If I remember right, in the Williams case there was something egregious like one sportswriter leaving him off his ballot entirely.
That’s partially true. It was a Boston Writer for the Globe I think that hated Williams. It was 1941, the season Williams hit .406 and Joe D hit in 56 straight Games. Joe D got the MVP. There are strong arguments though that Joe D deserved it anyway for leading his Team to the the World Series when the Red Sox were also runs that year. It had only been 11 years since Bill Terry hit .400 and no one expected William’s to be the last to do it for at least 67 years.
Further Joe D got 15 1st place votes and Williams only 8 and if Williams had got that one writer to vote for him, I believe he still would have lost unless Joe D was left off instead.
Wrong season. In both 1941 and 1947 Dimaggio beat Williams in the MVP vote, but it was the 1947 vote that was the controversial one where Williams was left off of a ballot entirely. This was the year that Williams won the Triple Crown and beat Dimaggio in literally every hitting category.
That season also saw Eddie Joost receive multiple first place votes for his dazzling .206 (.348/.330) season with 13 homers and 64 RBI.
Edited to add – however, I believe DiMaggio was left entirely off of three ballots, himself, so it isn’t quite so simple.
Two, IIRC. It was a bizarre, bizarre vote.
I’ll stick my neck out and say DiMaggio deserved the 1941 Award as much as Williams did (that year Williams hit .406, not the HoF year.) 1947 was silly.