Gooden Is Latest to Make His Pitch for the Most Valuable Player Award

Sentiment runs strongly among players and managers that pitchers should not win baseball’s Most Valuable Player award.

Though there may be circumstances under which a pitcher could be the league’s most valuable player, pitchers should be satisfied with their own MVP, the Cy Young award, according to many.

“We’re not eligible for their main award,� Dodgers’ third baseman Bill Madlock said, “so why should they be able to get the MVP?�

Discussion on the topic could heat up this season with a pitcher, the New York Mets’ Dwight Gooden, in the running for both his league’s Cy Young and MVP awards for the second straight season.

Last year, reliever Willie Hernandez of the Detroit Tigers became the seventh pitcher to win both awards since the Cy Young’s inception in 1956.

Voting on both awards is conducted by the Baseball Writers Assn. of America and is done by sports writers. Only one Cy Young award was given until 1967, when the BBWAA began voting for a pitcher in each league.

Don Newcombe of the Brooklyn Dodgers won the first Cy Young and his league’s MVP. Two other NL pitchers--Sandy Koufax of the Dodgers in 1963 and Bob Gibson of St. Louis in 1968--have won both awards. In the American League, the double winners before Hernandez were Rollie Fingers of Milwaukee in 1981, Vida Blue of Oakland in 1971 and Dennis McLain of Detroit in 1968.

The last two dual winners, Hernandez and Fingers, were relief pitchers. Some feel that if any pitcher should qualify for MVP consideration, it should be relievers.

“I would rather see a great reliever get it than a great starter, under normal circumstances,� Minnesota Twins’ Manager Ray Miller said. “A guy gets 40 to 45 saves for a club that wins a pennant can sure be an MVP.�

Mets’ Manager Dave Johnson, however, pointed out “that even your most active relief guys don’t get in half the games. It’s a different ballgame when you play in 160 games rather than 60 or 80.�

The primary reason given for excluding pitchers was because they were not everyday players.

“I think they can be considered,� said Mets’ second baseman Wally Backman, “but to be considered, they’d have to do some phenomenal things. It’s hard to compare a player who plays in 162 games with a pitcher in 45 games. This year, with the type of year Dwight has had, he’s got to be in the running, but there are some other guys out there with pretty good numbers.

“The Cy Young is their MVP, and if a pitcher wins the Cy Young, he’s already the MVP of pitchers,� Backman said.

Even some pitchers agree.

“I do not feel a starting pitcher merits the same kind of award a player does,� Chicago White Sox pitcher Floyd Bannister said, “for the simple reason a pitcher is not asked to play every day. . . . Judging the most valuable player was intended to reward that player who has contributed with his bat for the most part, day in and day out.�

While saying pitchers should not be excluded entirely, Angels’ pitcher Don Sutton said “only in a few isolated cases can a starting pitcher be more valuable than an everyday player. Most of the time, you can find a player that has done more over the long haul to help a club win.�

While the words of the MVP ballot specifically instruct voters to consider pitchers, intent of the award has become vague.

“According to the definition, as weak or as undefined as it is, it could go to a pitcher,� said Philadelphia reliever Kent Tekulve. “The problem with most awards is they are not defined properly. That’s why the Rolaids award is good because it is strictly for relief pitchers.�