The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Trosky suffered all-time snub in voting for AL MVP in 1936
It’s widely agreed in 1995 Indians slugger Albert Belle was snubbed from winning the American League Most Valuable Player award.
Belle torched the AL that season and for the most of the 1990s, but his 1995 campaign was flat-out awesome.
In 143 games during a strike season, he became the first player in baseball history to hit at least 50 home runs and 50 doubles in one season.
Belle had 50 homers, 52 doubles, with 126 RBI, 121 runs, a .317 batting average, slugged .690 and had 377 total bases. All those numbers except his batting average led the majors.
To say Belle was not popular among the media was an understatement. He was moody and grumpy.
So when voting for the AL MVP award was due, baseball writers stuck it to Belle and the Red Sox’s Mo Vaughn (39 HR, 126 RBI, .300 BA) won the award. Still, Belle was the runner-up in the voting.
Almost 60 years earlier in 1936, another Indians slugger was snubbed in MVP voting, and throughout his successful career, which was unfortunately cut short.
Hal Trosky, a first baseman for the Tribe, didn’t have a long career, but it was mega productive. Like Belle, Trosky’s prime lasted about a decade as migraine headaches cut short his career. For seven seasons from 1934 to 1940, he showed solid power and was an RBI machine with six straight seasons of at least 100.
It was a ultra-competitive era for first baseman in the AL during Trosky’s era. Not only did he have to compete with one of the all-time greats in the Yankees’ Lou Gehrig, there was also Detroit’s Hank Greenberg and Jimmie Foxx, who starred with Philadelphia and Boston.
In Gehrig (493 HR, 1,995 RBI, .340 BA), Foxx (534-1,922-.325) and Greenberg (331-1,274-.313, and a career cut short by three seasons because of military service), we’re talking about three of the all-time greats in the history of the game.
It was so competitive that Trosky never made an AL All-Star team one time in his career. Still, the biggest snub was arguably during Trosky’s 1936 season, which has to rank with Belle’s as one of the greatest — if not the greatest — single-season performances by an Indians hitter.
Trosky played in 151 games in ‘36, hit 42 home runs, drove in 162 runs, had 42 doubles, nine triples, had 216 hits, scored 124 runs and slugged .644. His 405 total bases led the majors, as did his RBI.
Incredible numbers? You bet. Were baseball writers impressed. Meh.
Gehrig won the AL MVP with an impressive 49152-.354 batting line, but Trosky was not the runner-up, or even top five. How about this? Trosky was 10th! Tenth!
Complicating matters for Trosky was his own teammate, shortstop Earl Averill, who finished third in MVP voting that season.
Averill’s numbers were eye-opening as well.
He hit 28 homers with 126 RBI and a .378 batting average.
Averill also led the majors with 232 hits and scored 136 runs.
Gehrig’s MVP certainly was warranted as the Yankees were best in the majors with 102 wins and took home the World Series over the Giants.
The Indians were OK in ‘36 with an 80-74 mark. As good as Averill’s numbers were it does seem a bit strange the huge gap between him and Trosky in the voting. It was a stacked year in the AL, but Trosky deserved a better fate than 10th.
Trosky isn’t the only one to complain. Foxx, playing for Boston, was 11th in the voting that season after a 41-143-.338 batting line, but he had his time as a three-time MVP. Trosky never got that limelight.
It seemed to sum up his entire career, which seemed mostly comprised of tough luck.