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Post by Dbacks_GM on Feb 27, 2011 21:29:51 GMT -5
Found this very interesting:
In '55, Snider batted .309 with a career high in RBIs, 136, and the second-highest home run and run totals of his career -- 42 and 126. He was runner-up, by five points, to Campanella in the MVP vote. He was denied the award by a ballot cast by a hospitalized voter who had Campanella listed twice, first and fifth. Campanella received the first-place vote; the fifth-place vote was ruled invalid. Snider would have won had that one ballot been invalidated or if he had been awarded the fifth-place points.
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Post by Indians_GM on Feb 27, 2011 21:38:11 GMT -5
Wow, I would have ruled the whole ballot invalid. That's terrible!
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Post by Phils_GM on Feb 27, 2011 22:43:12 GMT -5
That's a great story - well, it is a suck story, but great to hear it. I had never heard about that before.
Imagine if something like that happened today, with bloggers and sports talk radio, and ESPN.
Also, I'm guessing it would have cost somebody big bucks. Wonder if many of today's players have large bonus clauses for winning MVP. I would expect that they do.
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Post by Indians_GM on Feb 27, 2011 23:12:57 GMT -5
Not just big bucks, but there are clauses that winning or placing highly for awards, pitching a certain number of innings, making a certain number of plate appearances, making an all star game, etc, can turn option years into vesting options meaning that because a player achieved a goal, that option is no longer team controlled, it's not guaranteed. Plus there are bonuses (most players seem to have something like 50k for a gold glove, 100k for a cy young vote placing, 500k for A/NLCS MVP it goes on and on). Something like that could certainly hurt a player's pocket book and would ignite a firestorm on the internet. That's a great story - well, it is a suck story, but great to hear it. I had never heard about that before. Imagine if something like that happened today, with bloggers and sports talk radio, and ESPN. Also, I'm guessing it would have cost somebody big bucks. Wonder if many of today's players have large bonus clauses for winning MVP. I would expect that they do.
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Post by Dbacks_GM on Mar 2, 2011 14:35:45 GMT -5
That's allegedly (and most likely) why the Jays were benching Frank Thomas, as if he reached a certain number of plate appearances, it would have automatically triggered his option for another $12 or $18M or whatever we were paying him. So they released him in the best interest of Big Hurt's career. Though, it was practically over anyway.
Duke Snider was the Armando Galarraga of the MVP award!
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