New Britain herald., 1930-10-10
CROWN SCRIBES' CHOICE
 l: AS AMERICAN LEAGUE STAR
Youthful Washington Shortstop, Playing Second Year in Majors, Voted Most Valuable Player in Circuit Fame Comes Almost On Birthday-Simmons and Gehrig Tie for Second Place -Gehringer of Detroit Ranks Fourth.

New York. Oct. 10 LP - Joe Cr9nin, sensational young shortstop of ~the Washington Senators. today was proclaimed the American leagues "most valuable player" for 1s20 by special committee of members of the Baseball Writers Association of America.
 The writers. representing each American league city, cast their votes at the request of the Associat- ed Press for the second successive year since the league abandoned it's custom of making an official selec- tiori.
 cronin. although playing his sec ond year as a major league regular. merited sufficient votes to beat out Al Simmons of the Athletics, the league batting champion, and Lou Gehrig, slugging first baseman of the Yankees. in a close contest. Cronin, selected at Washington's most valuable performer by every ono of the eight experts, led with a total of 4S points out of a possible maximum of GA.
 Simmons, Gehrig Second
 Simmons and Gehrig were tied for second place with 39 points each. Charley Gehringer. Detroits s second baseman. was fourth with 5s,~ Ted Lyons of the White Sox, fifth with 26 and Wesley Terrell, Cleyeland's sensational young pitch er,e sixth with 25 points.
 simmons was the choice of most of the experts for first ranking, be- ing put at the top of the list by four of the eight critics but his chances of winning the honor were reduced by the nomination of Lefty Grove and Mickey Cochrane by other experts as the representatives Of the worlds champions.
 Cronin, on the other hand, was given top ranking by only one writer, but he was recond on four other lists and placed once each at fourth, fifth and sixth. The points were figured on a basis of eight for nrst place, seven for second, etc, as was done when the American league conducted the official contest.
 Almost Birthday Gift
 The Washington short.top's se lecuon by the writers comes as something of birthday gift He will be "A years old this Sunday, Octo- Der. 12, according to the baseball records. Born in San Francisco. Cronfn received his first major leaguetrial with Pittsburgh in 1925. lie remained with the Pirates in utility role in 1925-26 before being released to Kansas City. He was sold to Washington in 1928 and became a regular in 1929.
 Cronln was one of the chief fac tors Tn the surprising rush of the senators toward the top this year He is a sensational fielder and bat ted Tor the fine average of .345. He scored 127 runs, collected POS hits including AZ doubles and 13 home runs, besides driving in 119 runs and stealing 15 bases.
 The Vote
 The complete tabulation of votes. Joe Cronin, Washington ..4S Al Simmons, Athletics ...39 Lou Gehrig. Yankees .3q Charley Gehringer. Detroit .36 Ted Lyons, Chicago .26 Wesley Terrell, Cleveland ......25 Eddie Morgan, Cleveland .....15 Mickey Cochrane, Athletics .....13 Bob Grove, Athletics ......... s Babe Ruth, Yankees ...., 2 Danny MacFayden, Boston ...... ' Leon Goslin, St. Louis ...... 6 Carl Reynolds, Chicago ........ 5 Walter Stewart, St. Louis ...... 4 Milton Gaston, Boston ........ 4 Oscar Melillo, St. Louis ...... ? Luzerne Blue. St. Louis .... ? Tom Oliver. Boston ... 2
 The members of the committee: Will Wedge, New York Sun: Ed Bang, Cleveland News; Burton Whit. man, Boston Herald; Denman Thompson, Washington Star; H. G. Salsinger. Detroit News; Harry Nelly, Chicago American; Herman WeCke, ot. LOUIS BOSt-DlSpatcn; ; Stoney McLinn, Philadelphia Ledger.
 Previous Winners
 Winners of the American leagues "most valuable player award" off, cial and unofficial. are:
 1s22-George Sisler, St. Louis.
 1s23-George H. Ruth, New York
 1924-Walter Johnson, Washing ton.
 1s25-Roger Peckinpaugh. Wash ington.
 1s26-George Burns Cleveland.
 1927-Henry L. Gehrig. New York
 1s2s-Gordon Cochrane, Phila- delphia.
 1929-Lew Fonseca, Cleveland.
 1930-Joe Cronin, Washington