The Yankees won their fourth straight World Series title this year; despite their abundance of star players, however, the MVP Award went to a player on a bad team. Bobby Shantz, a left-handed pitcher with the Athletics, won the Award.
        As for the players, there were two big changes among the top candidates. Ted Williams went off to war, and Mickey Mantle exploded onto the scene.

         The best players of this group were Mantle and Larry Doby. Doby's batting average wasn't great, but he did everything else extremely well. It's a close call; Mantle led the league in OPS, and his team won the pennant, so I'll give a slight edge to him. Mickey was only 20 years old; he made his debut the previous season, but wrecked his knee when he caught his foot on a drain pipe in the outfield at Yankee Stadium. Mantle came back strong this year, though the knee would trouble him for the rest of his career.
        Larry Doby was inducted into the Hall Of Fame in 1998, many years after his retirement. He was lauded by the fans and media for being the second black man to play in the major leagues, joining Cleveland only a few weeks after Jackie Robinson broke the colour barrier. Larry Doby is to Jackie Robinson what Buzz Aldrin is to Neil Armstrong, or something like that. Not only was Doby baseball's second black player, but he also became baseball's second black manager after he took charge of the White Sox in 1978.
        But what about Doby the player? Was he worthy of greatness? He was an outstanding player, to be sure. Doby was a terrific hitter who combined power, average and walks. He was an All-Star seven consecutive years. He twice led the AL in home runs, and once in RBI. In his first full year with Cleveland in 1948, the Indians won the World Series. In 1954, Doby led the league in homers and RBI for a Cleveland team that won 111 games during the season.
        Doby was another great Cleveland centre fielder, following in the tradition of Tris Speaker and Earl Averill. The only thing Doby lacked was time. In a 13-year career, Doby mashed out 253 career homers, but had only 1515 career hits. Hall Of Fame numbers? I think that Doby had a very good Dave Justice-Kirk Gibson-Ray Lankford type of career, and in his prime he was certainly a great player. Whether or not he belongs in the Hall depends largely on how much time you think he lost to the colour barrier. Doby was 23 when he joined the Indians in the summer of 1947; at most, he lost 3 1/2 productive seasons, and those would have been his formative years. Even if you factor in those missing seasons, I don't think Doby was any greater than Bobby Bonds or Jim Wynn or some other players who had similar skills and are not in the Hall.
        Once again, Berra was the league's best catcher by a large margin. Al Rosen was easily the best third baseman in the AL. Berra was a very good defensive catcher; Rosen was at best an average third baseman. The Yankees finished two games ahead of the Indians.
        Eddie Joost had his last full season; he was 36 years old. Joost began his career in 1936 in Cincinnati; he was a regular shortstop with the Reds, Braves and Athletics, but was a very poor hitter in every city. Despite playing full seasons with 400-500 at bats, Joost recorded batting averages of .224, .185, and .206. But after he turned 30, Eddie changed his approach at the plate. He started drawing 120 walks a year, and also began hitting 20 homers a year. From 1948-52, Joost was one of the best hitting shortstops in the league. It was a remarkable case of a player completely reinventing himself late in his career.
        There really isn't a clear choice for MVP; Mantle received the most votes, followed by Berra. I'll stick with that order, followed by Rosen and Doby.