Most Meritorious Player: 1962 Discussion

In 1962, the National League followed the American League’s 1961 lead and expanded by two teams. They put the Metropolitans in New York, and the Colt .45s in Houston. The National League also gained one of the great stadiums of baseball in the shape of Dodger Stadium, bringing the Dodgers out of the rather inappropriately shaped Coliseum into a purpose-built ballpark.

The baseball season opened on 9 April 1962. By then, Gary Powers had been exchanged for a capture Soviet spy, the first K-mart store opened in Garden City, Michigan, and Shelley Fabares had the #1 hit with “Johnny Angel”. During the season, the first Wal-Mart store opened in Rogers, Arkansas, Marilyn Monroe died, and Johnny Carson became host of the Tonight Show.

The National League was largely dominated by two teams, the Dodgers and their California rivals the San Francisco Giants. At various time Pittsburgh, St Louis and Cincinnati made a run at first place, but in the end it came down to a three-game playoff between the Dodgers and the Giants.

The American League showed some signs of parity, with the Los Angeles Angels, in their sophomore season, standing three games behind the mighty Yankees as late as 26 August. The Twins similarly tracked the Yankees as the season neared its final month. Neither team could make up those elusive three games in September, and the Yankees secured yet another AL pennant.

The Giants defeated the Dodgers in the playoff, but broke the hearts of Joe Shlabotnik’s biggest fan: “Why couldn’t McCovey have hit the ball three feet higher?“in losing a thrilling seven-game series to the Yankees. The season ended on 10 October. Four days later, the Cuban Missile Crisis began.

Here are some of the top players ranked by Win Shares, BB-ref WAR, DanR’s WARP2 and WPA/LI.

                   WS	BB-Ref	DanR 	WPA/LI
Mays, Willie	   41	10.6	8.3	6.7
Robinson, Frank	   41	8.5	7.9	6.2
Davis, Tommy	   36	6.8	5.4	4.7
Aaron, Hank	   34	8.8	7.5	5.6
Mantle, Mickey	   33	7.1	9.7	7.2
Wills, Maury	   32	6.1	5.4	1.9
Callison, Johnny   27	5.6	5.7	3.5
Robinson, Brooks   27	5.6	6.5	2.1
Siebern, Norm	   27	5.5	5.2	5.3
Robinson, Floyd	   27	3.9	4	2.7
Purkey, Bob	   26	7.2	5.7	3.9
Colavito, Rocky	   26	5.8	4.5	2.9
Mathews, Eddie	   26	5.7	5.7	3.7
Romano, John	   26	4.8	4.9	2.1
Pinson, Vada	   26	4.2	4	2.5
Skinner, Bob	   26	3.5	4.4	3.7
Cepeda, Orlando	   26	3.1	3.5	3
Alou, Felipe	   25	5.4	4.1	3.9
Tresh, Tom	   25	4.7	4.9	2
Demeter, Dom	   25	4.2	4.7	2.8
Maris, Roger	   25	4.2	3.8	1.9
Howard, Frank	   25	4	3.9	3.6
Drysdale, Don	   24	5.7     6.1	4.1
Cunningham, Joe	   24	4.5	3.7	3.1
Runnels, Pete	   24	3.5	4.2	3.2
Moran, Billy	   24	3.3	4.8	1
Killebrew, Harmon  24	2.7	3.3	4.2
Wagner, Leon	   24	2.6	3.4	3.3

The ballot thread will follow in about three weeks.

EDIT: The DanR numbers are incorrect, owing to me reading the wrong column. Please see post 31 below for the correct numbers. My apologies. /fra paolo