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52-627: Chalmers Award may refer to: An early version of the Major League Baseball Most Valuable Player Award , presented from 1911 to 1914 a series of Canadian arts awards funded by the Chalmers family of arts patrons, including: The Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Award The M. Joan Chalmers Awards for Arts Administration, Artistic Direction and Documentary Film and Video Chalmers Medal awarded by

104-519: A designated hitter , a position that normally does not contribute on defense. In 2024, after winning his third career unanimously MVP award, Ohtani became the first MVP winner to have played exclusively as a designated hitter in a given season. To date, Ohtani is the only player to win both the MVP and the Edgar Martínez Award , an award usually given to the top-performing designated hitter in

156-692: A manager in the minor leagues , managing the Newark Bears of the International League . He continued on to the major leagues, managing the Washington Senators ( 1929 – 1932 ), and finally the Cleveland Indians ( 1933 – 1935 ). His managing record was 529–432, with his best team managed being in 1930 , when the team finished 94–60, 8 games out of first place. In seven seasons, he had five winning seasons, with

208-439: A 300+ inning pitcher. It could have been lower if not for one of manager Clark Griffith 's traditions. For the last game of the season, Griffith often treated the fans to a farce game. Johnson actually played center field that game until he was brought in to pitch. He allowed two hits before he was taken out of the game. The next pitcher—who was actually a career catcher—allowed both runners to score. The official scorekeeper ignored

260-614: A clear-cut definition of what "most valuable" means, instead leaving the judgment to the individual voters. In 1944, the award was named after Kenesaw Mountain Landis , the first Commissioner of Baseball , who served from 1920 until his death on November 25, 1944. Formally named the Kenesaw Mountain Landis Memorial Baseball Award, that naming appeared on a plaque given to winning players. Starting in 2020, Landis' name no longer appears on

312-493: A right-handed pitcher for the Washington Nationals/Senators , Walter Johnson won 417 games, the second most by any pitcher in history (after Cy Young , who won 511). He and Young are the only pitchers to have won 400 games. In a 21-year career, Johnson had twelve 20-win seasons, including ten in a row. Twice, he topped 30 wins (33 in 1912 and 36 in 1913 ). Johnson's record includes 110 shutouts,

364-630: A rural farm four miles west of Humboldt , Kansas on November 6, 1887. Although he was sometimes said to be of Swedish ancestry and referred to by sportswriters as "the Big Swede", Johnson's ancestors came from the British Isles. Soon after he reached his fourteenth birthday, his family moved to California's Orange County in 1902. The Johnsons settled in the town of Olinda , a small oil boomtown located just east of Brea . In his youth, Johnson split his time among playing baseball, working in

416-519: A season. Ironically, there was no award given by either league in 1930, which meant that one of the single greatest performances ever went unheralded when Hack Wilson of the Chicago Cubs set the (still standing) MLB record for RBI with 191. He also batted .356 and set the NL record with 56 HRs, a record which stood for 68 years until Sammy Sosa (66) and Mark McGwire (70) both eclipsed him. Before

468-476: A single MVP award before it was dropped after 1928. The National League award, without these restrictions, lasted from 1924 to 1929. The Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) was first awarded the modern MVP after the 1931 season , adopting 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, with ten points for

520-604: A thing, Johnson did prove that it could be done. A lifelong Republican and friend of President Calvin Coolidge , Johnson was elected as a Montgomery County commissioner in 1938. His father-in-law was Rep. Edwin Roberts , a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives . In 1940 Johnson ran for a congressional seat in Maryland's 6th district, but came up short against the incumbent Democrat, William D. Byron , by

572-583: A time. — Ogden Nash , Sport magazine (January 1949) Note : Official MLB statistics show 3,508 career strikeouts, with 70 in his first season ( 1907 ) while statistics at websites such as ESPN , Baseball-Reference , and the official site of the Baseball Hall of Fame (see "External Links", below) all show 3,509 career strikeouts, with 71 in his first season. This has resulted in minor differences seen in references to Johnson's record when reading media and Misplaced Pages articles of other pitchers in

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624-591: A total of 60,037 (53%) to 52,258 (47%). Joseph W. Martin Jr. , before he was the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (1947–1949 and 1953–1955), recruited Johnson to run for Congress. "He was an utterly inexperienced speaker," Martin later said. "I got some of my boys to write two master speeches for him—one for the farmers of his district and the other for the industrial areas. Alas, he got

676-890: A traffic ticket when a teammate in the car told the policeman Johnson was Barney Oldfield). In 1999 , The Sporting News ranked Johnson number 4 on its list of Baseball's 100 Greatest Players, the highest-ranked pitcher. Later that year, he was elected to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team . In 2020, The Athletic ranked Johnson at number 7 on its "Baseball 100" list, compiled by sportswriter Joe Posnanski . In 2022, as part of their SN Rushmore project, The Sporting News named Johnson on their "Washington, D.C. Mount Rushmore of Sports", along with Washington Capitals hockey player Alexander Ovechkin , Washington Redskins football player Darrell Green , and Washington Bullets basketball player Wes Unseld . In 1985, Jonathan Richman recorded

728-662: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Major League Baseball Most Valuable Player Award Since 1931, the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) has bestowed a most valuable player award to a player in the National League and a player in the American League . Before 1931, two similar awards were issued—the League Award

780-700: Is equal to 91 miles per hour (146 km/h), a velocity that may have been unmatched in his day, with the possible exception of Smoky Joe Wood . Johnson, moreover, pitched with a sidearm motion, whereas power pitchers are usually known for pitching with a straight overhand delivery. Johnson's motion was especially difficult for right-handed batters to follow, as the ball seemed to be coming from third base. His pitching mechanics were superb, generating powerful rotation of his shoulders with excellent balance. In addition to his fastball, Johnson featured an occasional curveball that he developed around 1913 or 1914. He batted and threw right-handed. The overpowering fastball

832-681: 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

884-494: The 2003 Texas Rangers and 1987 Chicago Cubs , respectively. Barry Bonds has won the most often (seven times) and the most consecutively (four from 2001 to 2004). Jimmie Foxx was the first player to win multiple times – 10 players have won three times, and 19 have won twice. Frank Robinson and Shohei Ohtani are the only players to win the award in both the American and National Leagues. The award's only tie occurred in

936-404: The 2015 MLB All-Star Game . Johnson's gentle nature was legendary, and to this day he is held up as an example of good sportsmanship, while his name has become synonymous with friendly competition. This attribute worked to Johnson's disadvantage in the case of fellow Hall of Famer Ty Cobb . Virtually all batters were concerned about being hit by Johnson's fastball, and many would not "dig in" at

988-512: The American League Most Valuable Player Award (1913, 1924), a feat accomplished since by only two other pitchers, Carl Hubbell in 1933 and 1936 and Hal Newhouser in 1944 and 1945 . His earned run average of 1.14 in 1913 was the fourth-lowest ever at the time he recorded it; it remains the sixth-lowest today, despite having been surpassed by Bob Gibson in 1968 (1.12) for lowest ERA ever by

1040-542: The National League in 1979, when Keith Hernandez and Willie Stargell received an equal number of points. There have been 23 unanimous winners, who received all the first-place votes. The New York Yankees have the most winning players with 24, followed by the St. Louis Cardinals with 21 winners. The award has never been presented to a member of the following three teams: Arizona Diamondbacks , New York Mets , and Tampa Bay Rays . In recent decades, pitchers have rarely won

1092-509: The Nats had picked a rube out of the cornfields of the deepest bushes to pitch against us.... He was a tall, shambling galoot of about twenty, with arms so long they hung far out of his sleeves, and with a sidearm delivery that looked unimpressive at first glance.... One of the Tigers imitated a cow mooing, and we hollered at Cantillon: 'Get the pitchfork ready, Joe—your hayseed's on his way back to

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1144-563: The Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Chalmers Award . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chalmers_Award&oldid=821703576 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

1196-471: The St. Louis Browns . American League President Ban Johnson said a recalculation showed that Cobb had won the race anyway, and Chalmers ended up awarding cars to both players. In the following season , Chalmers created the Chalmers Award. A committee of baseball writers was to convene after the season to determine the "most important and useful player to the club and the league". Since the award

1248-543: The Washington Senators in July 1907 at the age of 19. Johnson was renowned as the premier power pitcher of his era. Ty Cobb recalled his first encounter with the rookie fastballer: On August 2, 1907, I encountered the most threatening sight I ever saw in the ball field. He was a rookie, and we licked our lips as we warmed up for the first game of a doubleheader in Washington. Evidently, manager Pongo Joe Cantillon of

1300-601: The outfield during his career. He hit over .200 in 13 of his 21 seasons, hit three home runs in 1914, and hit 12 doubles and a triple in 130 at-bats in 1917. Johnson finished his career with 23 home runs as a pitcher (24 overall, including a pinch-hit home run in 1925), the tenth-highest total for a pitcher in Major League history . Johnson had a reputation as a kindly person, and made many friends in baseball. As reported in The Glory of Their Times , Sam Crawford

1352-572: The "Five Immortals" because they were the first players chosen for the Baseball Hall of Fame. Walter Johnson retired to Germantown , Maryland. On February 19, 1936, George Washington 's 204th birthday, as a retired baseball legend Johnson gained national publicity. He replicated a feat attributed to Washington by throwing a silver dollar across the Rappahannock River . Though it remained in dispute whether Washington ever did such

1404-418: The American League in both 1912 and 1913 , which were Johnson's two 30-win seasons. Then, for the next decade, they typically finished in the middle of the pack before their back-to-back pennants. Johnson was a good hitter for a pitcher, compiling a career batting average of .235, including a record .433 average in 1925. His 547 career hits are the most by a full-time pitcher. He also made 13 appearances in

1456-742: The Big Train ", was an American professional baseball player and manager . He played his entire 21-year baseball career in Major League Baseball as a right-handed pitcher for the Washington Senators from 1907 to 1927 . He later served as manager of the Senators from 1929 through 1932 and of the Cleveland Indians from 1933 through 1935. Generally regarded as one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history, Johnson established several records, some of which remain unbroken nine decades after he retired from baseball. He remains by far

1508-543: The Cy Young Award in 1956, he is the only pitcher to win an MVP award without winning a Cy Young in the same year ( Don Newcombe , Sandy Koufax , Bob Gibson , Denny McLain , Vida Blue , Rollie Fingers , Willie Hernández , Roger Clemens , Dennis Eckersley , Justin Verlander, and Clayton Kershaw all won a Cy Young award in their MVP seasons). Ohtani is also the only MVP winner to have played most of his games as

1560-502: The MVP plaque after the BBWAA received complaints from several former MVP winners about Landis' role against the integration of MLB . First basemen , with 35 winners, have won the most MVPs among infielders , followed by second basemen (16), third basemen (15), and shortstops (15). Of the 25 pitchers who have won the award, 15 are right-handed while 10 are left-handed . Walter Johnson , Carl Hubbell , and Hal Newhouser are

1612-450: The all-time career leader in shutouts with 110, second in wins with 417, and fourth in complete games with 531. He held the career record in strikeouts from 1919, when he passed Christy Mathewson ’s mark of 2,507, until the 1983 season, when three players ( Steve Carlton , Nolan Ryan and Gaylord Perry ) finally passed his career total of 3,508. Johnson became the only pitcher to record 3,000 strikeouts on July 22, 1923, and remained

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1664-502: The award. When Shohei Ohtani won the AL award in 2021, he became the first pitcher in either league to be named the MVP since Clayton Kershaw in 2014, and the first in the American League since Justin Verlander in 2011. Ohtani also became the first two-way player to win the award and in 2023, he became the first player in MLB history to win MVP by unanimous vote twice. Since the creation of

1716-399: The barn.' ... The first time I faced him, I watched him take that easy windup. And then something went past me that made me flinch. The thing just hissed with danger. We couldn't touch him.... Every one of us knew we'd met the most powerful arm ever turned loose in a ball park. In 1917, a Bridgeport , Connecticut, munitions laboratory recorded Johnson's fastball at 134 feet per second, which

1768-417: The club was granted. Johnson's Hall of Fame plaque reads that he pitched "for many years with a losing team." While the Senators had only nine winning seasons during his career, they finished in the first division (i. e., fourth place or higher) 11 times, and the second division 10 times. In Johnson's first five seasons, Washington finished last twice and next-to-last three times. But they finished second in

1820-472: The first and fifth games of the 1924 World Series, but became the hero by pitching four scoreless innings of relief in the seventh and deciding game, winning in the 12th inning. Washington returned to the World Series the following season, but Johnson's experience was close to the inverse: two early wins, followed by a game seven loss. On October 15, 1927, Johnson's request for an unconditional release from

1872-459: The game, but later, Johnson was charged with those two runs, raising his ERA from 1.09 to 1.14. For the decade from 1910 to 1919, Johnson averaged 26 wins per season and had an overall ERA of 1.59. Johnson won 36 games in 1913, 40% of the team's total wins for the season. In April and May, he pitched 55.2 consecutive scoreless innings , still the American League record and the third-longest streak in history. He won 25 games and lost 20 games in 1916,

1924-473: The last pitcher to win and lose 20 in a season until knuckleballer Wilbur Wood did so in 1973. In May 1918, Johnson pitched 40 consecutive scoreless innings; he is the only pitcher with two such 40+ inning streaks. Although he often pitched for losing teams during his career, Johnson finally led the Washington Senators to the World Series in 1924, his 18th year in the American League. Johnson lost

1976-500: The most in baseball history. Johnson had a 38–26 record in games decided by a 1–0 score; both his wins and losses in these games are major league records. Johnson also lost 65 games because his teams failed to score a run. On September 4, 5 and 7, 1908 , he shut out the New York Highlanders in three consecutive games. Three times, Johnson won the triple crown for pitchers (1913, 1918 and 1924 ). Johnson twice won

2028-535: The nearby oil fields , and going horseback riding . Johnson later attended Fullerton Union High School where he struck out 27 batters during a 15-inning game against Santa Ana High School . He later moved to Idaho , where he doubled as a telephone company employee and a pitcher for a team in Weiser, Idaho , of the Idaho State League. Johnson was spotted by a talent scout and signed a contract with

2080-514: The only one until Bob Gibson matched the feat on July 17, 1974. Of the 19 members of the 3,000-strikeout club , he pitched the most innings and has the lowest strikeouts per nine innings pitched (5.34 K/9). Johnson led the league in strikeouts in the Major League for a record 12 times—one more than current leader Nolan Ryan —including a record eight straight seasons. He is the only pitcher in Major League history to record more than 400 wins and strike out more than 3,500 batters. In 1936 , Johnson

2132-466: The only pitchers who have won multiple times, with Newhouser winning consecutively in 1944 and 1945. Hank Greenberg , Stan Musial , Alex Rodriguez , and Robin Yount have won at different positions, while Rodriguez is the only player who has won the award with two different teams at two different positions. Rodriguez and Andre Dawson are the only players to win the award while on a last-place team,

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2184-484: The only two losing seasons being at the beginning of his tenure with Washington and Cleveland, though his teams did not come close to winning the pennant, finishing 12 games behind in his last season. Johnson also served as a radio announcer on station WJSV for the Senators during the 1939 season . Johnson was one of the first five players elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936 . Johnson, Ty Cobb , Christy Mathewson , Babe Ruth and Honus Wagner were known as

2236-562: The pitcher's children gifts when he visited the family. At 11:40 pm on Tuesday, December 10, 1946, Johnson died of a brain tumor in Washington, D.C., five weeks after his 59th birthday, and was interred at Rockville Cemetery in Rockville , Maryland . He was also called "Sir Walter", "the White Knight", and "The Gentle Johnson" for his gentlemanly sportsmanship, and "Barney" after auto racer Barney Oldfield (he got out of

2288-446: The plate because of that concern. Cobb realized that the good-hearted Johnson was privately nervous about the possibility of seriously injuring a batter. Almost alone among his peers, Cobb would actually stand closer to the plate than usual when facing Johnson. Johnson is mentioned in the poem " Line-Up for Yesterday " by Ogden Nash : J is for Johnson The Big Train in his prime Was so fast he could throw Three strikes at

2340-442: The recipient of a first-place vote, nine for a second-place vote, and so on. In 1938, the BBWAA raised the number of voters to three per city and gave 14 points for a first-place vote. The only significant change since then occurred in 1961 when the number of voters was reduced to two per league city. Walter Johnson As manager Walter Perry Johnson (November 6, 1887 – December 10, 1946), nicknamed " Barney " and "

2392-470: The song "Walter Johnson", which dwelt on Johnson's personality and behaviour as an exemplar of what can be good in sport. In 2015, he along with Nap Lajoie , Christy Mathewson and Cy Young were named the "Greatest Pioneers Group." They were voted for by baseball fans online as part of the Franchise Four competition and were "selected as the most impactful players". The results were announced at

2444-470: The two confused. He addressed the farmers on industrial problems, and the businessmen on farm problems." Walter married Hazel Lee Roberts on June 24, 1914, and they had five children. Johnson's eldest daughter died from influenza in 1921. His wife died in August 1930 from complications resulting from heat stroke after a long motorcar ride from Kansas. Ty Cobb was a good friend of Johnson, often bringing

2496-469: Was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame as one of its "first five" inaugural members. His gentle nature was legendary, and to this day he is held up as an example of good sportsmanship, while his name has become synonymous with friendly competition. Walter Johnson was the second of six children (Effie, Leslie, Earl, Blanche) born to Frank Edwin Johnson (1861–1921) and Minnie Olive Perry (1867–1967) on

2548-534: Was issued during 1922–1928 in the American League and during 1924–1929 in the National League, and during 1911–1914, the Chalmers Award was issued to a player in each league. Criteria and a list of winners for these two earlier awards are detailed in below sections. MVP voting takes place before the postseason , but the results are not announced until after the World Series . The BBWAA began by polling three writers in each league city in 1938, reducing that number to two per league city in 1961. The BBWAA does not offer

2600-606: Was not as effective at advertising as Chalmers had hoped, it was discontinued after 1914. In 1922, the American League created a new award to honor "the baseball player who is of the greatest all-around service to his club". 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, and player-coaches and prior award winners were ineligible. Famously, these criteria resulted in Babe Ruth winning only

2652-426: Was one of Johnson's good friends, and sometimes in non-critical situations, Johnson would ease up so Crawford would hit well against him. This would vex Crawford's teammate Ty Cobb , who could not understand how Crawford could hit the great Johnson so well. Johnson was also friendly with Babe Ruth , despite Ruth's having hit some of his longest home runs off him at Griffith Stadium . In 1928 , he began his career as

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2704-732: Was the primary reason for Johnson's exceptional statistics, especially his fabled strikeout totals. Johnson's record total of 3,508 strikeouts stood for more than 55 years until Nolan Ryan , Steve Carlton , and Gaylord Perry all surpassed it in that order during the 1983 season . Johnson, as of 2023, ranks ninth on the all-time strikeout list, but his total must be understood in its proper context of an era of much fewer strikeouts. Among his pre–World War II contemporaries, only two men finished within 1,000 strikeouts of Johnson: runner-up Cy Young with 2,803 (705 strikeouts behind) and Tim Keefe at 2,562 (946 behind). Bob Feller , whose war -shortened career began in 1936 , later ended up with 2,581. As

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