Major League Baseball Most Valuable Player Award

The **Major League Baseball Most Valuable Player Award** (**MVP**) is a Major League Baseball (MLB) award given each year to one outstanding player in the American and National Leagues. Since 1931, it has been awarded by the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA). The winner receives the Kenesaw Mountain Landis Memorial Baseball Award.  The award is named in honor of the first MLB commissioner. Landis served from 1920 to 1944. MVP voting takes place before the postseason. The results are not announced until after the World Series. The BBWAA began asking three writers in each league city in 1938. They made that number two per league city in 1961.

First basemen, with 34&nbsp;winners, have won the most MVPs among infielders.  This is followed by second basemen&nbsp;(16), third basemen&nbsp;(15), and shortstops&nbsp;(15). Of the twenty-four&nbsp;pitchers who have won the award, fifteen are right-handed while nine are left-handed. Walter Johnson, Carl Hubbell, and Hal Newhouser are the only pitchers to win more than once. Newhouser won his in back-to-back seasons, 1944 and 1945.Hank Greenberg, Stan Musial, Alex Rodriguez, and Robin Yount have won at different positions. Barry Bonds has won the most often&nbsp;(seven times). He has also won it the most times in a row (2001–2004). Jimmie Foxx was the first player to win more than once. Nine players have won three times and 19 have won twice.

The award's only tie occurred in the National League in 1979 when Keith Hernandez and Willie Stargell received the same amount of points. There have been 17 unanimous winners, meaning they received all the first-place votes.

## Key
## Chalmers Award (1911–1914)
 won the first American League Chalmers Award in 1911 and was at the center of the controversy over the previous season's award.|alt=The face of a white man looking just to the left of the camera.]]
Before the 1910 season, Hugh Chalmers of Chalmers Automobile announced he would present a Chalmers Model 30 automobile to the player with the highest batting average in Major League Baseball at the end of the season. The 1910 race for best average in the American League was between the Detroit Tigers' widely disliked Ty Cobb and Nap Lajoie of the Cleveland Indians. On the last day of the season, Lajoie overtook Cobb's batting average with seven bunt hits against the St. Louis Browns. American League President Ban Johnson said a recalculation showed that Cobb had won the race anyway. Chalmers ended up giving cars to both players. Winners, voted on by a committee of eight baseball writers chaired by James Crusinberry, received a bronze medal and a cash prize. Voters were required to select one player from each team. Player-managers and prior award winners were could not win. These problems resulted in the award's being dropped after 1928. The National League award, without these restrictions, lasted from 1924 to 1929.

## Baseball Writers Association of America's Most Valuable Player (1931–present)
The BBWAA first awarded the modern MVP after the 1931 season, took the format the National League used to distribute its league award. One writer in each city with a team filled out a ten-place ballot. Ten points were given for the recipient of a first-place vote, nine for a second-place vote, and so on. In 1938, the BBWAA raised the amount of voters to three per city and gave 14 points for a first-place vote. The only significant change since then happened in 1961, when the number of voters was lowered to two per league city.

 was the first player to win three MVP awards.|alt=A man is pictured from his belt up looking to the left of the camera. His button-down baseball jersey says "RED SOX" across it and he is wearing a baseball hat with a "B".]]
 won the award in 1954 and 1965 with the same team in different cities.|alt=The face of a dark-skinned man who is smiling widely. The letters "S" and "F" overlap on his hat.]]
' seven MVPs are the most for any individual player.|alt=An African-American man looks just right of the camera. His helmet and white jersey both have an orange "S" over "F" logo on them. The man's left arm is crossed over his body and his right is out of the picture. There is a black and orange glove on his left hand.]]
 won the award with two different teams at two different positions.|alt=A Hispanic man walking while shouting at someone out of the picture. His helmet is emblazoned with a white "N" and "Y" intertwined, and "NEW YORK" is stitched in black letters across his button-down jersey. The player is holding a black baseball bat almost vertically with black, gray, and white gloves.]]
 won the award three times, all at first base with the St. Louis Cardinals.|alt=A right-handed batter is at the plate, looking toward the pitcher's mound. Wearing a red uniform and white pants, there is a crowd behind him with jerseys of various colors.]]

## Notes
*  A player is considered inactive if he has announced his retirement or not played for a full season.
*  A unanimous victory indicates that the player received all possible first-place votes.
*  Hernandez and Stargell both received 216&nbsp;points in the 1979 voting.

## References