and 97 victories. Boston, like Minnesota, had to compensate for a subpar pitching staff. Rice’s home runs and slugging led the league, although he did have help—Carlton Fisk, George Scott and Carl Yastrzemski all had big years with the bats.

Rice got a single first-place vote and a 42 percent share

Graig Nettles (3B, NY Yanks)
*.333 OBP/.496 slugging percentage
*37 home runs
*107 RBIs, 99 runs scored
*.255 batting average
Additional Notes: The Yankees were a well-balanced team that did fundamentals well, and Nettles’ defensive skills were a big part of that. This is still the part of the ballot where there is a drop off in support, as Nettles’ share is down at 29 percent, and no one put him on the top line.

Notable Down the Ballot
Several more players got a stray first-place vote:
Sparky Lyle (RP, NY Yanks): Sparky won the Cy Young Award with 26 saves, 13 wins, 137 innings pitched and a 2.17 ERA.
Thurman Munson (C, NY Yanks): Thurman hit .308 and drove in 100 runs.
Carlton Fisk (C, Boston): A good all-around offensive campaign, as Fisk posted a .402 OBP, .521 slugging, .315 batting average, 26 homers, 102 RBIs, and 106 runs scored.
Reggie Jackson (RF, NY Yanks): A .375 OBP, .550 slugging, 32 homers and 110 ribbies.

And two that are surprisingly low in the results:
George Brett (3B, Kansas City): A .373 OBP, .532 slugging, 22 homers, 105 runs scored, 14 steals, 88 RBIs.
Larry Hisle (LF, Minnesota): His 119 RBIs led the league, he hit 28 homers and batted .302.

ANALYSIS

Carew was clearly the deserved winner, and the issues here are in the details. We can start with the fact that half of the voters opted for someone else for the top spot. Keep in mind, that with only 4 of 26 teams making the postseason in this era, that wasn’t nearly the threshold issue it would become for voters in later years. Minnesota was still a good team, Carew was overwhelmingly the reason why, and that was usually good enough. What then, were these dissenting voters looking for? I’m guessing the following:

*As the home run leader, Rice had a natural attraction to voters looking for that.
*As the RBI leader on the best team, Cowens had a constituency.
*The Yankees were a balanced team, but winning a competitive AL East meant they would get support—Reggie, Thurman and Sparky all getting first-place votes reflects that. Although ironically it would be Nettles finishing ahead of all of them.
*Fisk had a dominant offensive year while playing the game’s most physically demanding defensive position.

While not necessarily defending the decision to put any of these players ahead of Carew, I can at least discern a motive. I’m more mystified by the three voters who opted for Singleton. While the Baltimore rightfielder had a fantastic year, and, as we’ll soon note, I think should have finished a spot higher in the final tally, what is there that would persuade anyone to put him ahead of Carew? Singleton didn’t lead the league in any notable category, and his team didn’t win a division.

That said, I think Singleton was clearly the second-best player in the American League, and if my own ballot had points assigned to it, you would see a big drop off after the 1-2 spots.

To further defend my final ballot, I’d like to again emphasize Yankee balance. In the final results, the four players mentioned, along with centerfielder Mickey Rivers and starting pitcher Ron Guidry all finished in the top 18. I think that level of balance down the ballot better characterizes what drove New York’s success, as opposed to jamming any one individual in the top five.

Here’s what my top 5 would look like:
1)Carew
2)Singleton
3)Fisk
4)Hisle
5)Rice