Today in White Sox History: November 15

1951

In an outrageous turn, White Sox outfielder Minnie Miñoso lost the American League Rookie of the Year award to Gil McDougald of the New York Yankees, 13 votes to 11.

There are two objectionable areas in particular, when reviewing this hack voting. First is the fact that Miñoso finished much better than McDougald in MVP voting, which drew from a bigger and better spread of voters, 120-63. Miñoso finished fourth in the AL and actually received one first-place vote of the 22 ballots cast. McDougald finished ninth, with just 63 votes. Among all hitters who were “serious” candidates (i.e. Top 10 on the ballot), Miñoso’s WAR was highest, at 5.4 (McDougald sat at 4.5).

Second was the pure stats breakdown. Beyond the WAR advantage, Miñoso had the best OPS (.922) among Top 10 finishers, and also led the league in steals, with 31. Miñoso also led McDougald in basically every offensive category besides home runs (10, to McDougald’s 14).

1972

After accomplishing one of the greatest individual seasons in franchise history and barely missing the Triple Crown, White Sox first baseman Dick Allen was named the MVP of the American League by the Baseball Writers Association of America.

Allen led the league with 37 home runs, 113 RBIs, a .603 slugging percentage and 99 walks. He led the Sox with a .308 batting average, drove in 19 game-winning runs, stole 19 bases, scored 90 runs and was only .0005 points shy of leading all AL first basemen in fielding. He was the overall MBL leading vote-getter for the All-Star team.

Allen garnered 21 of 24 first place votes, for 321 points. Joe Rudi of the A’s was second, with 164 points.