Was Clemente Really Slighted by MVP Voters in 1960?

Roberto Clemente called the 1960 N.L. MVP voting an “injustice,” but was it really?

The other night I was watching a documentary about Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Fame outfielder Roberto Clemente, which stated that Clemente was bitter about not being named N.L. MVP after the 1960 season, so much so that he refused to wear his World Series ring (what his ring had to do with the outcome of the MVP Award is beyond me, but I digress). Not only did Clemente feel snubbed by the voters, but he felt the outcome was racially biased, especially in light of the fact that Pirates shortstop Dick Groat, a singles-hitting white shortstop with a decent glove, won the award. Groat, the acknowledged leader of the Pirates, was said to be affable with the press, with whom he enjoyed a friendly relationship. Clemente, who finished eighth in the voting, was said to be misunderstood and moody, and he openly discussed his injuries, leading the writers to label him a hypochondriac.

One of the historians interviewed for the documentary insisted that there was no way there were seven National Leaguers better than Clemente in 1960. I knew Groat had won the award and I remembered that Clemente hit .351 in 1961, but I wasn’t aware of their 1960 numbers, and I was curious to see how many Win Shares each had produced that season. What I found was interesting.

Not only was Clemente not the most valuable player in the National League in 1960 (at least in terms of Win Shares), it can be argued that there were at least five Pirates who were as valuable, if not more so.

Player	Team	Pos.	Win Shares
Dick Groat	Pittsburgh	SS	25
Don Hoak	Pittsburgh	3B	23
Bill Mazeroski	Pittsburgh	2B	21
Roberto Clemente	Pittsburgh	OF	20
Bob Friend	Pittsburgh	SP	20
Vern Law	Pittsburgh	SP	20

Now I realize that Win Shares are not the only way to measure value and I also understand that everyone has a different definition of “most valuable.” Some feel the most valuable player is the one who posts the gaudiest numbers, especially in the triple crown categories, regardless of his team’s performance, while others insist that the MVP should be the best player on a winning team. This disparity was no more evident than in 1987 and ‘88. Andre Dawson was named the National League’s MVP in ‘87 after hitting 49 homers and driving in 137 runs for a Cubs team that finished in last place in the N.L. East with a 76-85 record. The very next season, Kirk Gibson copped the award despite hitting only 25 homers and driving in 76 runs because he was widely considered to be the catalyst of a Dodgers team that improved its record by 21 wins over its 1987 total and won the World Series.

But it’s clear that Clemente neither posted gaudy stats—he batted .314 with 16 homers and 94 RBIs and posted an .815 OPS (121 OPS+)—nor was he the best player on his team. According to Win Shares and the baseball writers, that title belonged to Groat.

Sticking with Win Shares for a moment, here is a list of all National Leaguers who earned at least 20 in 1960:

RK	Player	Team	Pos.	Win Shares
1.	Eddie Mathews	Milwaukee	3B	38
	Willie Mays	San Francisco	OF	38
3.	Hank Aaron	Milwaukee	OF	35
4.	Ken Boyer	St. Louis	3B	31
5.	Ernie Banks	Chicago	SS	29
6.	Orlando Cepeda	San Francisco	OF/1B	26
7.	Joe Adcock	Milwaukee	1B	25
	Don Drysdale	Los Angeles	SP	25
	Dick Groat	Pittsburgh	SS	25
	Lindy McDaniel	St. Louis	RP	25
11.	Ernie Broglio	St. Louis	RP	24
	Bill Bruton	Milwaukee	OF	24
13.	Del Crandall	Milwaukee	C	23
	Don Hoak	Pittsburgh	3B	23
	Frank Robinson	Cincinnati	OF	23
16.	Richie Ashburn	Chicago	OF	22
17.	Larry Jackson	St. Louis	SP	21
	Bill Mazeroski	Pittsburgh	2B	21
	Vada Pinson	Cincinnati	OF	21
20.	Roberto Clemente	Pittsburgh	OF	20
	Bob Friend	Pittsburgh	SP	20
	Vern Law	Pittsburgh	SP	20

By this measure, not only were there seven National Leaguers better than Clemente in 1960, but there were 19. Even if the pitchers are removed, there are still 15 players who earned more Win Shares than Clemente in 1960.

Of course nobody knew what a win share was in 1960 and even if they did, there’s no guarantee the voters would have considered them while voting. Eddie Mathews and Willie Mays earned the most Win Shares (38), and both played for teams with winning records, yet Mathews finished 10th in MVP balloting while playing for a second-place team that won 88 games, while Mays finished third while playing for a fifth-place team that won 79 games. Mathews’ teammate, Hank Aaron, finished second in Win Shares, but was 11th in MVP voting.

Clemente finished 20th in Win Shares, but placed eighth in MVP balloting. Clemente’s teammate, Don Hoak, was 13th in Win Shares, but finished second in MVP balloting, and Vern Law, who tied Clemente’s Win Shares total, finished tied for sixth in MVP balloting. So, not only did the writers believe that Groat was more valuable than Clemente, but they also believed three of his teammates were more valuable.

Player	Team	Pts.	Win Shares	WS RK
Dick Groat	Pittsburgh	276	25	7
Don Hoak	Pittsburgh	162	23	13
Willie Mays	San Francisco	155	38	1
Ernie Banks	Chicago	100	29	5
Lindy McDaniel	St. Louis	95	25	7
Ken Boyer	St. Louis	80	31	4
Vern Law	Pittsburgh	80	20	20
Roberto Clemente	Pittsburgh	62	20	20
Ernie Broglio	St. Louis	58	24	11
Eddie Mathews	Milwaukee	52	38	1

Frankly, had the Pirates not won the World Series, it’s not inconceivable to believe that neither Hoak nor Clemente would have finished in the top 10. Vern Law won the Cy Young Award that year (and maybe he wouldn’t have otherwise), so he probably still would have earned the votes needed for a top-10 finish, and Groat won the batting title and, based on his Win Shares, was certainly good enough to earn votes. But had the Braves finished in first place instead of the Pirates, Mathews, Aaron, Joe Adcock, and Del Crandall (and maybe even Bill Bruton) would have dominated the list instead of the Pittsburgh players (Crandall finished 13th in the voting and Adcock 19th).

It’s also difficult to prove racial bias was at play, considering two of the top four N.L. MVP candidates in 1960 were black, and between 1953 and 1959, black players copped all seven MVP Awards. Until 1960 when Groat won the award, the last white player to win the award in the N.L. was Hank Sauer in 1952. In fact, since Jackie Robinson broke the color line in 1947, nine of the 14 National League MVP Awards handed out between 1947 and 1960 went to black players. That Clemente was also Latino may have worked against him, but Cuban-born White Sox star Minnie Minoso finished fourth in American League MVP voting that same year while playing for a team that finished in third place.

If there was any bias to overcome, it appears that it had more to do with the defensive spectrum than the color of Clemente’s skin or the tone of his accent.

From 1911 to 1960, there were 40 MVP Awards handed out to National Leaguers and 41 to American Leaguers (as usual the leagues followed their own rules, which explains the discrepancy; the N.L. didn’t honor an MVP in 1922 or 1923, but the A.L. did; the N.L. honored an MVP in 1929, but the A.L. didn’t). Of the 81 MVPs, 15 were pitchers and 66 were everyday players. Of those 66 everyday players, 36 played positions located on the left half of the spectrum:

C	SS	2B	CF	3B	RF	LF	1B
11	7	10	8	2	6	7	13
36				30
55%				45%

Ten percent isn’t much of a discrepancy, but when team success is considered, the disparity jumps considerably. Forty two of the 66 MVPs played on pennant winners and 65% of them played positions located on the left half of the spectrum.

C	SS	2B	CF	3B	RF	LF	1B
7	5	8	7	0	4	3	8
27				15
65%				35%

Twenty two of the MVPs played on World Series winners and the disparity grows even more:

C	SS	2B	CF	3B	RF	LF	1B
3	4	2	6	0	2	1	4
15				7
68%				32%

Clemente wasn’t facing racial bias in 1960, he was facing positional bias. Voters clearly regarded strength up the middle more highly than the corner positions, especially on pennant and World Series winning teams. Had he played shortstop for Pittsburgh in 1960, there’s a very good chance he would have won the award over Groat (assuming Clemente could have handled the position). Had he shifted over to center and played there instead of Bill Virdon, it appears he would have had an even better chance to win the award. But he was a right fielder (and a marvelous one at that), playing a position not as respected as most of the others and that seems to have hurt him more than anything else.

Postscript: Clemente finally won an MVP Award in 1966 when he batted .317 with career highs in homers (29) and RBIs (119). Allegedly he felt that the ‘66 award made up for the “injustice” of the 1960 voting. According to Win Shares, he didn’t deserve the award in 1966, either, but the writers acquiesced and he edged Sandy Koufax by 10 points. During the decade of the sixties, seven more black players won the MVP Award in the National League.