As I said, there were a lot of good years. And this list only
includes infielders! Boudreau, Bobby Doerr, Joe Gordon, Jerry
Priddy, Ken Keltner and Yogi Berra were all outstanding defensive
players as well as potent hitters. Both Keltner and Hank Majeski had easily the best seasons
of their careers.
Lou Boudreau played for 15 years; for ten
of those seasons, he also managed his ballclub, both in Cleveland and
Boston. Boudreau was the best of a group of young shortstops from the early 1940's that included
Pee Wee Reese, Phil Rizzuto, Vern Stephens and Johnny Pesky. He made his debut with the Indians at age 20, and by age 24 was named the club's manager. Boudreau was an All-Star eight times; he was a .300
hitter who hit lots of doubles, twice had 100 RBI in a season, and won
a batting title. He was also an excellent defensive player, and is in the Hall Of Fame. As a manager, Boudreau is famous for inventing the "William's Shift", moving all of his fielders to the right side of the diamond when the Splinter came to the plate.
Boudreau's magical MVP season, at age 31, was also the last really good one of his career. His career numbers are not terribly impressive; he was a regular for only ten seasons, three of which were war years (Reese, Rizzuto and Pesky all spent three years overseas). But I think his 1948 season is in a class of its own. He set career highs in almost every category, and had a nifty strikeout/walk ratio: 98 walks, compared to only nine strikeouts. He, Gordon and Keltner
were awesome, all helping Cleveland win the pennant.
Three cheers for Yogi Berra. At age 23, Berra became a regular
and drove in 98 runs, ending a string of years in which no American League
catcher could hit his hat size.
Joe DiMaggio placed second in the vote, just ahead of Ted
Williams. This is a little surprising, since Williams was clearly the best hitter in the league, and led the Red Sox to a first place tie with the Indians. But it is easy to see why the writer's favourted DiMaggio; he was the RBI leader, he was the superior defensive player, and Williams missed 20 games with injury. Nevertheless, this was a rare year in which Ted's Red Sox finished ahead of Joe's Yankees; I have to take the Splinter.
Also note that Tommy Henrich had a wonderful year as well. Henrich
was in the latter stages of his career; he began playing for the Yankees
in 1937, and was the right-fielder in an outfield that including DiMaggio
and Charlie Keller, often regarded as the greatest outfield ever. By now,
Henrich was 35 years old, and had earned the nickname "Old Reliable". He
was a line-drive hitter with some power, and was noted for hitting in the
clutch. Henrich was another player who lost three years to war service; he
had one more good season after this one before age caught up to him.
