# Consecutive MVPs **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [September 28, 1999, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/consecutive-mvps/235 "1999-09-28T18:38:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CReid0000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ee59a6/32.png) [@CReid0000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CReid0000)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 1999, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/consecutive-mvps/235/1 "1999-09-29T05:35:00Z")
In fact, all nine positions are not covered by everyone who has won consecutive MVP awards in Major League Baseball. Dale Murphy played center field, as did Mickey Mantle, and I’m quite sure Roger Maris played right field, but even if not, we need either a right or a left fielder. Some might call this nitpicking, but I don’t think it is at all. ---
**Author:** ![JillGat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@JillGat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JillGat)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 1999, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/consecutive-mvps/235/2 "1999-09-28T18:38:00Z")
Huh? This post appears to be responding to something, but I’m not sure what. If it’s a SD column, please add a link for us. Otherwise, let me know which forum on the message board I should move it to for you. Thanks. Jill ---
**Author:** ![heretic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/46a35a/32.png) [@heretic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heretic)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 1999, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/consecutive-mvps/235/3 "1999-09-28T19:00:00Z")
Cecil should know better. Eleven people have won the award in consecutive years. Maris wore #9, Barry Bonds is a left fielder and the lineup includes, disturbingly, a designated hitter. \ MICKEY MANTLE CF BARRY 56/57 ROGER BONDS MARIS LF RF 92/93 60/61 JOE MORGAN ERNIE 2B BANKS 75/76 SS 58/59 MIKE JIMMY SCHMIDT HAL FOXX 3B NEWHOUSER 1B 80/81 P 32/33 44/45 YOGI BERRA C 54/55 FRANK THOMAS, DH 1993/4. The eleventh is DALE MURPHY, 82/83 OF. ben ---
**Author:** ![heretic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/46a35a/32.png) [@heretic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heretic)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 1999, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/consecutive-mvps/235/4 "1999-09-28T19:05:00Z")
[http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4\_115.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_115.html) is the article where Cecil discusses the eleven players who have won the MVP award two years in succession. Except he doesn’t discuss eleven, but nine. On closer inspection, I see that the original date is 1990, before Barry Bonds or Frank Thomas won, so I was, as so often happens when one thinks one has it over Cecil: WRONG. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. One could still maintain that just throwing three outfielders together was a bit of a copout. Now that’s no longer necessary. ben ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 1999, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/consecutive-mvps/235/5 "1999-09-28T21:24:00Z")
actually, not much of a copout, since the All-Star game does exactly the same thing… Still, it is nice to know that the position is now filled… ---
**Author:** ![heretic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/46a35a/32.png) [@heretic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heretic)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 1999, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/consecutive-mvps/235/6 "1999-09-28T21:44:00Z")
All-Star Game? Feh. You don’t get a Gold Glove for being an “outfielder”. Managers don’t just say “you three go out there somewhere”. ben ---
**Author:** ![anson2995](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 1999, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/consecutive-mvps/235/7 "1999-09-29T19:23:00Z")
Heretic wrote: You don’t get a Gold Glove for being an “outfielder”. Actually, you do. Since 1961, the Gold Glove awards have been given to three outfielders regardless of position. In the American League the past two years, three centerfielders were honored. (In fact, only one non-CF has won an AL Gold Glove in the 90s). Sean Lahman (co-editor, Total Baseball ---
**Author:** ![heretic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/46a35a/32.png) [@heretic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heretic)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 1999, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/consecutive-mvps/235/8 "1999-09-29T21:59:00Z")
Don’t try and blind me with facts and logic like that. Total Baseball has never lied to me. I yield humbly. A better, and more accurate, thing to say would be that outfield prowess, is much more transferrable than, say, catching or playing at short, but established outfielders tend to play one position almost all the time. Barry Bonds would, I’m pretty sure, make a splendid right fielder, but he’s always plied his trade in left. If you had the enviable task of managing a team which includes Barry Bonds, the young Willie Mays and Vladimir Guerrero, you know where they’re most comfortable, where they have most experience and so forth. I just don’t believe in the position “OF”. It’s unnatural. But the kids are playing ballgames at night now. In my day a pitcher would all eighteen innings of a double header and box in a prizefight that night, and the size of the gloves they use, and of course the ball’s juiced. I don’t know what the world’s coming to. You’re not accepting resumes, are you? ben ---
**Author:** ![SoxFan59](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@SoxFan59](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SoxFan59)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 1999, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/consecutive-mvps/235/9 "1999-09-29T22:46:00Z")
Heretic: In the years Frank Thomas won his back to back MVP awards, he spent the majority of his games at first base. He fits in on your diagram as a DH, and he may not be a gold glove award winner at first, but he was a first baseman during those years. * * * SoxFan59 “Its fiction, but all the facts are true!” ---
**Author:** ![heretic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/46a35a/32.png) [@heretic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heretic)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 1999, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/consecutive-mvps/235/10 "1999-09-30T19:49:00Z")
True, it’s a little bit devious, but it’s the only way to get the trick - the updated version of the classic bar bet - to work. Now there are 11 with the honour, it’s not quite what it used to be in any event, tho’. ben ---
**Author:** ![SoxFan59](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@SoxFan59](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SoxFan59)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 1999, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/consecutive-mvps/235/11 "1999-10-06T22:06:00Z")
Well, the bar bet has been screwed up since Bonds did it and became the fourth outfielder, which predated Thomas by a year. * * * SoxFan59 “Its fiction, but all the facts are true!” ---
**Author:** ![Big\_Iron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Big\_Iron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Big_Iron)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 1999, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/consecutive-mvps/235/12 "1999-10-06T22:59:00Z")
[[A better, and more accurate, thing to say would be that outfield prowess, is much more transferrable than, say, catching or playing at short, but established outfielders tend to play one position almost all the time. Barry Bonds would, I’m pretty sure, make a splendid right fielder, but he’s always plied his trade in left.]] Heretic I’d say there is some considerable doubt that Bonds would be “splendid” in right, although he’d doubtless be plenty adequate there. Bonds’ most conspicuous flaw (perhaps his only real flaw bewteen the lines) is his relatively weak arm, and a strong arm is of great value in right field (moreso than in left).