Why MLB's Last .400 Hitter Didn't Win MVP

as of 2024 the last hitter to hit 400 in MLB season is Ted Williams with his 406 average in 1941 883 years later it has not been duplicated despite the historic season it did not result in an MVP so let's look at Williams 1941 season and the reason it didn't end with an MVP award totally sport ask hey jul Ted Williams arrived at spring training in 1939 for his rookie year through 3 days late as a result of having to drive from his home state of California to Florida along with respiratory problems that Williams dealt with for his entire career and there was massive hype for Williams going into his rookie year Williams spent three years in the minor and in his third season in AA 1938 he would hit 366 with the 1.82 Ops hit 43 home runs and driving 142 Runners to win the American association's triple crown and he would end up finishing second in MVP voting a sign of things to come aside from just his performance the main height came from how much the Red Sox believed that he was next in the off season the Red Sox traded Ben Chapman to Cleveland who just hit 340 to make room for Williams reporters would call him the most hyped rookie since Jord deio who debuted three years earlier Williams would take Chapman's number nine going from five to n and would make his debut on April 20th against deagu and the Yankees and what would be the only time lug garan Williams shared the field as he picked up his first major league hit in a 4 to1 game despite his skinny frame at 64 and 175 lbs Williams had no problem problem hitting balls over 400 ft and he would display his power and live up to the hype in his historic rookie year in the year of 1939 he would play 139 games hitting 327 with a 1.04 5 Ops while hitting 31 home runs and leading the American League with 145 RB the first rookie to ever do so he also set a rookie record with 107 walks with his 12 intentional walks leading the league the first of many times he would walk over 100 times as he also led the league in total bases good enough for a fourth place finish in MVP voting and though there wasn't a rookie of the year award yet baberuth would declare Williams to be the Rookie of the Year which was good enough for him Williams would not go home for the winter after 1939 as his parents separated and home was not a good place to be and a comment on this matter would lead to the strain relationship Williams had with the media with Williams being the face of the team now and an emerging face of the league the media magnified every mistake he made and when he did something to take off Herold kais he would write well what do you expect from a guy who won't even go to see his mother in the off season these type of comments would turn Williams against the media in Williams biography he would write before this I was willing to believe a writer was my friend until he proved otherwise now my guards up all the time always watching for critical stuff if I saw something I'd read it 20 times and I'd burn without knowing how to fight it despite all the noise he would prove himself even further in his follow-up to his rookie year something he had going for R this year is Fenway Park adding a bullpen in right field thus bringing the fences in 20 ft closer an area that would be nicknamed Williamsburg as was clearly set up for his benefit he also switched from right to left field after struggling in right as a result of the sun Factor despite the shorten fences and now heading in front of Jimmy Fox as a way to see more pitches his power numbers went down as he had eight less home runs and drove in 32 less Runners with his slugging percentage dropping 15 points but he still hit 344 with a 442 on base percentage that led the league definitely not the first time he would do so it was also in August of that year when problems with the media really escalated he would create controversy in mid August when he said his $10,000 salary that was double the salary of his rookie year was penuts he even added that he hated the city of Boston and the reporters and of course reporters would bash him for the rest of the year saying that he should be traded along with the previously mentioned comments Williams would make his first All-Star Game and finish 14th in MVP voting that year but it was overall worse than his rookie year mainly because of the off field issues and despite the calls for his trade and booze from the fans that led to Williams never tipping his cap again Williams would be back in boss in the next year and at the age of 22 would have one of the best seasons the players ever had despite what 1941 would become things did not start out ideal as he broke a bone in his right ankle after sliding into second in spring training as a result of this he began the year making just pinch hit appearances and on opening day on April 15th in front of a small Fenway crowd after a disappointing 1940 season Williams will get a huge pinch hit single in the ninth as the Red Sox would come back to win in the ninth against the Washington Nationals who would later become the Senators who would later become the Minnesota Twins and by the end of the month Williams was back to playing full-time and would go on a never-ending Terr after going over for three on May 2nd he was hitting 308 but by the end of the month he was hitting 429 after hitting 436 with six home runs and a 1. 224 Ops during the month of May with him hitting 536 from the 17th to June 1st the month of May also gave a great demonstration of Williams confidence that some took his being cocky on the seventh in a game against the white socks in the old kamski park he told Charlie Wagner to hold the white socks as things went to extras because he was going to hit a home run and he was right as he hadit a go-head home run in the 11th that is considered to be the longest home run ever hit at old kamsky park with some estimating that it went 600 ft using the advanced technology of the day in the 15th of the month saw Jo maio record a hit against the white socks and thus began the longest hit streak in MLB history for a player who was barely hitting 300 at the time but dagio would heat up in June while Williams stayed hot after going two for four against the white socks on June 6th his average was up to 436 and talks began to shift away from if he would hit 400 to if he could break one of his coaches huffy's record of 438 set in 1894 those talks slowed down when his 23 game history came to an end on June 8th and his average dipped to 404 at the end of the month but still he hit 348 in June with a 1.150 Ops just an insane Pace he would have to be at to raise his numbers and despite those insane numbers Williams wasn't getting the main Spotlight as that was going towards Jo deio whose hit streak was at 42 at the the end of June already breaking the modern records said by George Syler 1922 at 41 the Press had made a deal out Mao's history since it was at 13 and checking the papers to see if he got a hit was a daily routine for Americans as he survived numerous close calls with late ending hits including a ninth ining hit against the Red Sox at the end of May and to start July the Red Sox were heading to the Bronx to face the Yankees in a three-game series and this was huge for multiple reasons the first being that dagio could break Willie Killer's record hit streak said in 1894 and the Red Sox were still in the penet race being five games behind the Yankees so they needed these wins badly and well they didn't get them they lost both games of the double header on the First with dagio recording two hits in the first and one in the second to tie the record then the next day after recording out in the first two at bats dagio would send one over the left field fence over the head of Ted Williams to officially give dagio the all-time hitting streak and give the Yankees an eight-game lead over the Red Sox that streak would go all the way up to 48 as both dagio and Williams were set to play in the All-Star game with dagio hitting third and Williams hitting behind him this was just the ninth All-Star game ever and in this time the All-Star game was taken just as serious as the World Series with bragging rice being a huge deal and in that game in Detroit the NL LED 5 to3 going into the ninth but the AL began to Rally Ken Kelner and Joe Gordon hit singles then cesil Travis walked to load the bases and bring up dagio who would hit a ground ball they got the force at second but threw wide at first to bring in a run and keep things alive for Ted Williams and with Runners on first and third on the fourth pitch against Claude Paso Williams would hit one over the right field fence to win the game and celebrate around the bases like a little kid he was carried off the field as a hero as he said that home run was the biggest thrill of his career and what may be the greatest All-Star Game moment the Red Sox stayed in Detroit after the All-Star Game and in the second game after taking a huge lead the Tigers would try to pick off Williams on a pitch out and sliding back into first hard Williams switched the same foot that he heard in spring training he would miss the next six games and just like he had done at the beginning of the year he came back and just pinch hit and after he went 0 for one in both games of the double header on the 19th his average was at 393 and the possibility of hitting 400 seemed in serious Jeopardy meanwhile 2 days earlier Jo de maio's history came to an end at 56 he was then leading the AL in home runs in RB and after recording four hits on the 20th he was hitting 375 and told reporters he was still eyeing the batting title as he stood 21 points behind Williams on that day but something important to point out in regards to average is that during Joe's 56 game hit streak he hit 408 during those same 56 six games Williams hit 412 and this causes average to drop and maybe Williams heard that dagi was going for his batting title because after he came back fulltime from his injury on the 22nd he raises average from 397 to 409 by the end of July a crazy part of dagio streak is that after it ended he won on another 16 game hit streak meaning he hit safely in 72 of 73 games but in August he cooled off as his average Dr from 378 to 356 on the 19th which is the same day he sprained his ankle and and was forced to miss 3 weeks and one day after his injury Williams would hit two home runs in a double header in a four-game series that saw him hit five home runs over the course of two days and after a two-hit game the next day he was hitting 414 and with de maio's injury he now had a serious chance for the Triple Crown and when dagi returned on September 9th Williams had the batting title locked up as he was hitting 412 but the triple ground was probably too much of a challenge at that point as deagu still bested him in rbi's after missing 3 weeks and Charlie Keller and Jeff Heath were in the mix and considering dagi was playing on the best team in the league that was 22 games ahead of the Red Sox at that point who were in second there were more chances for rbi's and with the batting title locked up and the Triple Crown farfetched along with a pennant already being decided the only thing Red Sox and basically every baseball fan was rooting for was Ted Williams to hit 400 and things look really good to start September as in his first 14 games he h 415 to increase his average by 1 point to 48 and what made what Williams did even more impressive was the lack of good pitches he was seeing just in those 14 games he walked 22 times and the 147 walks he would have at the end of the season was tied for the second most ever at the time so Williams had to be very selective and the chase got scary down the home stretch in the seven games following that 14 game stretch Williams hadit just 250 and that brought his average to exactly 400 technically it was 3995 but they rounded up just like a 511 man and there were just two games left and both were set to take place on September 28th Williams was offered the opportunity to take both games off but Teddy ball ball game didn't want that he said that night before the game Cronin offered to take me out of the lineup to preserve the 400 I told Cronin I didn't want that if I couldn't hit 400 all the way I didn't deserve it it sure as hell meant something to me then Williams was taking a huge gamble that would make him look bad if things didn't work out and Philadelphia Athletics catcher Frankie Hayes assured Ted that they weren't going to go easy on him as Connie Mack would run them out of the game but to start at the first game at Shai Park on a cold miserable day Williams would lower everyone's nerves by hitting a single then on his next that bat he would hit his 37th and final home run of the Year locking up the Home Run crown and to raise confidence even higher he would hit two more singles to finish off the game going four for five to raise his average to 404 with one more game to play and all he had to do was not go 0 for six and all doubts were erased when he had a single in his first at bat and in his second at bat he would smack a double off the loudspeaker horn and this would be his last hit of the Season he would fly out in his next at bat and he was scheduled to bat in the top of the ninth but since hadn't been invented yet the game was called off after the eth if he would have gotten hidden that at bat he would have hit 407 if he didn't he would have hit 405 but since there was no at bat he hit 406 and considering sack fly countered as at bats in this time that would have raed his average to at least 411 Philadelphia fans would run onto the field to celebrate with Williams as he had to protect his half from being stolen as his teammates would help him into the clubhouse and he celebrated by having a chocolate shake in a year he hit 406 hit 37 home runs and drove in 120 Runners to miss the Triple Crown by just five RB he' also lead the league in on base slugging Ops walks and war with his 553 on base percentage being the highest ever at that point and what is regarded as one of the greatest offensive seasons of all time was this enough to win MVP well I mean if you looked at the title of this video then you would already know that it's a no as the award go to Joe deio and in a side by-side comparison we see that Williams beats deio in nearly every category and by a pretty good margin but again you had to remember the mentality of the voters in this time granted this was one of the most difficult votes in history considering without context many would be shocked to hear dagio didn't win the year of his history and instead hearing the last hitter to hit 400 and MLB season didn't win MVP is an absolute shock and aside from just a stat comparison you have to factor the previously mentioned relationship Williams had with the media voters weren't going to vouch very hard for Williams and those few votes made a huge difference and you have to factor in that the Yankees are the best team in the league by a wide mark as they won their fifth title in 6 years and in this time deia was the greatest athletic hero in America the 56 game streak was a great relief for people to follow am miss the constant news about all that crazy stuff happening in the world so with that in mind it's easy to see why voters win this direction and if you think this was just a one-off thing for Williams well think again if you think not winning MVP after hitting over 400 is bad well Williams also got the unique experience of not winning MVP after winning the Triple Crown as he followed up 1941 by by doing what he couldn't do in 1942 by winning the triple crown and he lost MVP to Joe Gordon another Yankee who was behind Williams and everything by a wide margin this vote is arguably worse as there wasn't any hero tag attached to Joe Gordon and the Gap in these stats is even wider than it was in 1941 and all that crazy stuff happening in the world as previously mentioned led to what happened next for Williams as he would miss the next three seasons serving in the second world war where he discovered his vision was 2010 a great explanation for his amount of walks and what's even more admirable is he missed an additional two seasons to start the 50s as he served again in the Korean War but before that he would get to relive his unique experience times two as one year after he would finally get his MVP in 1946 1947 s wi the triple crown and finished second in MVP voting to Joe dagio and this was seen as a case of Voters giving another one for dagio in his final years dagio won MVP by one vote and the reason for that is a Boston Rider left Williams off the ballot entirely meaning he thought the Triple Crown winner wasn't one of the 10 best players in the league and ultimately we could have this conversation for almost every season Williams played in considering he deserve more than just two MVP awards you can look at Williams career and realize he could have easily been seen as the greatest all time if things were just a little different he missed 727 games due to his military service and if he had those additional games with his 162 game averages he would have been the second member of the 600 home run club and the first hit 600 home runs and record 3,000 hits and who knows if he would have been even even better considering how difficult it is not playing the majors for years then return something that makes 1946 even more impressive Williams really had some misfortunes in one of the greatest careers of all time but factors out of his control Williams is a part of multiple all-time MVP snubs and his military service makes his career one of the biggest wh ifs in the sense that it could have somehow been even better which is saying a lot and he would later say if he knew hitting 400 was going to be such a big deal then he would have done it again and the voting and just missing out can be a good representation of how things went the Red Sox in the Yankees in 20th century after the trade of Babe Ruth and you can watch my recent video about this iconic rivalry to see the two years where it hit its absolute Peak [Music]

Channel: Sportsesque

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Keywords: ted williams, ted williams 1941, ted williams swing, ted williams all star game 1999, ted williams 1941 all star game, ted williams highlights, ted williams frozen, ted williams mike piazza, ted williams interview, ted williams hitting, ted williams goat, ted williams 406, ted williams red sox, ted williams teaching, ted williams pilot, ted williams pbs, mlb triple crown, ted williams documentary, ted williams home run, ted williams joe dimaggio, joe dimaggio hit streak

Id: ElAzqTutfyg

Length: 16min 1sec (961 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 18 2024